The unranked Arizona Wildcats and their head coach Mike Stoops never made the Top 25 AP Poll during the 15 weeks of the regular season, but they showed just how outmatched No. 17 Brigham Young University was by beating the Cougars 31- 21 at the Las Vegas Bowl.

BYU wanted to strut its stuff at Arizona’s expense, but it occurred to it to suck the water from the pond in Louisiana. After being defeated by Arizona on Saturday (12-20-08), the Cougars finished the year with a 10-3 record while the Wildcats finished their season with an 8-5 record.

BYU’s only 3 losses have any real meaning, and it’s this: The Cougars were beaten by the only 3 decent teams that played all year. After posting 6 straight wins and ascending to No. 8 in the AP Poll, the Cougars traveled to TCU and were crushed 32-7. After 4 more wins against weak opponents on an easy schedule, they crashed against Utah and burned 48-24.

Both Utah and TCU are from the same Mountain West Conference as BYU, with Utah winning the MWC title with an undefeated 8-0 record and a perfect 12-0 regular season. TCU was a finalist in the Conference and BYU was third.

Who would have thought that the mighty Cougars, now ranked 17th and with an “outstanding” 10-2 record, would have a problem with a 7-5 Arizona team? Answer: Mike Stoops and everyone on his Wildcat team.

Just listen to BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall after being upset by Arizona: “Ten and three is a solid season, but the standards here are much higher,” Mendenhall said. “Our standards here are to win the conference championship and be on the national scene.” Yeah, Bronco, like Arizona doesn’t have any standards, the Wildcats only have the Las Vegas Bowl win and no national ranking yet.

Mendenhall should have been a publicity consultant for a political party. Mendenhall should answer this question in a press conference: If Brigham Young is the 17th best team in the nation before the Las Vegas Bowl, where should Arizona rank? Arizona received no polling support all season as the Cougars played weak opponents and sat reading their clippings.

Somehow, the national media seems to fawn over undefeated top-half teams like Utah and Boise State and exaggerate their importance in the national rankings. Both Brigham Young and Arizona played and won against two common opponents: UCLA and Washington. That’s the end of head-to-head comparisons, and in the final analysis of opponents, BYU falls short.

During the regular season, BYU faced and lost to only 2 AP Top 25 teams: TCU and Utah. Arizona faced 5 AP Top 25 teams, beating California and Arizona State and losing to Southern Cal, Oregon, and Oregon State.

If BYU had also faced Southern Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, California, and Arizona State instead of 5 cupcake opponents, there’s no way BYU would have gotten 5 wins; Cougar’s record might as well have been 7-5 (exactly the same as Arizona) if not 5-7.

Arizona won the first half against BYU 10-7 and also the second half 21-14.

The game itself wasn’t that great. Willie Tuitama, Arizona’s senior quarterback, was 24 of 35 for 325 yards and 2 passing and 1 rushing touchdowns. The win over BYU was Arizona’s first in 10 years. Wildcat head coach Mike Stoops spent 5 years developing an Arizona program that needed a lot of attention, and now the Wildcat program is gaining credibility at the expense of Brigham Young University.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley