BYU social media fires back at Steve Sarkisian, plants flag in playoff conversation

Steve Sarkisian means a lot of things to the BYU football community. As a starting quarterback in the late nineties, Sark led the 1996 team to a Cotton Bowl win against the Kansas State Wildcats in one of the greatest seasons in program history. He'll always have Cougar fans' respect for that and the Provo equivalent of free drinks for life in Utah County. Free shakes at Burger Supreme?

But as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns, Sarkisian's program stands as one of the greatest threats to his former team's chances of reaching the College Football Playoff. The 9-3 Longhorns' case for an at-large bid encapsulates everything wrong with the current selection process, and everything keeping the 11-1 Cougars on the outside looking in.

Following the Longhorns upset victory over the third-ranked Aggies of Texas A&M, Sarkisian took to the air to plead his case for his team to reach the final 12-team bracket and have a chance to take a bite out of the postseason picture.

"You tell me, they're the number three team in the country. A lot of pundits out there have them as the number one team in the country. We just beat them by 10," Sarkisian pined. "If you look at the body of work, [...] It would be a disservice to our sport if this team is not a playoff team."

"If we're a 10-2, it's not a question."

But the BYU Cougars have their own axe to grind when it comes to who does and does not deserve a spot in the tournament. Following their 11th win of the season, a 20-point win over UCF, the official BYU football X account fired a little jab in their former QB's direction.

These two teams come from vastly different sides of the Playoff argument. For Texas, they claim that their 9-3 record is not indicative of who they are as a team. With wins over Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, and now Texas A&M, the Longhorns have some of the most impressive victories of any team in contention. Conversely, they also boast easily the worst defeat, an ugly slip against the now 4-8 Florida Gators. Paired with two more losses to Ohio State and a 25-point drubbing, courtesy of Georgia.

BYU, on the other hand, stands 11th in the nation, a step outside the Playoff picture, with just one loss to their name (a 22-point loss to fifth-ranked Texas Tech), they remain outside the at-large window. BYU has two wins over current top-25 teams, and the most victories over 7+ win teams in the nation.

If the 9-3 Texas Longhorns are even in consideration, the 11-1 BYU Cougars should be an at-large lock yesterday.