Top-Ranked Utah, BYU Clash Early With Big 12 Lead At Stake
No. 3 Utah hosts No. 7 BYU on Saturday morning in a Holy War rivalry game with major implications for the Big 12 championship race. Kickoff is set for 10 a.m. local time at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, scheduled early to accommodate a noon broadcast window on the East Coast.
Utah enters unbeaten at 8-0 overall and 5-0 in conference play, holding first place in the Big 12. BYU sits second at 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the league, with No. 13 Texas Tech also at 7-1 and 4-1. A loss by either BYU or Texas Tech would complicate their path to the Dec. 4 Big 12 championship game in Arlington, Texas, and to the 12-team College Football Playoff. Texas Tech does not face Utah or BYU during the regular season and instead hosts West Virginia on Saturday night. mexico liga abe basketball
Neither Utah nor BYU has won a Big 12 title. BYU lost last year's championship game to Texas Tech, which went on to serve as the conference's lone playoff participant. Utah has won 14 straight games, the longest active streak in the FBS, and has outscored its first eight opponents 311-127, including a lopsided win at Cincinnati last week. BYU has won the last three meetings in the series, after Utah had won nine in a row before that stretch. Utah coach Morgan Scalley and BYU coach Kalani Sitake are both coaching at their alma maters and once worked together on Kyle Whittingham's Utah staff, Sitake as defensive coordinator and Scalley as safeties coach, before Sitake left for BYU in 2016.
The Big 12 remains the only Power Four conference never to have placed multiple teams in the College Football Playoff. Utah, Miami and No. 5 UCLA are the only remaining unbeaten teams in the country. Utah still faces road trips to Arizona and TCU before closing the regular season at home against West Virginia. BYU has games left against Baylor, at Kansas, and against Cincinnati, while Texas Tech plays at Oklahoma State and Baylor before hosting TCU. Arizona, Baylor, No. 17 Houston and Oklahoma State - all with two conference losses - remain mathematically alive in the race but need further losses from the teams above them.
