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SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah has accepted an invitation to play in the Las Vegas Bowl against Colorado State on Dec. 20.
"After an exciting regular season, our team is looking forward to playing in a bowl game. Las Vegas is a great destination, not only for our team, but for our fans," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said in a statement. "We're facing a quality opponent in Colorado State and are looking forward to a good game."
Utah was invited to the Las Vegas Bowl as a result of Oregon being selected to play in the College Football Playoffs as the No. 2 team in the country against No. 3 Florida State and Arizona being selected to play in the Fiesta Bowl against Boise State, which is one of the so-called "New Year's Six" bowl games.
Utah was jumped by Stanford based off conference rankings to play in the Foster Farms Bowl. As a result, the Sun Bowl was obligated to take Arizona State to play Duke.
The Utes, who finished the regular season with an 8-4 record, will play in its second bowl game since joining the Pac-12, but first in three years. The bowl invitation makes it the 11th bowl game Utah has qualified for in the last 14 years, with an overall record of 2-1 in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Since taking over as head coach for the Utes, Kyle Whittingham has lost only one game — Boise State, 2010 — in eight bowl appearances.
Utah is 55-21-1 all time against Colorado State, with Utah beating the Rams 59-6 in 2010. As Mountain West Conference opponents, Utah was 7-5 against Colorado State. Colorado State finished the season with a 10-2 record and was ranked as high as 21 in the Associated Press Top 25 late in the season before dropping out.
Utah will play Colorado State in Las Vegas at Sam Boyd Stadium at 1:30 p.m. MST on ABC.
