Kalani Sitake & BYU Ready to Move On From Playoff Snub With Huge Bach Bachmeier Update

Texas Tech’s 34–7 rout of BYU knocked out more than the Cougars’ Playoff chances; it took Notre Dame down, too. Miami jumped into the final CFP slot, leaving both programs stunned. BYU moves on to the Pop-Tarts Bowl; Notre Dame has rejected a bowl bid in protest.

The loss effectively locked BYU out of the top 10, widening the gap Miami needed to jump them. Notre Dame slid to No. 11 behind Miami at No. 10, with selectors suddenly leaning on the Hurricanes’ Week 1, 27–24 head-to-head win as the decisive tiebreaker.

“When I started looking at BYU with Notre Dame, I’m like, BYU’s resume is better,” analyst Stanford Steve shares in a conversation with Scott Van Pelt on Monday. “Beating Utah is better than beating USC. We took it as Notre Dame and Miami and put them side by side as if that’s the only conversation to have. Put BYU and Notre Dame side by side.”

His case leans heavily on BYU’s Holy War win, a 24–21 victory over Utah in a ranked rivalry game that brought “Big Noon Kickoff” to Provo and featured a 22-yard dagger run from freshman Bear Bachmeier, which pops more on paper than Notre Dame’s best win over a sliding USC team.

Kalani Sitake’s team rolled through the regular season at 11–1, with Texas Tech as the only blemish, a 29–7 road loss in Lubbock back in November. By contrast, Notre Dame finished with two losses: a Week 1 defeat to Miami and a one-point setback at Texas A&M. Lined up side by side, BYU’s résumé, a single regular-season loss and multiple ranked wins in the Big 12, can reasonably be framed as stronger than Notre Dame’s independent slate.

Even before championship weekend, the committee had BYU parked at No. 11 as the first team out, a slot one columnist called “the least respected 11–1 team” of the Playoff era despite the Cougars’ multiple ranked wins.

The outrage echoed past CFP controversies. Many fans compared BYU’s fate to undefeated Florida State in 2023, a team left out of the Playoff despite running the table, and even to the 2014 TCU/Baylor controversy, when two one-loss teams were leapfrogged on Selection Sunday. The parallel only intensified BYU supporters’ belief that résumé strength mattered less than committee optics.

“It makes you mad,” WR Parker Kingston said. “To have the conference championship (result) as the reason why we can’t get in is not right,” Kingston said. “I mean, what is the point of even getting to the conference championship if it is going to hurt your odds of getting into the playoffs?”

Initially, BYU was lined up for a Pop-Tarts Bowl showdown with Notre Dame. But after being named the first team out of the CFP, the Irish chose to skip bowl season entirely. “We feel like the Playoff was stolen from our student-athletes,” Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua told reporter Ross Dellenger. With Notre Dame out, BYU slid into a new matchup against Georgia Tech in Orlando, all while carrying an even bigger grudge against the selection committee than before.

Bevacqua later said it felt like “we were all just punched in the stomach” and even blasted the CFP’s weekly ranking shows as a “farce” that gave his players false hope. The backlash was strong enough that CFP officials have now signed off on a new memorandum guaranteeing Notre Dame an automatic berth any time it finishes inside the top 12 of the rankings.

Will Bear Bachmeier play against Georgia Tech?

On Saturday, Dec. 6, with BYU’s Playoff hopes on the line, Bear Bachmeier suffered a lower-leg/ankle injury early in the Big 12 title game. Playing through obvious discomfort, he finished 16-of-27 for 115 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions, and his usually dangerous run game was largely taken away.

On the opening drive, he reportedly rolled over his ankle and was seen limping off the field. This development came before running back LJ Martin scored a 10-yard touchdown. The QB moved to the sidelines, and the medical team wrapped his ankle with tape. He reentered the game, but the injury took its toll. But Sitake rejected the narrative that the loss stemmed from his quarterback’s injury.

“That’s not the reason why we lost,” Sitake said during a Zoom meeting. “I mean, it is part of the reason why he wasn’t able to play his best.”

Bachmeier had a promising freshman year, throwing for 2,708 yards and 14 touchdowns while adding 11 rushing scores and 25 total TDs. But Texas Tech got the best of him. On Nov. 8, Joey McGuire’s Red Raiders handed BYU its only regular-season loss, 29–7, then repeated the punishment in the Big 12 title game. Texas Tech accounted for both of BYU’s losses and half of Bachmeier’s interceptions, underscoring how differently his season looked against every other opponent.

Even with the injury setback, scouts still view him as one of the most polished true freshmen in the country. That’s what makes the snub sting even more in Provo. Bachmeier’s full body of work. (2,708 passing yards, 527 rushing yards, and 25 total touchdowns) Looks every bit like the season of a quarterback who should have been headlining the Playoff, not just the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

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