BYU football had an automatic berth to the College Football Playoff sitting in front of itself when it arrived at AT&T Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 6 for the Big 12 championship game.
However, the 11th-ranked Cougars were unable to grab that ticket, as they lost 34-7 to No. 6 Texas Tech (No. 4 in CFP rankings) to drop to 11-2 on the season.
Following the loss, BYU wide receiver Parker Kingston offered an emphatic answer to the CFP selection committee on why the Cougars should still make the field at 11-2, which included a jab at the SEC and ESPN, which owns the broadcast rights to the CFP and the SEC.
‘… What’s the point of going to a Big 12 championship when it’s going to hurt us (and) our College Football Playoff chances. I hope the committee realizes it. They are all biased towards ESPN and the SEC,’ Kingston told BYUtv Sports Nation following the Big 12 championship game. ‘It is what it is. If we don’t get put in, we will be there next year.’
The Cougars were outplayed and outmatched by the Red Raiders for the second time this season in Saturday’s Big 12 title game. After driving down the field for a touchdown on its opening drive of the game, BYU was unable to score for the remainder of the game.
Texas Tech’s defense came up with four takeaways and a turnover on downs in BYU’s final seven drives of the second half. The Cougars finished with just 200 total yards of offense compared to the Red Raiders’ 374 yards.
BYU entered Week 15 on the wrong side of the bubble as the 11th-ranked team in the penultimate CFP top 25 rankings: The No. 11 and 12 seeds will go to two of the five highest-ranked conference champions, meaning BYU’s only way to the CFP entering the day was to become a conference champion.
As noted by Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark in a news conference before the game, no Power Four team with an 11-1 record had ever finished outside the top 10 in the CFP rankings entering championship week until the committee ranked BYU 11th in the penultimate rankings.
Using the penultimate CFP rankings, the SEC is projected to have five of the 12 spots in the CFP field, which is the most by any Power Four conference.
Kingston wasn’t the only member of BYU’s program to give a last-minute pitch to the committee, as BYU coach Kalani Sitake offered his two cents in his postgame news conference as well.
‘If you look at what Texas Tech’s done, they’re the best team in the country for a reason,’ Sitake. ‘I’m not on the playoff committee, but I can tell you one thing: Who’s played the best team in the country twice? We have.’
When do new CFP rankings come out?
The Cougars will learn whether they made the 12-team field as an at-large or not at noon ET on Sunday, Dec. 7 when the official 12-team CFP bracket is released.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
