BYU Football Bowl Projections Entering Selection Sunday
Dec 4, 2022, 12:06 AM
BYU football running back Chris Brooks and the 7-5 Cougars await their bowl destination. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
PROVO, Utah – Where will BYU football play in the 2022 Bowl Season? We will find out today as we’ve Selection Sunday.
One thing we do know is that BYU will be playing in an ESPN Events bowl game.
Which bowl game will BYU football play in?
BYU enters the postseason with a 7-5 record overall. As a result, ESPN, as they are contracted to do, will slot BYU into one of the 16 bowl games they own. Those fall under the ESPN Events umbrella of bowl games. But within those 16, some games already have matchups designated, such as the Hawaii Bowl, which will have San Diego State take on Middle Tennessee. Then there are ESPN Event games like the Las Vegas Bowl with specific conference tie-ins (SEC vs. Pac-12).
During an interview on the Coordinators Corner last Monday, BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said that he had heard BYU’s bowl date is three Saturdays from now, which would be December 17. But he followed that up by saying, “we’ll see.”
One of those ESPN Event bowl games that lands on December 17 is the New Mexico Bowl. Many national bowl projections tab BYU to play in the land of enchantment. But some have an Independent New Mexico State filling that spot now that the Aggies received an exception to get bowl eligible despite two victories over non-FBS teams.
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New Mexico State’s athletic director Mario Moccia told the Las Cruces Sun-News that it’s “not in the cards” for the Aggies to play in the nearby New Mexico Bowl.
This will be BYU’s final postseason as an FBS Independent. Then, beginning in 2023, BYU goes into the Big 12 Conference and will be chasing a pool of games tied to that league.
Let’s take one last look at what the college football world is projecting for BYU’s bowl destination for the 2022 season.
BYU bowl projections on Selection Sunday
My projection: New Mexico vs. Air Force
Action Network: New Mexico vs. SMU
CBS Sports: New Mexico vs. SMU
247Sports: New Mexico vs. SMU
Bleacher Report: Birmingham vs. Syracuse
College Football News: New Mexico vs. SMU
College Sports Madness: Myrtle Beach vs. Coastal Carolina
Sporting News: New Mexico vs. Air Force
SB Nation: First Responder Bowl vs. Oklahoma
Athlon Sports: New Mexico vs. San Jose State
The Athletic: Cure vs. Marshall
ESPN (Bonagura): Gasparilla vs. Houston
ESPN (Schlabach): Frisco vs. Rice
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s BYU football coverage on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
