Big 12 Sends Strong Notre Dame Message To College Football Playoff Committee

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The BYU Cougars got good news earlier this week when they learned their head coach, Kalani Sitake, will be sticking around in Provo rather than skipping town to take over for the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Sure, cookie money might have had something to do with it, but the season Sitake and his team have put together shows that the Cougars could very well have a bright future. The Big 12 is in BYU’s corner, as far as comparing its College Football Playoff resume to the historic No. 10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

On Tuesday, the conference posted a graphic on X that measured the two programs up, giving the No. 11 Cougars the edge with the best overall record, highest strength of record (ESPN FPI), highest strength of schedule (ESPN FPI), most wins against current College Football Playoff Top 25 teams and the best record against teams with winning records.

Not to mention the fact that BYU will be playing in a conference championship game — against the No. 4 Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday — a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fact that Marcus Freeman’s team plays an independent schedule.

The Cougars’ only loss of the regular season was a 29-7 setback against Joey McGuire’s Red Raiders last month. Since then, they’ve beaten TCU, Cincinnati and UCF.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame started 0-2, with losses to Miami and Texas A&M, before ripping off 10 consecutive wins.

“Football’s cool when the gospel’s in it,” Sitake said after deciding to stick around with the Cougars.

Related: Kalani Sitake Makes Final Decision on Penn State Job: Report

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Dec 4, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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