Most BYU fans cringed before scanning the new AP Poll released on Sunday.
After all, we have been conditioned over the years to just take for granted that AP voters tend to do everything in their power to drop the Cougars like a stone when they lose. Heck, even when BYU is winning, their success doesn't seem to impress AP voters on the East Coast, who apparently don't stay up past 10:30 PM Eastern on Saturday nights to actually watch college football.
So when the undefeated and No. 8-ranked BYU Cougars were completely overwhelmed and outclassed by No. 9 Texas Tech on Saturday, many of us were preparing for the worst from AP voters. How far would the now blemished BYU Cougars fall? To No. 14? No. 20? Fall among the unranked? Okay, unranked is a bit of a stretch, but Cougar fans have some AP Poll PTSD, so nothing's off the table for some of us.
Instead, the AP voters dropped BYU from No. 8 to No. 12. And that feels... reasonable. Maybe even generous.
Watching BYU's toothless offense stumble its way through one of the most impotent gameplans we've seen in recent years, BYU didn't look like a Top 15 team on Saturday. And they didn't lay that egg on a 10:30 PM Eastern evening game when more than a few AP voters are sleepily getting dressed in their jam jams. They did it at noon. On national television. With ESPN College GameDay in town.
BYU fell flat on its face on Saturday with the eyes of the collective college football world watching, and judging. And somehow, they're still the No. 12 team in the country, despite not looking like it in Lubbock.
Related: Did BYU football lose their shot at the College Football Playoff with a loss at Texas Tech?
What this means is Kalani Sitake's squad is gaining credibility in the eyes of the national pundits, as well they should. The Cougars went 11-2 last year and demolished Deion Sanders's Colorado Buffaloes on national television in the Alamo Bowl. This year they started 8-0 and recorded their third straight Holy War victory over a very good Utah team. They are 19-3 over their last 22 games.
While the Cougs really blew it against Texas Tech on the biggest stage possible, the national media is coming around. For the first time in what feels like a long time, AP voters put some respect on BYU's name, even when they had the opportunity to truly punish them.