{"id":325015,"date":"2025-12-02T00:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/325015\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T00:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:14:09","slug":"big-12s-brett-yormark-says-no-11-byu-should-already-be-in-cfp-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/325015\/","title":{"rendered":"Big 12’s Brett Yormark says No. 11 BYU should already be in CFP \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BYU football coach Kalani Sitake wasn\u2019t interested in talking much about the hot topic of the day \u2014 his apparent interest in the Penn State coaching opening, and the Nittany Lions\u2019 reported interest in him<\/a> \u2014 at a news conference Monday designed to bring attention to Saturday\u2019s Big 12 championship game in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n

Cougars on the air<\/p>\n

Big 12 Championship Game<\/p>\n

No. 11 BYU (11-1, 8-1) vs. No. 5 Texas Tech (11-1, 8-1)<\/p>\n

Saturday, 10 a.m. MSTAt AT&T StadiumTV: ABCRadio: 102.7 FM\/1160 AM<\/p>\n

But the 10-year BYU coach did open up a little bit more about what he believes should happen if the No. 11 Cougars (11-1) lose to No. 5 Texas Tech (11-1) in the 10 a.m. MST rematch at AT&T Stadium of Tech\u2019s 29-7 win last month.<\/p>\n

That game in Lubbock still stands as BYU\u2019s only loss this season. Texas Tech\u2019s only loss was at Arizona State when starting quarterback Behren Morton wasn\u2019t available due to injury.<\/p>\n

Sitake, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said both teams should be in, regardless of the outcome, and Yormark even mentioned that No. 13 Utah (10-2) \u201cdeserves strong consideration\u201d as well. <\/p>\n

Two times on Monday Sitake called Texas Tech \u201cthe best team in the nation\u201d and he also said the Red Raiders have \u201cone of the best defenses in the nation,\u201d led by Heisman Trophy candidate linebacker Jacob Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI (was) not much of a campaign guy for us during the season, but after the season, and looking at it, at everything, I do believe that what Commissioner Yormark, and what Joey McGuire said, that we are a playoff-contending team,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to both teams representing the Big 12 in this playoff, and doing it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yormark said \u201climited tickets are available\u201d but that the league does \u201cexpect a sellout\u201d and wants to show why it is \u201ctruly a different league.\u201d Country star Jon Pardi, who said a few words in the news conference via Zoom, will perform at halftime.<\/p>\n

Yormark said the Big 12 is the only conference in America that has a \u201cbig-time halftime show\u201d in its conference championship game.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth programs are not only worthy of competing for the Big 12 title, they both deserve to be in the CFP based on their resumes and their bodies of work,\u201d Yormark said. \u201c\u2026. As I said last Friday (during the Arizona-Arizona State game on Fox) BYU is being undervalued by the CFP committee at No. 11 in the rankings. Let\u2019s not look at logos. Let\u2019s look at resumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yormark said blind resume comparisons put BYU in the top 10, \u201cno question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doubling down on his statement Friday that BYU should be in over 10-2 Notre Dame \u2014 which will not be playing in a conference championship game \u2014 Yormark said the Cougars \u201chave a better overall record, better strength of record, and better strength of schedule,\u201d than the Irish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident that the CFP will get it right for BYU,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 The depth of this conference is unprecedented. Twelve of our teams have top-25 wins, and the best two teams are certainly playing in our championship (game). So let\u2019s see what happens this week and next Sunday, but I feel good about our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuire also said Monday that \u201cthe two best teams in the conference are playing this weekend,\u201d then expressed his love and admiration for Sitake.<\/p>\n

Having watched all three of BYU\u2019s games since the Cougars were blown out by his team in Lubbock, McGuire noted: \u201cThey just keep getting better and better. I think Kalani\u2019s got one of the best freshmen (Bear Bachmeier) at quarterback and he\u2019s got an incredible coaching staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a doubt, we should both be in the playoffs, no matter what happens on Saturday,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve earned the ride. \u2026 We are as good as anybody in the country, and we\u2019re going to put on a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Sitake and the Penn State opening<\/p>\n

Four of the five questions put to Sitake on Monday focused on the aforementioned rumors about the Penn State opening and replacing James Franklin, which the Big Ten school fired on Oct. 12. However, the first question was a general one about how he handles it with his team when his name surfaces for job openings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve asked our team to be focused on what we can control, and what we\u2019re doing as a team, and not worry about all the distractions,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a great distraction to have. Let\u2019s be honest. But right now we need to be focused on making sure that we\u2019re giving our best shot in this game against Texas Tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked directly about a FootballScoop.com report<\/a> that talks between Sitake and Penn State have heated up, Sitake said he \u201calready commented on it before\u201d and reiterated that they were going to \u201cavoid all the distractions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by the Deseret News if he is happy about how he and his staff have been treated \u201cfinancially\u201d by BYU, he opted to make light of the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. I mean, I\u2019ve gained weight. You can tell. I\u2019m living the good life,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the more Joey buys dinner for me, the better my life will get.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire gestures for a timeout during an NCAA college football game against BYU, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Lubbock, Texas. | AP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BYU football coach Kalani Sitake wasn\u2019t interested in talking much about the hot topic of the day \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,3125,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-325015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-news-feed-local","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}