The playoffs begin Friday night for No. 10 Boise State and No. 19 UNLV with a winner-takes-all game for the Mountain West championship.
With the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams this year, the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion automatically gets a spot. The playoff committee’s latest rankings, released Tuesday, confirmed that the Mountain West champion will be in.
Boise State (11-1, 7-0, No. 10 CFP) could even earn a first-round bye if the Broncos beat UNLV (10-2, 6-1, No. 20 CFP) for the second time this season.
“When you play in a championship game, you want to play the best,” said Boise State coach Spencer Danielson. “UNLV … is one of the best teams around. They’ve got a bunch of talent. They play well together. They’re very motivated and driven to win this game, just like us.”
If the title game is anything like the teams’ previous matchup this season — a 29-24 Boise State win — it will be a hard-fought battle. It will likely be much closer than last year’s title game when the Broncos easily won 44-20 over the Rebels.
BetMGM Sportsbook has Boise State as 4-point favorites.
“We’re thankful to have an opportunity for the second year in a row to be playing in the Mountain West championship game,” said UNLV coach Barry Odom.
“The guys that were here last year can use those experiences to maybe put us in a better situation this year on how we prepare, how we play and the understanding that we’ve been in a lot of big games this year already. We know a lot about our opponent, and on the other side, they know a lot about us.”
Everyone knows about Boise State’s star running back and Heisman Trophy hopeful, Ashton Jeanty.
The powerful back leads the nation in rushing with 2,288 yards this season, just 340 yards away from Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record. But in the teams’ first matchup this year, UNLV’s defense held Jeanty to 128 yards on 33 carries, his lowest yards-per-carry average of 3.9.
“(Jeanty) is a tremendous player,” Odom said. “I think he is the best player in college football. He’s got all the great traits you want to see in a running back — unless you’re trying to tackle him. We know it’s going to take all 11 guys. We need to try to eliminate as many one-on-one tackles with him as we can in that situation.”
