UNLV cracks top 20 in rankings ahead of Boise State showdown

The UNLV football team broke into the top 20 of the national rankings after a blowout rivalry win over UNR on Saturday, setting up a powerhouse matchup at Boise State for the Mountain West title.

The Rebels (10-2) are a program-best No. 19 in The Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today coaches polls released Sunday. UNLV was No. 21 in both polls last week.

Following a 34-18 victory over Oregon State on Friday, conference leader Boise State (11-1) moved up to the No. 10 spot in both polls. Broncos running back and Heisman Trophy candidate Ashton Jeanty rushed for 226 yards in the win.

The Rebels’ College Football Playoff hopes will be on the line when the teams face off on Friday in Boise, Idaho.

The expanded 12-team CFP automatically places the five highest-ranked conference champions in the field. The four highest-ranked conference champions will earn the top four seeds and receive first-round byes, while the remaining eight teams will play each other in the first round on the home field of the higher-seeded team.

Thanks to Memphis beating Tulane on Thursday, Boise is the only team outside of the four major conferences ahead of UNLV in the national rankings, and that should remain true when the updated CFP rankings come out Tuesday.

As such, Friday’s game will likely decide who will earn an automatic bid to the playoff as one of the top five conference champions.

Boise State defeated UNLV in the Mountain West title game 44-20 last season and handed UNLV its second defeat of this year, 29-24 on Oct. 25. Both matchups took place at Allegiant Stadium.

The Rebels have spoken about their drive to win the conference championship and advance to the CFP all season. After losing to Boise, they spoke about just how badly they wanted another rematch.

“That’s been a goal of ours,” senior linebacker Jackson Woodard said Saturday. “It’s a standard of this program, and now we gotta go finish. It’s in our hands. We’re here. Let’s go do it.”

Second-year coach Barry Odom echoed the sentiment, speaking about his desire to keep the season going.

“I don’t want it to stop,” he said. “We’ve got obviously a lot of opportunities in front of us that we can go create, and it’ll come down again to our preparation and our habits because those always become game-day reality.”

Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.