PROVO — After BYU football opened the season 9-0 and the Cougars rose as high as No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings, a late slide and 10-2 finish may make an appearance in the Alamo Bowl feel like a bit of a late down.
Nothing could be further from the truth, center Connor Pay said.
With a chance to play No. 23 Colorado — led by presumptive Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and “Coach Prime” Deion Sanders — the 17th-ranked Cougars aren’t concerned about the all-Big 12 matchup in San Antonio two weeks from Saturday, Dec. 28 (5:30 p.m. MST, ABC).
“There was obviously some unknown about maybe playing someone in the ACC,” said Pay, who swiftly acknowledged that he will play in his final college football game “no doubt” for recently extended head coach Kalani Sitake. “But the Alamo Bowl got first choice and we’re glad we were picked first.”
The Buffaloes (9-3, 7-2 Big 12) will fill the Pac-12’s spot in the bowl game, as noted in the remaining two years of the bowl game’s contract that pits the top non-CFP pick from the Big 12 against a top pick from the Pac-12 or former Pac-12 teams.
The two teams did not play each other in Big 12 play in 2024, so the matchup will be as fresh as any the Cougars may have seen from another conference. The two sides also tied atop the Big 12, but both were pushed out of the conference championship game by No. 12 Arizona State and No. 18 Iowa State on tiebreakers.
Some are calling the Alamo Bowl the Big 12’s “bronze-medal game” between the two squads that have only played 13 times in series history, despite sharing the Rocky Mountain Conference from 1922-36 and the Mountain States Conference from 1937-1947.
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