BYU Leads Yahoo Sports' Big 12 Power Rankings Heading Into Week 6

Yahoo Sports slots BYU No. 1 in its Week 6 Big 12 power rankings, with Baylor and Arizona surging after blowout wins and Kansas State set to host Houston.

Yahoo Sports has released its Big 12 power rankings for Week 6 of the 2026 college football season, and the outlet calls the league the hardest in the country to sort out after five weeks. According to the rankings, a large group of Big 12 teams sit at a similar level in both talent and body of work, yet the conference has also produced a run of one-sided results, meaning teams that look even on paper can still get blown out on a given Saturday.

BYU holds the No. 1 position after a win over TCU that a fourth-quarter rushing touchdown from Bear Bachmeier decided. The rankings credit coach Kalani Sitake's program with consistently doing just enough to win and describe BYU as one of the most trusted teams in the country when a close game reaches the final period.

Texas Tech sits second despite a slow start and what the rankings call an unimpressive 29-7 win over Colorado. The piece questions why J'Koby Williams, described as the team's most explosive playmaker, is used mostly in a passing-down role, and notes that a court ruling has left Thomas Castellanos ineligible, meaning the offense must now be built around Will Hammond alone.

Utah ranks third coming off a Week 5 bye and heads into a softer stretch of its schedule with Kansas and Colorado next, two teams the rankings place at the bottom of the league. The back end of the Utes' slate is where the rankings expect their credentials to be truly tested.

Oklahoma State takes No. 4, with its win over Oregon doing most of the work for its resume. The rankings say it remains unclear whether that result reflected a single strong Saturday or a team that is for real, and note that a wait remains before the Cowboys... before Oklahoma State meets the league's other top teams.

Houston checks in at No. 5 after erasing a 17-0 deficit against UCF, scoring the game's final 27 points in the last 19 minutes to win 27-17. The rankings flag a run game they rate as subpar and heavy reliance on Conner Weigman, who has accounted for all nine of the Cougars' touchdowns over the past two games.

Arizona and Baylor are the week's biggest movers. Arizona rose to No. 6 with a 34-7 win over Cincinnati, and the rankings point to quarterback Noah Fifita's final season and just one conference loss as reasons a trip to Dallas for the Big 12 Championship Game remains in reach. Baylor climbed from unranked to No. 7, the largest rise of any team in any conference this week, after a 55-19 rout of Arizona State in which DJ Lagway pushed his combined passing total past 500 yards in his first two Big 12 games.

Kansas State is No. 8 off a bye that followed a narrow loss to Cincinnati, and it now hosts Houston in what the rankings view as possibly its most difficult remaining game, with a berth in the conference title game in Dallas still achievable if it gets through. Cincinnati fell to No. 9 after managing only 74 rushing yards in the loss to Arizona. Arizona State rounds out the list at No. 10 despite the 55-19 defeat to Baylor, held in the top 10 by coach Kenny Dillingham and a receiving duo of Harris and Miller that the rankings rate among the league's best.