Kalani Sitake declares Texas Tech the best team in America after Big 12 Championship

For the second time this season, BYU played Texas Tech and came up short. This time, that came in the Big 12 Championship Game, though, which likely locked the Red Raiders into a bye in the College Football Playoff and kept the Cougars on the outside looking in this year.

After the game, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake was complimentary of Texas Tech. He’d even go as far as to declare that Texas Tech is the best team in the country after being asked about his own team’s CFP hopes.

“I don’t know,” Kalani Sitake said. “This is the first game. So, I don’t know what’s going on in the other games. I know, like I said, who’s played — they’re the No. 1 team in the country. I don’t know what the other rankings are. This team is really good. So, you go play the No. 1 team in the country twice, one in Lubbock and then one in a neutral site, which is the same state.”

In the end, BYU is 11-2 with both losses coming against Texas Tech. How much the Cougars should be punished for those losses is up for debate. The major challenge, however, is that coming into the weekend at No. 11, BYU was already on the outside looking in at the CFP.

“I thought our fans showed up and made a lot of noise. I’d love another crack at it but they do that to everybody. If you watch the film, you see what they do. They basically grind it out and the end like they just did against us, and yeah. I like who we are and what we’ve been able to do. I think we have a great resume,” Sitake said. “But I’ve got to watch the other games too. I just know that when they’re doing comparisons, hopefully, they put it out there and make it fair. At least put us in the graphic. That’d be nice.”

Had BYU won the Big 12 Championship Game, both teams likely would have been in the CFP. That’s not how it went down, though. Still, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire thinks BYU deserves consideration.

“When the selection committee starts looking at teams,” Joey McGuire said. “I truly believe the Big 12 deserves two teams in the Playoff. When you look at BYU, they’re 11-2 and their two losses are to the No. 4 team in the nation. I have so much respect for Kalani [Sitake]. That’s a really good football team and I hope the committee looks at it, because there’s gonna be two-loss teams out there, but there’s not gonna be an 11-2 team. They did a great job throughout the season getting here.”

The final College Football Playoff rankings will come out on December 7th at 12:00 p.m. EST. That’s when BYU will officially learn its fate one way or another.