BYU’s Regular Season Finale Against SDSU Lands Late Night Kickoff
Nov 30, 2020, 1:56 PM
Zach Wilson and the 2020 BYU Football team will host San Diego State in the first-ever December home game at LES. (BYU Photo/Jaren Wilkey)
(BYU Photo/Jaren Wilkey)
PROVO, Utah – The first-ever home game for BYU Football in December will probably be a cold one now that we know when kickoff is taking place.
The Cougars next scheduled game against San Diego State on Dec. 12 received kickoff and TV info, and the two former Mountain West rivals will kick things off at 8 p.m. (MT) and be televised nationally on ESPN2.
ESPN and BYU today announced the Dec. 12 football game between No. 8 @BYUfootball and @AztecFB in LaVell Edwards Stadium will be featured nationally on ESPN2 in an 8 p.m. MT kickoff. #BYUFootball #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/wQIqFXjxHQ
— BYU Cougars PR (@BYUCougarsPR) November 30, 2020
BYU’s December tilt with the Aztecs is currently the last game scheduled for BYU’s 2020 regular season. Athletic director Tom Holmoe and head coach Kalani Sitake have publicly expressed they want additional games and have put out “feelers” to make that happen. If no team or no conferences green light a game to be played against BYU, the Cougars’ last game before the postseason will come against the Aztecs.
San Diego State was on BYU’s original 2020 schedule before the Mountain West Conference decided to postpone the fall season. When the MWC changed its mind on football in the fall, SDSU was allowed to step out of the conference and add BYU back to its schedule.
It’s a valuable game for BYU. According to Jeff Sagarin’s ratings, the Aztecs are the third-highest ranked team BYU will have faced this season. The Aztecs are currently No. 79, BYU is No. 9 in the computer ratings.
The most important rankings are the College Football Playoff committee’s ratings. BYU currently sits at No. 14 after the initial set of rankings were released last Tuesday. The game against San Diego State might be BYU’s last opportunity to leave an impression on the committee for a case at landing an at-large bid to a New Year’s Six bowl game.
December’s game between BYU and San Diego State will mark the 38th meeting all-time on the gridiron. BYU leads the all-time series 28-8-1, but the Aztecs are the ones who won the most recent meeting last season in San Diego. SDSU won 13-3 in the last regular-season game ever played at San Diego County Credit Union Stadium.
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., KSL Newsradio). Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper and the KSL Sports app.
