For both Utah and BYU football, the future looks bright.
Over the offseason, ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg has been projecting the top 25 college football rankings in terms of future success at the quarterback position, on offense and on defense.
It has culminated in the unveiling of ESPN’s college football top 25 future power rankings, released Tuesday, which look at teams as a whole.
How are the future team power rankings determined?
Rittenberg explained he takes a large-scale look at programs for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons to help determine his future team rankings, factoring in personnel, coaching stability and recruiting, among other things.
“At its core, FPR remains personnel-based, and assesses how current and future players will impact performance for their teams,” Rittenberg said. “Recruiting in the past few seasons or projected success in 2023 carries some weight. But some programs consistently outperform their recruiting rankings and deserve to be recognized appropriately in the team list.”
Where is Utah football in ESPN’s top 25 future power rankings?
Utah’s 2022 future team ranking: No. 14.
Utah jumped more than 10 spots from last year’s future team rankings, when the Utes were No. 25.
Utah also came in No. 14 in the 2022 future QB rankings, No. 23 in future offense rankings and No. 12 in future defense rankings, all released earlier this year.
How Utah ranks vs. other Pac-12 teams: The Utes come in one spot below Oregon, which Utah beat twice last year in earning its first Pac-12 championship.
The top Pac-12 team in the future power rankings is USC at No. 9.
“The Utes surely would rank ahead of the Ducks (and USC) in a one-year projection. The key for coach Kyle Whittingham’s program is to keep building on offense, a unit that surged late last season,” Rittenberg wrote.
Where is BYU football in ESPN’s top 25 future power rankings?
BYU’s 2022 future team ranking: No. 23.
The Cougars were not ranked in Rittenberg’s 2021 version of the future power rankings.
BYU was No. 25 in the 2022 future QB rankings and No. 14 in the future offensive rankings, and was not ranked in the future defense rankings.
How BYU ranks vs. other teams in the future Big 12: Rittenberg’s rankings show just how unpredictable it could be determining a Big 12 favorite once Oklahoma (ranked No. 7 in the power rankings) and Texas leave the league.
Fellow Big 12 incomer Cincinnati is No. 12 in Rittenberg’s rankings, followed closely by reigning league champion Baylor at No. 16 and Oklahoma State at No. 17.
BYU is one spot above Houston, which, like BYU, will be joining the Big 12 in 2023.
“The tricky part is accounting for how the Big 12 move in 2023 impacts BYU’s trajectory,” Rittenberg wrote. “Although the Cougars play a Power 5-heavy schedule and mostly recruit Power 5-type players — they are an older, more mature team because many players take LDS missions — history shows that most teams moving up to new conferences go through some turbulence.”