Welcome to Too Optimistic Tuesday! This weekly column reminds BYU fans why they should count their many blessings and have an abundance of hope. Every season in every sport is full of both ups and downs. This column will amplify the "ups" and help fans quickly recover from the "downs". So put on your blue-tinted goggles and just enjoy your BYU fandom for a moment.
From a dominant football team, to a dominant basketball team
As BYU fans, we're spoiled right now.
Well, no, not spoiled, exactly. The right word is probably, "blessed."
We as BYU fans are blessed to have just wrapped up an incredible 12-2 football season and now get to shift our fandom to a 12-1 basketball team that's currently ranked No. 10 in the country. By the time the basketball season ends in March, no fan base may have enjoyed more success and winning between football and basketball than Cougar fans.
It really is incredible to consider where BYU football and basketball are today.
In 2023, BYU's first season in the Big 12, the football team struggled to acclimate to the grind and physicality of a Power Four schedule, going just 2-7 in conference play, ending the season on a dispiriting four-game losing streak, and missing a bowl game.
Since then Kalani Sitake's squad has gone 23-4 with impressive victories against ranked opponents in the Alamo Bowl and the Pop Tarts Bowl. Yes, BYU football got completely shafted by the CFP selection committee -- again! -- but the successful 2025 season just builds credibility that the Cougars are a viable, legitimate national contender. Rome wasn't built in a day.
On the basketball front, the future looked pretty bleak just a few seasons ago after the 2022-23 Cougars went 7-9 in West Coast Conference play (not Big 12 conference play, WCC play!) and missed the NCAA tournament. But over the last two seasons BYU has gone 24-14 in Big 12 play, emerging as one of the best teams in the best basketball conference in the country.
Oh, and BYU basketball is getting ready for Big 12 play with freshman sensation AJ Dybantsa in the running for National Player of the Year.
Few fan bases experience the joy of a 12-2 football season with a victory in a prominent bowl game and will be ranked near the Top 10.
Even fewer then get to cheer on a 12-1 basketball team that should make a deep March Madness run.
As BYU fans, this is our reality.
Our very blessed reality.