So the coaches poll holds steady for the week while the sports writers apparently got their information off of ESPN.

It's better than I had hoped for, and maybe better than we could have expected. It's time to put all excuses behind us and go do the job against UCLA at home. Give them a big Lavell Edwards Stadium welcome. 4 quarters of football, just 4 quarters.

the media grabbed the story on Lockers penalty and blew it all out of wack. the 'writers guild' doesnt have a clue and their poll showed it.

Isn't it funny how the press, who actually get to see the games and follow the teams have dropped BYU and the coaches, who don't see the games and only see wins and losses kept them the same. But of course, the press is way off. Anyone who honestly thinks BYU deserves to stay in that upper eschelon needs to remove some bias. They barely beat a bottom 2 PAC10 team. A team that has lost 11 of their last 13 games. Jan Jorgensen saved the day for BYU. He made a great push and got up to get the ball. It was a great play.

E Carolina deserves to be where they are. They took down a #17 and a #8. BYU beat a Div IAA school and a less than mediocre Washington team. Crap, even Utah State put up more points on Oregon than Washington did.

What if Unga didn't fumble? What if the officials calle more penalties against Washington? The "what if's" didn't happen. The officials could have called more BOTH ways. Stop whining and be happy that you won the game and got that 6 year monkey off your back!

Boo Hoo - The "sports Writers" do not see all of the games...they see the single game they are assigned that day. They do not have the same knowledge base as the coaching staff and usually have little to no exposure in playing the game at a Div 1 level.

Give me the coaches poll any day of the week...

are volatile. BYU's drop in one poll, and Utah's very slight movement, were more a reflection of what other teams did, rather than what BYU and Utah did not do.

East Carolina juggled things by beating two Top 25 teams in a row. UCLA dropped out of the polls without even playing a game.

The only thing Utah and BYU have to worry about is just winning. If they continue to win, they will both start climbing in the polls as the teams around them start to lose.

This quote from SportsIllustrated is quite telling:

"Washington (0-2) provided a stern test for the Cougars, looking nothing like the team that was routed 44-10 last week at Oregon, although another loss will only increase the heat on Willingham.

Still, a strong effort wasn't enough to keep BYU from breaking their streak. The Cougars (2-0) hopes of a perfect season and BCS bid passed a crucial first hurdle, barely. Next up, No. 23 UCLA next Saturday in Provo, maybe BYU's biggest test between now and the regular season finale against rival Utah."

When was the last time Utah was seen by the national media as a bigger test for BYU than UCLA?

BYU didn't cover the spread so it is, effectively, a loss in my book. They got lucky, they should have dropped and they did, next article please.

um, last year, um, 2006, 2005, 2004.

In 2007, UCLA was ranked #13 when BYU played them on September 8th. Utah was unranked when BYU played them on November 24th.

In 2006, neither team was ranked, but UCLA throttled Utah 31-10 in the Rose Bowl.

In 2005, UCLA was ranked most of the season and finished ranked #16 with a 10-2.

2004, would be the correct answer. That and 2003 are probably the only years in history when Utah would have been seen as a bigger challenge to BYU than UCLA.

Since "the spread" is only important in the fantasy of world gambling, whether BYU covered the spread is unimportant.

In the real world, the ONLY thing that truly counts is the final score. Voters in the real world polls couldn't care less what "the spread" was.

Poll position is determined more by wins and losses, than it is by "dominating" your opponents.

As long as BYU, and Utah, continue to win, they'll move up in the polls as other teams start to lose.

A big win over UCLA would help marginally, but, the most important thing is simply to win.

Nobody really cares about the spread except the gamblers. It's simply a curiosity for the rest of us who are true football fans.

Yet you have the nerve to think that your utes deserve to be ranked. They barely beat a Michigan team because of a failed 2 point conversion (otherwise OT would've seen Michigan win). This is the same Michigan team that beat Miami of Ohio last weekend 16-6. Wow, they're sure a powerhouse all of a sudden and lost to a 1-AA team last year.
Then the utes neat up on UNLV in the 2nd half after looking like crap the first half. And then you have the mighty wildcats of Weber State coming up on your schedule.

In the meantime keep your anti-BYU comments off the message boards until your team has done something worthwhile to deserve the ranking they have. It's good to see both schools ranked currently and I hope for a big showdown in November, but please no more of the BYU hating over a 1 point win on the road against a BCS foe (when yours was only a 2 point win).

Good luck, and go Cougars!

You use bad logic to make your point. If we go off of this assumption then Ohio State is also not very good. I hate Ohio State and think that they are always too highly ranked but they still have a good football team. There is this little thing in sports called MATCH UPS. Some teams match up differently with other teams. Stop crying.

Re re spread:
To think that 'spread' or margin of victory doesnt matter is simply naive. To barlry squeak by is different than a sound thrashing. Voters look at margin of victory and quality of opponent.

re: to boo hoo
Your logic is poor at best! It is full of coulda wouldas. The Utes won by 2 points and they ran out the clock. They could have easily kicked a field goal and won by 5 (or by 3 if UM scored 2 points). At the end of the day, UM did not and the Utes won against a team with a strong name and a strong coach and the voters took notice.

I still hope the Y wins saturday against ucla and brings press to the MWC, an undefeated season for both teams up to the holy war would turn the BSC on its ear.

Good luck byu and GO UTES!!!!

The coaches know how hard it is to win in the PAC 10 on the road. The sports casters tend to have a bias against BYU and are pretty open about it.

However, at this point in the season I doubt if BYU is really better than AL and Penn St. but they may be by the end of the season. BYU probably is better than Texas Tech and Texas and some other teams ranked ahead of them. If BYU is still undefeated by the 5th game they will deserve a top 12 ranking.

All you Yewt fans can quit bashing BYU because in the Coaches Poll, the only one that really matters, BYU retains its 15th position ranking. To BYU: you need to trash UCLA or I feel you will drop in the polls. Good Luck BYU, and beat UCLA.......

Why is utah still ranked?? What have they done to deserve a ranking? They beat the worst team in our conference (UNLV), an expected win and they weren't able to get a shut out like they predicted. Hey, USU held UNLV to 27 points on the road and utah "held" them to "only" 21 AT HOME. Wow what a great team utah must be! Whoo hoo!!

And they barely beat a very weak Michigan team with new coaches, new schemes, new QB (they weren't even sure who their starting QB was until 2 days before kickoff!) and a bunch of fresmen starting for them. Washington would have beat that Michigan team by 10-14 points easy!

What a joke!

Sports Writers get their information from SportsCenter like the rest of us! The coaches don't even cast votes. There assistants and GA's do, and have for years. When casting votes, they have a system....ranked to team to other ranked team they drop 3 spots, ranked team to unranked team they drop 5 spots and so the story goes. They only anamoly is the ECU's of the world that jump leaps and bounds with huge wins. Otherwise it is pretty standard and a crap shoot really.