AP Top 25 Extra Points: BYU and Utah fans happy for each other’s success? Seriously? Never happening

If ever there were a time for a Kumbaya moment between the two biggest college fan bases in the state of Utah, it would be now.

It’s never going to happen. A cease fire in the Holy War, the nickname for the vitriolic BYU-Utah rivalry, wouldn’t hold for even a second.

But wouldn’t it be neat if both sides could step back, show a little Beehive State pride and appreciate what the other side is doing on the football field this year? (Apologies to BYU and Utah fans who spit out their coffee while reading that sentence.)

This is the third straight week and ninth ever that the Cougars and Utes have been in the top 15 of The Associated Press poll simultaneously.

BYU is 10-1 and ranked No. 11. Utah is 9-2 and No. 14. Both have lost to Texas Tech. Utah’s other loss was to, well, you know who.

Still, this could turn out to be the best collective season for the schools in their more than 100 years of gridiron pursuits. The standard, to date, is 2008 when Utah beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to finish 13-0 and No. 2 in the poll and BYU started 10-1 before losing to the Cougars and in their bowl to end 10-3 and No. 25.

This year, if Utah wins one more game, both schools would have double-digit victories in the same season for the first time since 2021 and fifth time ever.

BYU will lock up a spot next week in the Big 12 championship game if it beats UCF at home Saturday. The Cougars could still get in even if they lose. Their first College Football Playoff bid is at stake if they can get to Arlington, Texas, and win, probably in a rematch with Texas Tech.

Utah, which finishes the regular season at Kansas, was No. 12 in the CFP rankings last week and could get docked for needing a Houdini act to get past a Kansas State team that rushed for 472 yards. The Utes are all but out of the Big 12 race and their CFP hopes are teetering, but an attractive bowl is there for the taking.

Lifelong Utahan Dick Harmon knows as well as anyone that the fan bases’ mutual disdain will never evolve into mutual respect. Harmon graduated from BYU and has covered Cougars sports for four decades for the Deseret News of Salt Lake City. He said there are good fans on both sides but they are drowned out by those who spew hatred.

“The fact they’re both in the top 15, that just causes everybody to have their own reasons for one-uppance on the other,” Harmon said Sunday. “Utah fans lost to BYU but they certainly feel because they’re scoring a million points a game that they should be right there, if not even ahead, of BYU. Their loss to BYU was close and maybe a fluke and should have gone the other way the last two years. It’s just back and forth all the time.”

Harmon, channeling BYU fans’ take on Utah, said, “Geez, look, you gave up a school-record (472) yards rushing to a bad Kansas State team. And we beat you and it should have been 24-14 or 17, not 24-21, if only this, if only that. We beat you a lot further than you think we did.”

For their part, Utah State fans are quietly enjoying what potentially will be their best season since the Aggies went 11-3 in 2021. Utah State is 6-5 and bowl eligible. And in case you were wondering if the Aggies, Cougars and Utes have ever been ranked at the same time, it happened once. Utah was No. 12, BYU was No. 19 and Utah State was No. 24 in the final 2021 poll.

Loquacious Lanning

Oregon coach Dan Lanning took a not-so-veiled shot at the SEC in his remarks following the Ducks’ 42-27 win over Southern California. While Oregon and the rest of the Big Ten were in the throes of conference games, three SEC teams played FCS opponents and three played Group of Five opponents. The SEC will begin playing nine conference games rather than eight next year.

“Played a good team. We beat them, right? All we can do next week is try to do the same thing, right? This conference is a really good conference. It’s competitive,” Lanning said. “We didn’t play Chattanooga State today, right? Like some other places. We competed.

“That being said, it’s tough playing nine conference games. It’s tough playing in this league. And we got to take advantage of playing a good team today and attacking that.”

Role reversal

Last year, Tennessee went to Nashville needing a win over Vanderbilt to secure a CFP at-large bid. This week, the Commodores go to Knoxville needing a win over Tennessee to keep alive its CFP at-large hopes. Vandy also would secure its first 10-win season with a victory.

Coach Clark Lea said he wants his team thinking only about the Volunteers, not what it will take to get a playoff spot. Lea did offer a tell about what he’s thinking when he was asked about quarterback Diego Pavia asking to stay in the game against Kentucky after it turned into a blowout Saturday.

“I said, ‘No, we’re aiming for a championship. I want you healthy for the playoffs.’ “

Extra points

No. 1 Ohio State’s 15-game win streak is longest in the Bowl Subdivision. The Buckeyes have held seven of their 11 opponents this season under 10 points. … No. 2 Texas A&M, with its 48-0 win over Samford, finished 7-0 at home for the first time. It was the first time A&M, excluding the 2020 pandemic season, was unbeaten at home since going 6-0 in 1999. … Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love is just the third player since 1996 to run for 170 or more yards and three touchdowns on just eight carries. Love, who had 178 yards and three TDs against Syracuse, is the first to do it since Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder against SMU in 2020.

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AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, contrubuted to this report.

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