BYU football has certainly flipped expectations upside-down now three years through their membership in the Big 12 Conference. After entering with a meager 5-7 record in their first season, Kalani Sitake's program was unanimously panned as one of the most pitiful programs in the league, and banished to the bottom of every preseason Big 12 poll, dropping as far as 15th of 16 teams in the conference's official poll prior to the 2024 season.
Today, in 2026, the program is a conference powerhouse.
With 23 wins over the last two seasons, BYU football is among the winningest programs in all of football over that span -- certainly the winningest to still await their College Football Playoff debut. First in a 2024 season where Jake Retzlaff's heroics and the potent Jay Hill defense launched the team into a four-way tie for first place and a tiebreaker away from competing for the conference title, only for the 2025 edition, led by freshman Bear Bachmeier, to lose just one game all season before competing for the conference throne.
If you ask ESPN, BYU football is poised to get right back to business in 2026, praising the program for retaining Coach Sitake on a cookie and a prayer (it's a very common expression), but still trepidatious over the team losing Jack Kelly, Chase Roberts, and the mastermind behind BYU's defensive rebirth, Jay Hill.
But with Kelly Poppinga, a former defensive coordinator at Virginia and an in-house promotion under Hill's system, the Cougars were able to retain nearly all of their key contributors on the defensive end, along with some extra potency from the likes of Cade Uluave from Cal to fill in for Kelly's absence.
The top of ESPN's preseason Big 12 standings ladder will not surprise you in the slightest.
Big 12 Preseason rankings, according to ESPN
1. Texas Tech
2. BYU
3. Arizona
4. Houston
5. Oklahoma State
6. TCU
7. ASU
8. Utah
9. Colorado
10. Kansas State
11. Baylor
12. UCF
13. Kansas
14. Cincinnati
15. West Virginia
16. Iowa State
Praising the Cougars for what they were able to return from an all-time great season in Provo, ESPN feels very strongly that BYU football is still poised for success, even after the departure of Jay Hill. By all appearances, the team has reloaded and upgraded nearly across the board.
"LJ Martin agreeing to return after rushing for 1,305 yards and earning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in 2025 was a major win for Sitake and his staff. They were selective with their transfer recruiting but won out for one of the top linebackers in the portal in Uluave, a first-team All-ACC performer at Cal. Finau proved in spring practice he can be the Cougars' starting left tackle, and the duo of Lyons and Oregon transfer Roger Saleapaga should make an impact at tight end. The Cougars also assembled a top-20 recruiting class in ESPN's rankings led by highly touted QB Ryder Lyons, who's expected to enroll in 2027."
In the most chaotic power conference in college football, few things are ever guaranteed. Perhaps Utah will remain a force on the gridiron even without Whittingham. Oklahoma State could be as great as many fear with the influx of North Texas Mean Green power. No matter the result, however, few can deny that Kalani Sitake's program is built to last and looks to take another shot at the Big 12 title in '26.
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