Which bowl games could Utah go to in first year of Big 12?

Utah Utes marching band cheers during the football game against the Weber State Wildcats at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023. | Megan Nielsen, Deseret News

When Utah announced its move to the Big 12 Conference last summer, the assumption was the Utes would participate in the Big 12′s bowl tie-ins starting in the 2024 season.

According to Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, that won’t be the case for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

Alamo Bowl’s attempt to be allowed to choose SEC-bound Texas or Oklahoma in 2024 & 2025 was denied, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. Also, all former Pac-12 teams will play in Pac-12 bowls next 2 years & not in bowls affiliated w/their new leagues https://t.co/Q9YFUsHryz

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) June 3, 2024

Due to contracts that run through the 2025 bowl season, if they are not selected for the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, “legacy Pac-12 members” (Utah, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Cal and Stanford) plus current Pac-12 members Oregon State and Washington State will play in Pac-12-affiliated bowls for the next two seasons, not the bowls with tie-ins to their current conferences.

Here’s the selection order for Pac-12 bowls in 2024:

Alamo Bowl (Pac-12 vs. Big 12).

Holiday Bowl (Pac-12 vs. ACC).

Las Vegas Bowl (Pac-12 vs. SEC).

Sun Bowl (Pac-12 vs. ACC).

LA Bowl (Pac-12 vs. Mountain West).

Independence Bowl (Pac-12 vs. Army).

This sets up an interesting scenario: What happens if a former Pac-12 school now in the Big 12 (Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State) is in line to be selected first by the Alamo Bowl after having the best record of any of the non-CFP former Pac-12 teams? Will they be selected to play a conference foe, or skipped over and sent to the next bowl on the list?

Of course, the goal for…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/bowl-games-could-utah-first-223156770.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2024-06-04 22:31:56

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