BYU Football moves up to 18 in the latest AP rankings

For the second straight week BYU is ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll, coming in at number 18 .

The Cougars missed out on a golden opportunity to play a ranked Army team yesterday on CBS and possibly a chance to have ESPN College Gameday visit West Point. The hope is to have that game rescheduled for the end of November.

The Big Ten wasn’t eligible for today’s AP rankings but will be next week. With Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa likely rejoining the polls next week, BYU may need to play another near-perfect game is order to stay ranked and not get passed up.

BYU did manage to stick in the Top 25 of the USA Today Coaches Poll at #23 despite Big Ten teams being eligible there.

The Pac-12 and Mountain West haven’t made a decision on returning to play quite yet, but all signs point to those decisions being finalized later this week. If they end up playing this fall, another four or five spots in the polls will eventually be filled by the likes of USC and Oregon.

After a long 19 days off between games, BYU returns to play in the home opener on Saturday against the Troy Trojans. Troy is 1-0 on the season after cruising to a 47-17 victory at Middle Tennessee State yesterday and will provide a much different look than what Navy brought. ESPN will broadcast the game with an 8:00 p.m. MST kick.