Provo • BYU wasn’t all that impressive in its 30-3 win over lower-division McNeese on Saturday evening, but the pollsters didn’t seem to notice.
The Cougars (3-1) moved from No. 25 to No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll released Sunday afternoon.
Their opponent this Saturday in Seattle, the Washington Huskies, dropped from 10th to 11th despite holding off Arizona State 27-20 to improve to 3-1.
Wisconsin, the team BYU upset 24-21 when it was ranked No. 6 in the country, moved up to No. 15 after having dropped to No. 18 after the loss to the Cougars. The Badgers (3-1) recovered with a 28-17 win at Iowa on Saturday.
The Cougars received votes in the Amway Coaches Poll, and would be ranked 26th if that poll extended past 25 teams.
Alabama remained No. 1 in the media poll, followed by Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State and LSU. The Tigers replaced Oklahoma in the top five after the Sooners survived an overtime scare from Army and tumbled to No. 6.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake acknowledged the Cougars could have played better against McNeese, which is in the Football Championship Subdivision but was undefeated before the Provo trip. BYU scored 24 unanswered points in the second quarter after falling behind 3-0 in the first quarter.
“The goal is to do like that every quarter, like the third quarter in Arizona,” Sitake said. “We will just try to play as best as we can for all 60 minutes. That’s the goal. Hopefully, we can get it done next week. It would be a great time to get that done next week.”
BYU was last ranked in 2015 after it defeated Nebraska and Boise State to climb to No. 19, but fell 24-23 at No. 10 UCLA the following week and never returned to the rankings that season.
The Cougars are off to their best start since 2014, when they opened the season 4-0 before getting an upset at home by Utah State.
