Utah State football bowl scenarios
Well, the Utah State Football team will not be going to the Mountain West Conference championship this year. After a very hard fought game in Boise Saturday night, the Aggies ultimately were not able to come away with a win, thus ending their regular season. However, this does not mean they end their season all together. Even with the loss to Boise State on their record, the Aggies still finish the regular season at 10-2, 7-1 in conference play. A solid improvement on the 6-7 record the Aggies closed out 2017 with. You add all of this up together, and you get Utah State playing in a bowl game for the fifth time in six years under head coach Matt Wells. Let’s go over some of the scenarios that the Aggies could fall into over the next few weeks as we find out who’s going where to play whom.
Let’s start with what we know. The highest-ranked conference champion out of the group of five conferences (that being the AAC, Conference-USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt) will be given a birth to one of the New Year’s Six bowls. Currently being ranked ninth in the CFP rankings, if the UCF Golden Knights can win against Memphis in the AAC championship, they’re in. But, the loss of starting quarterback McKenzie Milton is a huge blow to the Knights, so it’s not inconceivable that they could suffer their first loss in two years come Saturday afternoon. If that were to be the case, the winner of the Mountain West would most likely step into that spot. So, how does this all relate back to Utah State?
If the winner of the Mountain West were to slot into a New Year’s Six bowl, the runner-up would likely be heading to the Las Vegas Bowl to face a Pac-12 opponent. Seeing as how Utah State finished the season 7-1 in conference play, they would most likely bump the the loser of the Mountain West title game, who would finish with two loses. This looks to be Utah State’s best-case scenario heading into bowl season. A trip to Vegas to play a Pac-12 opponent is not a bad way to close out your season if you’re Utah State.
But, let’s say no Mountain West school qualifies for a New Year’s Six bowl, that means everyone slides down one spot in the pecking order. Leaving the Mountain West champ heading to Vegas and the Aggies likely heading to one of two destinations.
The four slots below the Vegas Bowl are the Famous Idaho Potato bowl, the Gildan New Mexico bowl, the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl and the Hawai’i Bowl (which will be occupied by Hawai’i). Each of the other three have featured the Aggies in recent years. The Idaho Potato bowl matches the second seed in the Mountain West with one of the top three finishers in the MAC. Utah State has played in this bowl game three times in program history, the most recent coming in 2015. Overall, the Aggies are 1-2 in the Idaho Potato bowl, their one win coming in 2012 via a 41-15 battering of Toledo. This was also the season the Aggies set the school record for wins in a season with 11, something this Aggie team has a chance to match in their bowl game with a win.
Seeing as how the Idaho Potato bowl is hosted in Boise, there is a reasonable chance that Boise State would want to play in that game if they were to lose to Fresno State on Saturday. This, barring their invitation to the Las Vegas Bowl. It is possible that the Aggies could return to the Arizona Bowl, though it’s somewhat less likely considering how that was their bowl destination last year. That leaves the New Mexico Bowl for the Aggies. This would be a matchup with a team from Conference-USA. This would be Utah State’s second appearance in the bowl game, their first coming with a 21-6 win over UTEP in 2014.
Based on how well Utah State has done this year, and the record they finish the regular season with, there is a small chance they could get invited to a non-Mountain West affiliated bowl game on an at-large bid. This happens every year where a team or two get offered a better matchup to improve ratings for that bowl game if they have a lot of interest around their school. Admittedly, these are usually Power Five conference teams, so the chances of this happening for Utah State are very slim.
Whether it be the New Mexico, Idaho Potato, or possibly even the Vegas Bowl, one certainty is: Utah State will be playing in another game this season. The committee will release their final rankings before bowl season and the playoffs start a week from Sunday. The announcement of bowl invitations will soon proceed this in the following hours. So, within a week, we will know where Utah State will be heading to close out their season.
Dalton Renshaw – @dren_sports