2016 Cactus Bowl, Boise State vs. Baylor: Date, time, location and everything to know

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The Cactus Bowl is set for Dec. 27 in Phoenix, as part of the last few days of regular bowls before the New Year’s Six and College Football Playoff take over the world. It’ll be football in (a climate-controlled stadium in) the desert.

There’s been some fun here before. Last year’s game between West Virginia and Arizona State was terrific, and the game normally includes at least one ranked team. It’s played in the Diamondbacks’ baseball stadium, which isn’t a classic or totally ideal football venue. But it can work, and it has. This year’s tie-ins are the Big 12 and Pac-12.

The game has shuffled through sponsorships and names over time. It has, at various points, been the Copper Bowl (1989-1996), Insight Bowl (1997-2011), Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl (2012-2013) and then to its current Cactus Bowl. The current sponsor is Motel 6. It’s hard to keep track of all of this.

Date and time: Dec. 27, 10:15 p.m. ET

TV channel: ESPN

Location: Phoenix

Stadium: Chase Field

Last year’s score: West Virginia 43, Arizona State 42

Last year’s attendance: 39,321

Teams with the most all-time appearances: Kansas State and Minnesota (3)

Teams with the most all-time wins: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Cal, Arizona (2)

Boise State (10-2, 6-2 in Mountain West)

The Broncos, as usual, are a Power 5-caliber team that doesn’t play in a Power 5 conference. Bryan Harsin’s bunch followed a familiar formula to be good again in 2016: Play fun, productive offense, and pair it with a defense that’s solid enough to keep the team well ahead of just about everybody it plays. This was the Broncos’ fourth year in a row averaging in the high 30s in points per game, and the defense kept opponents hovering around 20 for a second year in a row.

The Boise offense is a blast. Sophomore quarterback Brett Rypien is brilliant, and Mountain West defenses didn’t have an answer for his gun-slinging in the Broncos’ spread system. Running back Jeremy McNichols is a touchdown vulture, to the point where you watch him and think he’s selfish for not leaving any touchdowns for his friends. Receivers Thomas Sperbeck and Cedrick Wilson are both efficient and dangerous. The line is sturdy and helped by Rypien getting the ball out of his hands quickly.

The defense is steady, too. Boise State doesn’t shut down the run completely but isn’t overwhelmed against it, and Harsin’s recruited enough athletes to put together a secondary that holds opponents to 6 yards per throw.

This isn’t a perfect team, but it’s a team without any obvious, serious weaknesses. That’s a testament to what Harsin’s maintained in his three years following Chris Petersen, and it makes the Broncos a dangerous draw.

Baylor (6-6, 3-6 in Big 12)

Baylor entered 2016 as one of the Big 12 favorites. It appeared as though that might come true through about the midpoint of the season, entering a Week 8 game against the Texas Longhorns undefeated and ranked No. 8 in the country. However, Texas was able to upset the Bears at home, 35-34, on a late Longhorns field goal.

After that loss, things started to go downhill for Baylor quickly. The Bears went on a three-game losing streak to TCU, Oklahoma and Kansas State. During the Oklahoma loss, starting quarterback Seth Russell, who came back from a season-ending neck injury in 2015, suffered a fractured ankle, which kept him out for the remainder of the season. Backup QB Zach Smith has done some good, some bad in Russell’s absence. The Bears then went on to lose to Kansas State and Texas Tech, and they lost a weird finale at West Virginia

The big question for Baylor heading into 2017 is who will take over as head coach to replace acting head coach Jim Grobe. After Baylor’s firing of Art Briles, along with a few of his assistants and some school personnel in the wake of sexual assault allegations that rocked the program, it’s obvious that Baylor is in need of a fresh start.