If BYU had beaten Arizona in 2008, would Utah have been elected no. 1 in the AP Poll?

[SeattleUte]

This is Indy Coug at his best.

Actually, SeattleUte raises an excellent point about top 10 opponents.

Has the U ever beaten a #1 ranked team, regardless of where that top ranked team finished the season? What about a top ranked team that finished in the Top 5? Or Top 3?

In fact, has the U ever even played a #1 ranked team, regardless of W/L result?

I think SeattleUte is onto something with this line of thinking.

I don't think what they're ranked when you beat them carries a lot of weight, unless it's in a late or post season game. It's especially worthless to beat a team no. 1 in a preseason poll. Where they finished ranked is more interesting and important, unless it's a situation like when TCU beat Clemson this year, i.e., Clemson was unranked and bad (it started the season 2-3 including the loss to TCU); of course, Clemson isn't ranked now.

[TripletDaddy]

1990 Miami (3rd)
1985 Air Force (8th)
1967 Oregon State (7th)

This is Indy Coug at his best.

Actually, SeattleUte raises an excellent point about top 10 opponents.

Has the U ever beaten a #1 ranked team, regardless of where that top ranked team finished the season? What about a top ranked team that finished in the Top 5? Or Top 3?

In fact, has the U ever even played a #1 ranked team, regardless of W/L result?

I think SeattleUte is onto something with this line of thinking.

[Blueintheface]

1990 Miami (3rd)
1985 Air Force (8th)
1967 Oregon State (7th)

Shhhh...he's channeling right now. He's proving to us he's not a hater and that as an attorney he doesn't speak in hyperbole or out of his ass.

[Indy Coug]

Has BYU ever beaten a team that finished in the top 10?

1990 Miami (3rd)
1985 Air Force (8th)
1967 Oregon State (7th)

[SeattleUte]

You won a BCS bowl game. You finished #2, which is fabulous for a Utah team.

LOL!! BYU has one undefeated season in its history, on a lolipop schedule. BYU will never go to a BCS bowl. BYU is too psycho. We've seen the best Bronco can do, with an extraordinary inheritance. Has BYU ever beaten a team that finished in the top 10? I'm usre it hasn't. BYU has never played in a real bowl. You people are deluded. Bring a lawsuit, get an injunction!

[Moliere]

This seems to me the only logical explanation. A TCU blow out of Boise would have helped, though.

(Not that I care; I'm satisfied with what happened, including Utes no. 1 in all the computer polls.)

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts.......

It is funny this question is being asked now. You won a BCS bowl game. You finished #2, which is fabulous for a Utah team. Congrats on that accomplishment. You didn't finish #1 nor did you win a BCS National Championship. You can play the if/but game all day but it won't change your final ranking to #1.

[jay santos]

Sweet consolation for you, eh? Funnhy you say that when all the computers ranked the Utes no. 1 at season's end.

http://www.mratings.com/cf/arch/compare2008.htm

SU, you need to review the most well known computer polls and where they had Utah in 2008.

Looks like basically none of them had Utah #1 except for a couple of the crappy BCS polls which exclude the scores as input.

[CJF]

Sweet consolation for you, eh? Funnhy you say that when all the computers ranked the Utes no. 1 at season's end.

Do you mean their Tyus Edney dash against a ranked at season's end Oregon State team? Or their dramatic come from behind win against no. 7 at season's end TCU, which annihilated BYU?

Even so, the Utes got dominant in time to slaughter BYU and Alabama (in THE SUG) and achieve a no. 2 AP ranking, the highest available to them in those popularity contests.

That is simply not true. Two of the six BCS computer rankings had Utah third.

[Maximus]

Sweet consolation for you, eh? Funnhy you say that when all the computers ranked the Utes no. 1 at season's end.

Do you mean their Tyus Edney dash against a ranked at season's end Oregon State team? Or their dramatic come from behind win against no. 7 at season's end TCU, which annihilated BYU?

Even so, the Utes got dominant in time to slaughter BYU and Alabama (in THE SUG) and achieve a no. 2 AP ranking, the highest available to them in those popularity contests.

Do you deny that blowing out teams helps you in the polls more than escaping bad teams?

Would Boise be #6 if they had beaten everyone like they did Tulsa?

Fact is, Utah barely beat some bad teams last year. See Michigan, New Mexico, by memory. Would they have finished #1? No. Even if BYU had blown out Arizona and played close to TCU, Utah still would have been 2. If TCU had beaten Oklahoma, then you would have been 1.

[SeattleUte]

T/F, Utah would have moved up a lot faster in the polls throughout the season (before TCU particullary) if they had beaten some of thecrappy teams they played by more than 3-7 points.

Sweet consolation for you, eh? Funnhy you say that when all the computers ranked the Utes no. 1 at season's end.

Do you mean their Tyus Edney dash against a ranked at season's end Oregon State team? Or their dramatic come from behind win against no. 7 at season's end TCU, which annihilated BYU?

Even so, the Utes got dominant in time to slaughter BYU and Alabama (in THE SUG) and achieve a no. 2 AP ranking, the highest available to them in those popularity contests.

[Maximus]

T/F, Utah would have moved up a lot faster in the polls throughout the season (before TCU particullary) if they had beaten some of thecrappy teams they played by more than 3-7 points.

[myboynoah]

This is an excellent point. The Utes were ranked 7 in the prior poll. They moved from 7 to no. 2 in the final AP poll. Has any team ever moved so far in the top ten between the final two polls? I bet not. Maybe they just had too much territory to cover to get to no. 1. On the other hand, the no. 1 team had a loss, Utah's win over Alabama in THE SUG was better than Florida's SEC championship win, and the Utes got a bunch of no. 1 votes. I have a hunch a strong BYU win over Arizona would have made the difference.

Yet another good reason for Ute antipathy for BYU.

As if you need any more reasons.

Max Hall hates U, he hates everything about U. To add insult to injury, he went 2-1 against U. And to top it off, after playing one holy crapper of a game, on his last play against U, he threw a TD pass to send U packing.

That has got to leave U gutted, entirely gutted.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

IndyNorthWestCoug?

I don't create anything, I just link to what others have done.

[Mr Incredible]

You do have to search far back into history to find a team that moved so many places up in the final poll.

One team matched Utah's 5 places, another went from 17 to 10.

http://www.appollarchive.com/footbal...m?appollid=972

If you keep searching far back you will find a that same West Virginia team went from 11 to 5 in the final poll just 2 year previous.
http://www.appollarchive.com/footbal...m?appollid=940

The U also did this 5 spot movement in the final poll,
http://www.appollarchive.com/footbal...?seasonid=2003

What is the better program West Virginia or Utah?

IndyNorthWestCoug?

[TripletDaddy]

As you know, I have no delusions about Utah's football history, or place in the football pantheon, unlike some here about their team.

I concur that you have always been fairly consistent in your willingness to recognize Utah's unimportance on the college football landscape.

I don't think people here give you enough credit for that.