The BYU Cougars have been unequivocally doubted, questioned, and denied at every turn of their journey to 8-0 in this 2024 football season. Doubted by the media. Doubted by the fans. Doubted by the oddsmakers in Las Vegas. But Josh Pate, analyst and creator of the JP Poll took time out of his podcast segment to publicly apologize for his exclusion of BYU football to this point in the season.
"I'm sorry, Brigham Young," Pate exhaled, "It's on me, it's not on you. [...] At this point, It's pretty safe to say that Vegas has been wrong, right? They've continuously been wrong, and I think there's pride in being an outlier."
So, why is he apologizing, and why should this moment matter to BYU football? Well, to put this simply: his admission is that his algorithmically charged power ratings poll has been wrong about the Cougars, just as it was wrong about the national runner-up Washington Huskies last season.
Pate runs a weekly poll of "power ratings" that are used to indicate who would be favored by Vegas if two teams met on a neutral field. Last weekend, Pate's JP Poll left the undefeated Cougars outside the top 25 for the ninth straight week of the 2024 season, to much outrage from BYU supporters on social media.
⚠️JP POLL: WEEK 9 EDITION⚠️ pic.twitter.com/9LFRSwvyyb
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) October 22, 2024
The uproar reached a peak when Kalani Sitake's Cougars took down UCF on the road with a 37-24 final score, despite still being underdogs in the eyes of odds makers. BYU fans have been unabashed in the defense of their team, and the owner and proprietor of this poll decided that the time had come to override his system in favor of the Cougars.
Why would he doubt his system? At every point this season, the Cougars have found a way to surpass expectations and shock the world in both their style of play, and unwavering results. By all accounts at this point in the season, BYU seems to be on a course for an unbeaten season and a berth to the Big 12 championship game.
While far from a guarantee, with 8 wins and zero losses on their resume, the Cougars are shocking the world by remaining on track for a perfect 12-0 season for the first time since the 1984 national champion squad. Something undefinable is happening in Provo, Utah.
"I think there's pride in the best people in the world using every bit of knowledge and data acquisition and calibration that they have acquired over decades so professionals can bet on it, and you're the outlier. Whatever you've got is unquantifiable. [...] That's the surest indicator that you've got something really special cooking internally, and now BYU has that."
So, can BYU continue on this trajectory? Can they replicate the shocking success of last year's Washington team? Do their wins over Kansas State and SMU indicate that the Cougars are legitimate contenders and should be treated as such? With four more football games on the schedule, nothing is certain until the clock hits 0:00 in the final game.
Until then, we hope to see BYU prove its doubters wrong.