BYU football shocked many with a fantastic season after being picked to finish No. 13 in the Big 12 preseason media poll.
The Cougars officially ended their regular season play 10-2. They reached as high as No. 6 in the College Football Playoffs. They finished No. 17 on the year and third in the Big 12 standings, finishing behind Arizona State and Iowa State.
BYU has been selected to play fellow Big 12 team Colorado in the Alamo Bowl. The game will be played on Dec. 28 in San Antonio, Texas, on ABC, and will be the Cougars' final game of the year.
BYU was led in passing by quarterback Jake Retzlaff with 2,769 yards; receiving by Chase Roberts with 843 yards and rushing by running back LJ Martin with 630 yards.
Colorado was the fourth team in the Big 12 and like BYU has also been a top-25 team most of the year reaching as high as No. 16 in the country.
The Buffaloes are led by quarterback Shadeur Sanders, who has thrown for 3,926 yards and Heisman hopeful Travis Hunter, who has 1,152 yards receiving as well as four interceptions as he plays both ways as a cornerback and a receiver.
This will be the first matchup of the year between the two teams despite being in the same conference. The teams had many of their games in common as they each won against Utah, UCF, Baylor, Arizona and Oklahoma State. Kansas beat both teams in back-to-back weeks and BYU notched a blowout win against Kansas State as opposed to Colorado’s close loss to the Wildcats.
Both teams had playoff hopes into late November but with two weeks left in the season, both teams suffered losses that were detrimental to their chances. Despite both teams winning their games the last week of the season, neither was able to crack into the Big 12 championship.
BYU’s last bowl game was a win against SMU at the New Mexico Bowl in 2022. Colorado has not been to a bowl game since 2020 when they lost to Texas in the Alamo Bowl.
The Cougars will look to finish their surprising and successful season on a positive note in San Antonio.