By ERIC OLSON Lubbock is the center of the college football universe this week. No. 8 BYU visits No. 9 Texas Tech on Saturday for the first top-10 matchup in a Big 12 conference game since 2021.

After four 9-3 SEC teams were left out of last year’s College Football Playoff in favor of Indiana and SMU, who had better records but were light on big wins, the CFP introduced a new metric — “record strength” — into the selection process this year and is putting further emphasis on strength of schedule.