The 1996 Brigham Young Cougars football team represented the Brigham Young University in the 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season. They were the first team during the so-called "Modern era" (post 1937) to play 15 games in a season, and the only one to do it when Division I-A teams normally played 11 regular season games. Firstly, a team was able to play a designated "kickoff" opening game and not have it count against the allowed game total, then they played at Hawaii which didn't count against the allowed total. That allowed BYU to play 13 regular season games. They then played a conference championship game and a bowl game in the Cotton Bowl Classic bringing the total to 15 games.