Of course the best teams will rack up some extra Top-10 opponents as they move on through the playoffs. For BYU, that's a good thing, because the Cougars actually had a relatively relaxed schedule.

Why? Well if you listen to our RuggaMatrix America podcast on a regular basis, you might have heard co-host Bruce McLane say it's because BYU was a pretty experienced group and didn't need a lot of game time to get going.

That may well be true, but the Cougars also traveled to Saint Mary's and hosted the Gaels, as well, and those were important testing grounds for them.

The difference between BYU and the teams ahead of them was that their games over and above the big clashes with national powers were not against ranked teams.

(Michael Geib photo)

Click Here for Next!