Ohio St. BYU passing Penn St. would be a little more iffy, but even at #4, only dropping a couple spots in the rankings would be reasonable. As far as "defying the merit test" and "not prioritizing the most deserving teams", I get where you are coming from, but BYU being bumped up over Tennessee this week tells me they are considering merit to some extent.

I also don't buy this narrative about the committee having a "vested interest in keeping us where we can drop out". I think the committee is simply skeptical about BYU like most people in the country continue to be, but if they keep winning it becomes harder and harder to make excused for keeping them lower in the rankings.