Las Vegas Bowl focuses on 1 Mountain West, 2 Pac 12 contests
With two weeks remaining until Bowl Selection Sunday, the Las Vegas Bowl appears to be zeroing in on its opponents for the Dec. 16 game at Sam Boyd Stadium.
This weekend, the bowl will send representatives to Saturday’s Fresno State (7-3) at Wyoming (7-3) game for the Mountain West and two Pac-12 Conference contests, according to bowl executive director John Saccenti.
“The (Fresno State at Wyoming) game is huge in deciding the teams that play in the Mountain West championship game, which obviously has major Las Vegas Bowl implications,” Saccenti said Friday.
Boise State (8-2) and San Diego State (8-2) also are in the hunt for the Mountain West title game, scheduled for Dec. 2 at the site of the division champion with the highest College Football Playoff ranking.
On the Pac 12 side, bowl officials will be seeing both schools from Arizona and Oregon: Arizona State (5-5) at Oregon State (1-9) and Arizona (7-3) at Oregon (5-5).
“ASU, Oregon and Arizona all are in our window and thus we’re watching closely,” Saccenti said. “We’ve had all three play in our game before and all traveled well when they participated.
“The Pac 2 will come down to the last week, but these games this week will clear a few things up a bit more for us.”
The Las Vegas Bowl participants will be announced Dec. 3, when matchups for all bowl games and the college football playoffs are unveiled.
Bill Bradley is sports editor of the Review-Journal. He can be reached at 702-387-2909 or bbradley@reviewjournal.com. Follow @billbradleyLV on Twitter.