Much has been said about Kalani Sitake's decision to kneel the football and run out the clock at the end of BYU football's Week 2 win over Arizona.
The Cougars, after turning a halftime deficit into a second-half shutout, weathered Noah Fifita's offensive storm and found a way to wrangle it for the final 30 minutes. They shut down a potent offense and an experienced quarterback when it mattered most, and surged to a 28-17 victory.
But they could have won by more.
With the ball in the hands of rumbling sophomore quarterback Bear Bachmeier and power back LJ Martin, the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year at his hip, the Cougars began to lean on the withered Wildcats. And with 1:08 left on the game clock, Martin broke loose for a 16-yard gain, landing the BYU offense within three yards of the end zone.
They had their opponent by the throat, hoisted them into the air, and finally had total control after a game that felt much more tightly contested than the final score would tell you. And they were one average rushing play away from doubling up their opponent's score.
Instead, they let the sands pass through the hourglass.
It's characteristic of Kalani Sitake-coached teams not to push for a wider margin of victory when the final result is already in their hands. It's an integrity move. A show of respect. Sitake is a close personal friend of Arizona head coach Brent Brennan, and felt no need to further humiliate his peer when the win was already assured.
So Bear Bachmeier lined up under center and took a knee to dissolve the fourth quarter clock.
On the surface, this decision seems like a trivial one -- a matter of preference. At the end of the day, what difference does it make if BYU wins by 11 or by 18? Their record will be 2-0 regardless of the point differential, after all.
But for a program that narrowly missed out on a chance to compete in the College Football Playoff in back-to-back seasons (2024 and 2025), BYU supporters understand that the Cougars need to make as visibly strong of a case for a postseason berth as possible.
In 2024, a road win over CFP at-large inclusion SMU wasn't enough to carry a 10-2 BYU team over the finish line.
In 2025, the 11-2 Cougars were denied a Playoff seat for losing in humiliating fashion to Texas Tech, the Big 12's lone CFP representative.
Quality of wins and losses were cited as reasons for keeping the Cougars locked out of the final 12-team field. This year, Kalani Sitake and his team can't afford to make any mistakes -- Big 12 teams are held to an impossible standard by the CFP selection committee.
So I understand the sentiment that BYU needs to win in as impressive of a fashion as possible. Though the committe's role is to be thorough in their decision-making protocol, it would be naive to expect SEC, ACC, and Big Ten athletic directors to diligently watch every BYU football game. A wider margin of victory in the final score is the easiest way to portray a team's prowess.
But I don't think BYU needs that this year. At least not like they did in previous seasons.
BYU football is already on the national radar
The Cougars, following a 12-2 season and returning the majority of last season's key contributors, were ranked 14th in the preseason AP Top 25. That's BYU's highest preseason ranking since 1985, the year after they won the national championship via AP votes.
In both 2024 and 2025, BYU started the season unranked.
This season, they were already in the mix from Week 1.
BYU climbed up to 11th after their Week 2 victory, and though they were aided by Oregon and Oklahoma losing to unranked opponents, they also vaulted USC and Texas Tech. As a matter of fact, BYU was the highest climber in the entire poll, save for the enigmatic Michigan Wolverines. All of this, even without running up the score on an already defeated Arizona team.
Margin of victory isn't the end-all-be-all metric for College Football Playoff consideration, and the Cougars are in a favorable position to continue climbing, so long as they win the games they're supposed to.
Anchoring bias is a very real phenomenon for AP voters -- it's the reason why Oregon is still ranked despite losing to an Oklahoma State team on a 12-game losing streak -- and for once, BYU football is in a position to be a beneficiary of that bias.
Their season could be decided by how they perform against Notre Dame in October and at Utah a few weeks later. Wins against one or both of those teams could cement BYU's foothold in the final bracket, assuming they handle business and collect W's where they're supposed to.
And if the Cougars hold the key to their own destiny, I'd prefer they meet that destiny in Kalani Sitake's way: through friendship, charity, kindness, and brotherhood, the qualities that BYU holds dearest.
BYU football isn't in the business of humiliation; they're in the business of competition. When afforded the luxury of free will on the football field, Kalani Sitake and BYU football chooses the path of respect.
That's why I love to support this team.
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