BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Utah coach Kyle Whittingham turns 66 on Friday and certainly wouldn't mind a belated birthday present from Cincinnati. It would be a gift for several teams around the Big 12, actually.
Because if the Bearcats knock off No. 11 BYU at home on Saturday night, the door opens for chaos in the conference standings.
Assume, for the sake of argument, that No. 6 Texas Tech (10-1, 7-1) — off this weekend — grabs the top seed. And assume, again for the sake of argument, that BYU (9-1, 6-1) falls, there could theoretically be a five-way tie for the other spot in the title game.
So, yeah, those two conference loss teams — that's you, No. 13 Utah (8-2, 5-2), No. 25 Houston (8-2, 5-2), Arizona State (7-3, 5-2) and Cincy (7-3, 5-2) — have a lot invested in Saturday. If five teams were to be tied, the tiebreaker scenarios could become quite complex.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake has an ideal way to avoid all the clutter — just keeping winning.
“That really," Sitake said, “is the best style to me.”
The spotlight will certainly be on this game, with Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame showing up in Cincinnati. The Cougars, who are a 2 1/2-point favorite, have won 13 of their last 16 conference games since 2024.
“We need to make sure that we don’t let this win make us hot headed,” Cougars running back LJ Martin said after a 44-13 win over TCU. “The preparation doesn’t change for Cincinnati. If we do what we just did this past week, we will be all right.”
The Bearcats, led by quarterback Brendan Sorsby, had won seven in a row before dropping their last two games.
“There's a lot riding on these games at the end of the year, especially when you're playing teams that are in the mix," Sitake said. “We know that. We understand that.”
The Big 12 championship on Dec. 6 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, would see two new teams in Texas Tech and BYU. The Red Raiders, who own the tiebreaker over BYU, are firmly in the driver's seat with a bye this week before finishing at West Virginia on Nov. 29. They can wrap up a spot with a loss by Arizona State (at Colorado) and a BYU win. Another clinching scenario for Texas Tech is if Arizona State, BYU and Utah (the Utes host Kansas State) all lose.
“They know," Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said of his players and what's potentially at stake this weekend. “There’s not going to be anything that I need to tell these dudes other than, ‘Guys, no matter what anyone else does, if we win in two weeks, we’re in Dallas.’ They will be really focused on that.”
The Cougars are also in control of earning a spot. They can clinch with a win over Cincy and losses by the Sun Devils and Houston (the Cougars host TCU). Another way is a win coupled with an ASU loss and a Utah win.
BYU plays UCF to close out the regular season. Winning with ease the next two weeks would go a long way in making an impression on the College Football Playoff selection committee. Only don't bring that up to Sitake, whose team sits behind several two-loss teams.
“When I say I don’t really pay attention to it, I know it exists. I’m not dumb. I know all the stuff that’s out there,” Sitake said. "I know what people are saying and the metrics and analytics and style points and all that stuff. My focus is not on that.
“I have to be focused on what we can control, which is playing football and the preparation today. That’s what I have to be focused on. It’s nice that we’re in the mix and that people are recognizing what we’re doing, but what does that matter if we don’t go 1-0 this weekend.”
That's the thinking of Whittingham as well. The Utes have won three straight since a 24-21 loss at BYU on Oct. 18. All they're focused on is Kansas State and then the game at Kansas on Nov. 28.
“We think we’re playing good football. Is it good enough? We’ll find out,” Whittingham said. “We have to take care of our business first. When the dust settles and the regular season is over, we’ll see where we’re at and what kind of opportunities are there.”
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins contributed to this report.
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