Can BYU make the College Football Playoff? ESPN breaks it down

• BYU’s clearest path to the College Football Playoff is winning the Big 12 championship.
• If BYU does not win the conference, its playoff chances depend on the Selection Committee.
• Avoiding lopsided losses, like those to Texas Tech in 2025, will be crucial for an at-large bid.

Obviously, the BYU Cougars‘ best shot at making the College Football Playoff is to win the Big 12 championship, securing a guaranteed spot in the 12-team field. But if they can’t make that happen, their fate will be up to the Playoff Selection Committee, who have gipped the Big 12 at-large teams in recent seasons.

The Cougars felt the brunt of missing the CFP in 2025, as they were blown out by the No. 4-seeded Texas Tech Red Raiders multiple times, including in the conference championship. Avoiding lopsided defeats to CFP contenders is something BYU will have to avoid in order to make the playoff, ESPN’s Heather Dinich wrote.

“Texas Tech outscored BYU 63-14 in two games last year,” Dinich wrote. “That’s why the Cougars didn’t earn a spot with the Red Raiders, even though they finished as the league runner-up. BYU will have tough games against Arizona, at TCU, against Notre Dame and at Utah. The committee isn’t going to keep BYU out because of a close road loss to Utah, and it could still survive if it loses close to Notre Dame and finishes as a two-loss Big 12 runner-up. If BYU is going to stumble, though, it can’t be by a large margin multiple times.”