BYU accepts invitation to Alamo Bowl, will play Big 12 foe Colorado

PROVO — After a 10-2 regular season, BYU will remember the Alamo during the Holidays.

The 17th-ranked Cougars, which was also rated No. 17 by the College Football Playoff, will take on No. 20 Colorado (No. 23 CFP) in a rare non-playoff bowl game that pairs two top-25 teams.

It will be BYU's 41st bowl appearance all-time, but the Cougars' first in San Antonio in the bowl game that will kick off Dec. 28 at 5:30 p.m. MT on ABC.

The Alamo Bowl selects teams annually from the Big 12 and Pac-12, but 2024 was a little different in how the selection process works out.

"The Valero Alamo Bowl is one of the premier bowl games in the country, and we are excited to be selected to come to San Antonio for this nationally ranked matchup," BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said in a statement. "Coach Deion Sanders has done a tremendous job with his program and has an extremely talented team with some of the best players in the entire country. We are looking forward to a great game and great bowl experience for our team and our fans."

Tasked with the first non-playoff selection from the Big 12, the bowl selection committee also had a pool of prospects from the current and most recent Pac-12 allotment for the final two years of the bowl game's contract.

So in addition to the league's current schools of Washington State and Oregon State (which was not bowl-eligible), the pool also consisted of recent Pac-12 departures such as Arizona State, Oregon, Colorado, USC and Washington.

Earlier in the week, the bowl even announced that its selection processes were down to four schools, all from the Big 12: Iowa State, BYU, Arizona State and Colorado.

With the Sun Devils' first conference championship and 11-win season since 1996, Arizona State was unavailable to fill the Pac-12's spot. That left Colorado against either the Cougars or Cyclones, and BYU finished one spot ahead of Iowa State in the final CFP rankings.

The Cougars (10-2) concluded their third double-digit win season in the past five years with a 30-18 victory over Houston and a defense that leads the country in interceptions with 18. Under Sitake, who agreed to a lengthy contract extension late Saturday night, BYU has played in six bowl games, winning four of them.

The Buffs are playing in their first bowl game under second-year head coach Deion Sanders, and their third straight Alamo Bowl after being picked for the destination in 2020 under coach Karl Dorrell and 2016 under Mike MacIntyre.

Led by Big 12 offensive player of the year Shedeur Sanders at quarterback and Heisman Trophy contender Travis Hunter at cornerback and wide receiver, Colorado finished the 2024 regular season with a 9-3 record and tied for first in the Big 12 with a 7-2 mark before falling short of the conference championship game on tiebreakers — like BYU.

Also similar to the Cougars, the Buffaloes had a promising season derailed by a late 37-21 loss to Kansas after a 6-1 start to conference play that included a 31-28 home loss to Kansas State.

Regardless of how the team sputtered late, Colorado is just two years removed from a 1-11 record that prompted the school's administration to sign Sanders from Jackson State, where Coach Prime, his quarterback son and two-way star Hunter who went on to anchor a Buffs defense that led the Big 12 in sacks, fumbles recovered and red-zone defense.

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