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Putting the BYU win in Perspective

No doubt that the 14-13 win of #24 BYU over #3Oklahoma was a huge win and should be ranked somewhere in the top three in BYU's history.  The only other games to rival this would be the 1984 Holiday Bowl win over Michigan that lead BYU to their mythical national title, and then beating Miami, FL in 1990 who was number one in the country when they came to Provo.

This win also rivals what Utah did last year when they beat down Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.  As of today my opinion is that the Sugar Bowl win by Utah was bigger (screen shot to BYU fans typing angry comments) because it was the end of the season and everyone knew what Alabama was.  The thing that would diminish this win is that this could be a repeat of 1984 when Pitt was ranked number three in the country, but ended the season with only three wins.

Oklahoma still has a chance to win the Big XII which would still get them to the Fiesta Bowl, but the national championship may be out of the picture.  However with Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford out two to four weeks with a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder, which could alter the Oklahoma season. 

Phil Steele was the first to say it and now ESPN's Bruce Feldman ($) is whispering the fact that with BYU's schedule they have a shot at the BCS national title game.  Feldman makes good sense because BYU has a legitimate chance to face three top 20 teams --Oklahoma, TCU, Utah, and then Florida State who maybe in the top 25 when they play-- which would be more than Texas (2), Penn State (1), Ohio State (2); as many as Florida (3), Alabama (3), and only LSU and USC have a chance to play four potential top twenty opponents.

So, the strength of schedule question that Utah faced last year and all non-automatic qualifying conferences always face should not be an issue.   Now, I am not saying BYU is a BCS title contender --and I am jumping the gun-- but if they are undefeated at the end of the season they should be in the conversation.  Now if two of these three Texas, Florida, and USC run the table then they are going to be ahead because they started ahead, but if it is anyone else BYU has a chance.

It will be interesting if one spot was occupied by an undefeated Texas or Florida, but then the other spot has a few one loss teams, and include an undefeated Penn State or Ohio State both who would not have faced as many highly ranked opponents. 

BYU just needs to not pull what TCU did in 2005, because they went into Norman and beat Oklahoma but then the following week they were beat by lowly SMU.  Next game for BYU is a game at Tulane, so BYU just needs to keep looking one game at a time.