Analyzing Utah's potential bowl sport locations – Sports activities Illustrated

With Utah's Huge 12 championship sport aspirations gone and its School Soccer Playoff hopes primarily squashed, the Utes' postseason outlook greater than probably entails receiving an invite to play in a bowl sport.
Utah dealt with its enterprise in its common season finale with a 31-21 win over Kansas, enhancing to 10-2 whereas extending its win streak to 5 video games. Nonetheless, Arizona's win over Arizona State on Black Friday despatched Texas Tech and BYU to the convention title sport for a rematch of a Nov. 8 contest the Pink Raiders gained, 29-7.
For the reason that Utes gained't be enjoying on convention championship week, their possibilities of incomes an at-large bid into the School Soccer Playoff look like slim to none. Utah checked in at No. 15 within the penultimate CFP rankings on Tuesday, successfully eliminating the Utes from playoff rivalry.
Kyle Whittingham and firm will nonetheless be paying shut consideration to School Soccer Playoff choice present on Sunday (10 a.m. MT, ESPN), because the matchups for the remainder of the postseason's bowl video games are to be revealed after the 12-team bracket is introduced.
Utah's bowl sport choices are a bit totally different from many of the different groups within the Huge 12. On account of bowl contracts that run via the 2025 season, former Pac-12 colleges which might be bowl-game eligible (Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Oregon, USC, Utah and Washington) and present Pac-12 constituent Washington State will likely be thought-about for bowl video games which have Pac-12 affiliations.
Presuming Oregon is a lock for the School Soccer Playoff, seven former/present Pac-12 colleges will likely be bowling this season.
That stated, right here's a take a look at which bowl video games Utah might be invited to.
The Alamo Bowl has usually been thought-about among the many prime bowl video games on the postseason slate given it has the potential to ship an intriguing matchup yearly. Whereas the 12-team playoff might change that notion sooner or later, the current historical past of the San Antonio-based occasion contains 9 video games between Related Press High 25 groups since 2015, with 5 of these contests being decided by seven factors or much less.
Checking in at No. 15 within the AP ballot with 10 wins, Utah does current fairly the case for being invited to play within the Alamo Bowl for the primary time since 2019, when it misplaced 38-10 to a Sam Ehlinger-led Texas squad. Nonetheless, No. 17 USC (9-3) can also be an possibility among the many former Pac-12 groups.
If No. 11 BYU doesn't make the School Soccer Playoff, the Cougars are in play for back-to-back Alamo Bowl appearances as effectively. This time, although, it wouldn't be a shock if its organizers steered away from having two present Huge 12 groups within the sport like final season's version, which featured BYU knocking off Colorado in a 36-14 last.
The Vacation Bowl is about to characteristic the ACC in it for the fourth consecutive yr after a six-year run of Huge Ten-Pac-12 matchups.
Cal (7-5) could be a viable possibility based mostly on geography, however much like the logic utilized to the Alamo Bowl, Vacation Bowl organizers would possibly attempt to keep away from pitting groups from the identical convention in opposition to each other for the sake of variance. Georgia Tech (9-3), SMU (8-4) or Clemson (7-5) might characterize the ACC as a substitute.
From the Huge 12, both one of many Arizona colleges might be a greater match than Utah, which final appeared within the Vacation Bowl in 2018 when it misplaced 31-20 to Northwestern.
An invitation to the Las Vegas Bowl could be Utah's second journey to Allegiant Stadium for a postseason sport in a three-year span, with its first coming in a 14-7 loss to Northwestern again within the 2023 Las Vegas Bowl.
The Utes' potential return to Sin Metropolis might pit them in opposition to a Huge Ten staff like Iowa (8-4) or Nebraska (7-5). Of all of the bowls talked about on this record, the ESPN-owned Las Vegas Bowl is the likeliest one for Utah.
It's additionally price mentioning the Utes signed as much as play Miami in ESPN Occasions' 2027 Vegas Kickoff Traditional at Allegiant Stadium in the summertime of 2024.
The fifth installment of the Los Angeles Bowl might be probably the most attention-grabbing one to this point, relying on the 2 groups its organizers are in a position to invite. The earlier editions didn't characteristic a Pac-12 staff with greater than seven wins going into it, although there are just a few eight- and nine-win squads, plus a gifted 10-2 UNLV squad from the Mountain West, that might make for fairly a postseason matchup.
Cal and Washington State (6-6) will probably be thought-about as effectively. Utah, in the meantime, in all probability has higher odds of attending one of many different aforementioned bowl video games on the record.
Present and former Pac-12 colleges have been on the dropping aspect of the previous 4 Solar Bowls, with the convention's final win coming in 2019 when Jayden Daniels and Arizona State beat Florida State, 20-14.
The Solar Devils (8-4) might be in for a return journey to El Paso, Texas, for the 2025 model. Utah hasn't performed within the Solar Bowl since Star Lotulelei and firm beat Georgia Tech, 30-27, in 2011.
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Cole Forsman has been a contributor with On SI for the previous three years, masking school athletics. He holds a level in Journalism and Sports activities Administration from Gonzaga College.
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