Inside BYU’s unique surge to the top of college football
BYU’s rise is being powered by an identity few programs can replicate
Goldlaner.com – Before dawn had reached the Wasatch Range, Kalani Sitake was already setting an unexpected tone for one of the most important football Saturdays Provo had seen in years. Standing with Cosmo, Brigham Young University’s mascot, the Cougars’ head coach danced as the pregame broadcast headed into a break, blending movements inspired by Tongan traditions with an exuberant, modern rhythm.
Hours later, BYU would host No. 2 Notre Dame in a matchup that carried unusual weight for the program and its campus. It was Notre Dame’s first trip to Provo since 2004, and the scale of the occasion was evident well before kickoff as fans arrived in the dark for the national pregame show.
Sitake’s willingness to dance in front of a huge audience struck a sharp contrast with the tension commonly associated with major games. Nick Saban, watching from the set, admitted that his own pregame nerves had been much different.
“My hat’s off to you,” Saban said. “You’re up here dancing before a game. I was so nervous before a big game, I couldn’t even spit.”
That relaxed confidence has come to symbolize a BYU team succeeding in ways that challenge many assumptions about the modern college football landscape. The Cougars defeated the Irish and sit at No. 2 nationally despite operating within institutional boundaries that distinguish the university from most of its competitors.
A program built around clear limits
BYU is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Its culture is shaped by church principles that emphasize self-reliance and living within available means, a notable contrast to an era in which name, image and likeness spending has transformed recruiting and roster building across the sport.
Athletes at BYU must also comply with the school’s honor code, which prohibits premarital sex, alcohol, tobacco, coffee and profanity. Those expectations can narrow the pool of players willing to enroll, yet the program has found players who not only choose the school but remain there when opportunities to transfer are widespread.
The roster and leadership group also challenge simplistic portrayals of the university. BYU’s undergraduate enrollment is 98% Mormon, with much of its diversity tied to students’ geographic origins. Its quarterback, however, was raised Catholic and is the son of a Thai mother who gave him the name Bear. After the win over Notre Dame, he delivered a blunt assessment of the team’s approach.
“We put our balls on the chopping block.”
For people closely connected to BYU, the program’s restrictions are not merely obstacles. They view the school’s sharply defined identity as an advantage, especially as college football searches for stability amid transfer movement, NIL competition and shifting conference alignments.
Steve Young, the three-time Super Bowl champion who graduated from BYU in 1984, sees clarity as a valuable asset rather than a limitation. The former Cougars quarterback believes the school has a more direct understanding of the kind of program it can be.
“In some ways, because of the realities of being a religious institution with firm beliefs and principles in the wild west of NIL, we have a clearer vision of what we can and can’t do and who we are,” Young said. “In a sort of frictionless system, it’s about, who are you willing to be? We’re willing to be something unique. The complexity is really the beauty of it.”
History, tradition and a new era of support
BYU’s current success did not appear out of nowhere. The program has remained relevant through changing conferences and a stretch as an independent, while its football legacy was shaped by LaVell Edwards, widely recognized as a foundational figure in the development of the air raid offense.
The Cougars have long been part of the national conversation, but the Notre Dame game represented a rare convergence of history, attention and ambition. A traditional power with golden helmets arriving in Provo provided a vivid measure of how far the program has climbed in the current season.
Modern BYU also has influential supporters whose resources and attachment to the university have expanded its reach. Ryan Smith, who has followed Cougars football since childhood, grew up attending games with his family. His father, Scott Smith, taught marketing research at BYU, and football Saturdays in Provo were a regular part of family life.
“It’s just what you did,” Smith said.
During his own time as an undergraduate, Smith left BYU to help his father develop Qualtrics after Scott Smith was diagnosed with throat cancer. The company, designed to make sophisticated research easier to use, was acquired by a German company for $8 billion in 2018.
Smith later purchased the NBA’s Utah Jazz, moved the Arizona Coyotes and helped establish Utah’s first NHL franchise, the Mammoth. He has also been involved with Salt Lake’s MLS team and helped the city secure the 2034 Winter Olympics.
His support for BYU football was visible again on Saturday, when he added $1 million to increase the stakes for the student kicker appearing on the pregame show. Smith, often seen in a backward baseball cap despite being No. 1,285 on Forbes’ billionaire list, represents a contemporary version of a familiar BYU tension: significant financial success paired with a deep commitment to church values.
Why football matters in Provo
At BYU, athletics has long carried meaning beyond wins and losses. The school has viewed sports as an important part of its broader mission, particularly because football offers a highly visible national platform for an institution often reduced to stereotypes or misunderstood from a distance.
The program’s current surge therefore carries significance beyond the rankings. BYU is demonstrating that a team with firm institutional rules can compete at the top level without abandoning the culture that defines it. In a sport increasingly shaped by rapid player movement and financial power, the Cougars are betting that a clearly stated identity can be as valuable as flexibility.
Sitake’s dance before sunrise captured that belief. With Notre Dame arriving, national attention fixed on Provo and a major game waiting ahead, BYU’s coach appeared less interested in conforming to the usual image of a tense football weekend than in showing exactly who his program is.
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