BYU IN BATTLE OF UNBEATENS
9-0 Cougars arrange trip south to take on 9-0 Coastal Carolina
Word came to Coastal Carolina on Wednesday that the most significant home game in the history of the program was in serious jeopardy.
The 14th-ranked Chanticleers were scheduled to face No. 25 Liberty on Saturday in an unexpected Top-25 matchup that persuaded ESPN to send “College GameDay” to Conway, S.C., for the first time.
But COVID-19 had crept into the Liberty program. Coastal Carolina needed a Plan B — as in BYU. Coach Kalani Sitake’s eighth-ranked Cougars have been primed to pounce on short notice if the opportunity arose to bolster their chances to reach a major bowl.
“Last week I said: ‘Kalani, it’s kind of like when there’s a married couple about ready to have a baby and you have your bag packs by the door, that’s how it’s going to be maybe,’ ” BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe said. “You might have to pick up your bag and go.”
With ESPN and the Sun Belt Conference’s assistance, Coastal Carolina and BYU finalized a deal Thursday morning to play a football game about 56 hours later.
The upstart Chanticleers (9-0) and barnstorming Cougars (9-0) meet Saturday in maybe the most intriguing game of the college football weekend, one that could position the winner for a multimillion-dollar postseason payday.
Coastal Carolina Athletic Director Matt Hogue said Liberty officials reached out Wednesday to say the Flames might not be able to play. Holmoe said a friend reached out the same day to tell him to keep an eye on the Liberty situation.
“Once you’re in that situation this year, you know we’re all kind of playing by a
different book,” Hogue said. “We obviously have a lot invested in this weekend so we wanted to start exploring what opportunities might be out there.”
ESPN owns the television rights for both the Sun Belt and BYU, and has been helping the independent Cougars rebuild a schedule that fell apart when Power Five conferences decided to play mostly league games during the pandemic.
Dargis called Holmoe and asked if BYU was interested. Holmoe said he needed to run it by Sitake, but it only took the AD about 45 minutes to get back with the news: If Liberty could not play, BYU would.
Even though the Cougars did not have a game scheduled for Saturday, they had practiced Monday and Tuesday as if they might. No set opponent, only possibilities.
BYU is currently 13th in the College Football Playoff rankings. That is not only way too far back to be considered a playoff contender, it also means star quarterback Zach Wilson and the Cougars need to climb at
least a couple spots to have a chance to earn a bid to a New York’s Six bowl game.
Coastal Carolina is No. 18 in CFP, even further out of range for a major bowl bid — though the Chants have two paths. Coastal could work its way into the top 10 or so and pick up an at-large bid. They could also earn a spot as the highest ranked conference champion from outside the Power Five leagues, though they would probably need some help in the form of a loss or two by No. 7 Cincinnati from the American Athletic Conference.
Coastal has already clinched a spot in the Sun Belt title game on Dec. 19 against No. 20 Louisiana-Lafayette.
Thursday’s game
Louisiana Tech 42, North Texas 31: Israel Tucker carried it 37 times for 161 yards and two touchdowns as Louisiana Tech beat North Texas (3-5, 2-4 Conference USA) in its first game since Halloween. Louisiana Tech (5-3, 4-2) hadn’t played since a 37-34 doubleovertime victory over UAB on Oct. 31.
Notable
No spectators will be allowed at the Rose Bowl for the College Football Playoff semifinal on Jan. 1 because of COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the state, county and city of Pasadena.
The Tournament of Roses said that it requested special permission to allow for a limited number of spectators or a select number of guests of players and coaches at the 90,888-seat stadium but was denied.
No. 3 Ohio State will be “a little shorthanded” because of a COVID-19 outbreak but continues to practice ahead of its scheduled game at Michigan State, coach Ryan Day said.
There were no details on which players might be missing for Saturday’s game in East Lansing — the program will issue a list of unavailable players Friday — but Day will for sure be staying at home after a positive test last week.
• Michigan canceled Saturday’s home game against Maryland because of at least 12 positive cases for COVID-19 within the program.