Top 25 Ranking Discrepancy

This is in reference to Louisville being ranked 20th and BYU ranked 25th. First of all BYU beat Louisville in a head to head meeting on a neutral site while the Cardinals other lose came at home to the Dayton Flyers who are from the A-10. Also a week earlier at home Louisville barely beat Miami (OH) BY 4 and they are only 5-4 on the year. As for BYU they all ready beat the Cardinals and then the played UNC tough in Vegas only losing by 10 on a neutral court, even though free throws down the stretch were the main difference when BYU was fouling trying to stop the clock. Then their other loss came against top 10 team Michigan State on a quasi neutral site when the game was played at Salt Lake City just 40 miles north from BYU in the Energy Solutions Arena the home of the Jazz. BYU had the lead through most of the game but eventually lost to the Spartans by 7. As for the closest win by BYU not named Louisville is a win by 15 points over inter state team Weber State.

So, why is Louisville ranked ahead of BYU? A few reasons might be because Louisville was ranked higher then the Cougars, but that is not my reason. I believe they are ranked higher because of conference affiliation and past rep, even though this is the non conference schedule. Just by comparing the loses BYU has the better loses by losing to 2 top 10 teams while Louisville lost to 2 non ranked teams at the time, and almost lost to a third in Miami (OH). This is the life of playing outside a high major conference, the Mountain West is not a mid major basketball league, but they are not a high major league either just somewhere in between if that makes any sense.