Also, head over here for the fully updated bowl season calendar as it fills in, from the New Orleans Bowl through the Rose Bowl.
2016 Las Vegas Bowl, Houston vs. San Diego State: Date, location, and everything to know
The game has been around since 1992, and this year, has one of its best matchups ever.
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The Las Vegas Bowl has flipped through a bunch of names since becoming a part of college football’s postseason in 1992. But the game’s now been around for a while, and it’ll be played for a 25th time this month. That’s not such a bad run of longevity.
Last year’s game featured a couple of relatively local schools in BYU and Utah. The Utes are your back-to-back winners here, having bested the Cougars last year and Colorado State the year before that. They’ve won two other times, too, making them the greatest success in the history of this bowl game.
Nowadays, the game’s known by the city it’s played in, as it’s mostly been throughout its existence. (It did a two-year stint as the Maaco Bowl at the start of this decade.) It’s gotten pretty good turnout before, with a few years of crowds larger than 40,000 on hand to watch. This year’s designated tie-ins were from the Pac-12 and Mountain West.
Here’s what you’ve got to know about this year’s Las Vegas Bowl and also some Las Vegas Bowl history:
Date and time: Dec. 17, 3:30 p.m. ET
TV channel: ESPN
Location: Las Vegas
Stadium: Sam Boyd Stadium
Last year’s score: Utah 35, BYU 28.
Last year’s attendance: 42,213
Teams with the most all-time appearances: BYU, 6
Teams with the most all-time wins: Utah, 4
Houston (9-3, 5-3 in American Athletic)
Houston entered 2016 as one of the hottest non-Power 5 teams in the country, coming off a Peach Bowl victory over Florida State to wrap up 2015 with a 13-win season.
The spotlight was on the Cougars as early as opening weekend, with a game against No. 3 Oklahoma on the docket. Houston did more than just show up -- it upset Oklahoma, 33-23, to put Houston, and then-head coach Tom Herman, on everybody’s radar. The shine faded a bit with losses to Navy and SMU in October, but the Coogs rallied to upset No. 5 Louisville (and sack quarterback Lamar Jackson 11 times in the process) on a Week 12 Thursday night game to crank up the H-Town hype train yet again. The defense, keyed by freshman tackle Ed Oliver, can do some really impressive things.
Of course, the big storyline about Houston right now has to do with coaching. Herman left for Texas a day after the regular season ended with a loss at Memphis, and the team still hasn’t named a replacement. This has become a pretty good job over the years, though, and the Cougars should get plenty of interest from qualified candidates.
San Diego State (10-3, 6-2 in Mountain West)
Meet your Mountain West champions for the second year in a row.
The Aztecs have one of the most prolific runners in college football history in senior Donnel Pumphrey. He’s an explosive carrier and one of the sport’s greatest touchdown vultures, and he means pretty much everything for an SDSU offense that isn’t especially strong when it decides to throw the ball. Sophomore quarterback Christian Chapman has some talent and throws way more touchdowns than interceptions, but he’s not that efficient.
Head coach Rocky Long is in his sixth year in San Diego, and the Aztecs have become one of the most consistent Group of 5 teams over the last two years. They followed up an 11-3 2015 with a good run this year, and the presence of Pumphrey makes the offense just good enough to help an excellent defense win a bunch of games.
SDSU doesn’t play a rigorous schedule. It missed Boise State this year, so the extent of its Mountain West run was just beating a bunch of lesser teams than the Broncos. But the defense is legitimate, and the Aztecs shouldn’t be an easy out.
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