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Mountain West Football: More Details Emerge About Future Bowl Game Tie-Ins
The picture surrounding Mountain West football’s future during bowl season gets clearer.
Contact/Follow @MattK_FS & @MWCwire
Things are looking up for postseason play.
Though the details of future bowl seasons have trickled out through this off-season, the Mountain West made it official today and clarified the picture that fans can look forward from 2020 to 2025.
https://twitter.com/MountainWest/status/1154114982465814528
The biggest news, as Stadium’s Brett McMurphy reported back in March, is that losing the tie-in with the Las Vegas Bowl will be evened out with the imminent arrival of the Los Angeles Bowl (official name pending) beginning in 2020. The conference also confirmed most of the lineup McMurphy had noted we’ll see in the next five seasons, which still looks pretty similar to what we’re accustomed to:
https://twitter.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/1154014618886365190
For those who aren’t aware of the full list of ESPN-owned bowl games, McMurphy crafted that list back in June. It includes previous landing spots like the Cure, First Responder, and Armed Forces Bowls, as well as new bowls like the ones which will be established at Boston’s Fenway Park and in Myrtle Beach.
The newest wrinkle is a new bowl believed to take place in the Dallas Metroplex, which will surely be a top destination among eligible Mountain West teams. The Cheez-It Bowl, meanwhile, will typically feature the Big 12 and the Big Ten. Given that the latter conference has a whopping nine bowl tie-ins, however, it seems like a combination of the College Football Playoff and lack of bowl-eligible teams might enable the Mountain West to claim that seventh spot from time to time: The Big Ten, after all, had just eight bowl-eligible teams back in 2017.
It also became official yesterday that the Mountain West bowl slate will feature more MACtion than in years past, as reports confirmed the Mid-American Conference will replace the Sun Belt as a representative for the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl.
The Hawaii Bowl is also working with Hawaii football to keep the team in-state for the postseason when eligible. Taken in tandem with earlier news that the game will return to its customary Christmas Eve slot this season, fans will certainly rejoice that they once more have their traditional holiday escape.
List of Potential Bowl Destinations and Opponents, Starting in 2020
- College Football Playoff/New Year’s Six Bowls vs. at-large Power 5 team
- Los Angeles Bowl vs. TBD (believed to be Pac-12)
- Famous Idaho Potato Bowl vs. MAC
- New Mexico Bowl vs. Conference USA
- NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl vs. MAC
- SoFi Hawaii Bowl vs. AAC or Conference USA
- Cheez-It Bowl vs. Big Ten or Big 12
- Unnamed ESPN bowl in Dallas-Forth Worth vs. TBD
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