What will happen with the Pac-12’s bowl tie-ins? Why it could impact BYU and Utah in their new home

The Pac-12 isn’t just losing member institutions.

With just four schools currently scheduled to be a part of the league next year, the league’s bowl tie-ins reportedly are likely to change.

On Monday, Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported that five bowls with Pac-12 tie-ins are exploring their options.

Each of the five bowls — Alamo, Las Vegas, Holiday, Sun and Los Angeles — have tie-ins with the beleaguered Pac-12 for the next three seasons, per McMurphy, but because the Pac-12 is set to lose two-thirds of its members in 2024, these bowls are able to revisit these tie-ins.

“No matter what schools the Pac-12 adds, there will be major changes in the league’s make-up, so that allows us to align with a different conference,” a bowl source told McMurphy.

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That could have an impact on BYU, Utah and the Big 12 — the Cougars joined the Big 12 for the upcoming season, while the Utes are set to leave the Pac-12 next year for the Big 12.

While it’s unclear whether the Pac-12 will expand and try to stick together or its four remaining members will go their separate ways, the report indicates that changes are likely coming to the postseason beyond the College Football Playoff, which is expanding to 12 teams in 2024.

McMurphy projected potential tie-ins for each of the five bowls, and a new 16-team Big 12 came up several times in those projections.

Could the Big 12 get a tie-in with the Las Vegas Bowl?

McMurphy projected that the Big 12 will take over the Pac-12’s bowl tie-in with the Las Vegas Bowl — currently, the bowl has tie-ins with the Pac-12 and an SEC and Big Ten rotation.

“With the Big 12 adding five teams in the Mountain time zone, the Big 12 makes the most sense to replace the Pac-12 — especially since the Las Vegas Bowl is solid on the other side with the SEC in 2024 and the Big Ten in 2025,” McMurphy wrote.

The Las Vegas Bowl is now played at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders. That’s also where the Pac-12 championship game has been played the past two years and will host the game again this season, perhaps for the final time.

Both BYU and Utah have history playing in the Las Vegas Bowl — the pair actually faced each other in the 2015 version of the postseason game, with the Utes winning 35-28.

The Cougars played in five straight Las Vegas Bowl matchups during the mid-to-late 2000s, while Utah played in back-to-back Vegas Bowls during its time in the Pac-12, as well as during its final season in the Mountain West Conference.

“We haven’t had any conversations yet because we wanted to see how things shook out,” Las Vegas executive director John Saccenti said, according to McMurphy. “We will be meeting as a group this week to discuss all options and talk to our stakeholders and our conference partners.”

Could the Big 12 take over other Pac-12 bowl tie-ins?

McMurphy also projected the Big 12 or Big Ten could fill a bowl slot in either the Holiday Bowl or the Sun Bowl. In both cases, the ACC fills the other bowl tie-in.

BYU played in the first seven Holiday Bowls — which played its inaugural game in 1978 — but haven’t been a part of the San Diego-based game in 30 years.

Some of the Cougars’ most famous bowl moments happened in the Holiday Bowl, from BYU’s win over Michigan in the 1984 game that clinched the Cougars’ lone national championship to Jim McMahon completing a Hail Mary on the final play to win the 1980 Holiday Bowl.

Utah has played in both the Holiday and Sun bowls during its time in the Pac-12 — beating Georgia Tech in the 2011 Sun Bowl and losing to Northwestern in the 2018 Holiday Bowl.

Sun Bowl executive director Bernie Olivas told KTSM TV that the Big Ten and Big 12 would be preferential conferences to fill a potentially open Pac-12 slot with the bowl.

“If it comes to that, obviously, the Big 12 makes a lot of sense because geographically, a lot of the schools are closer to El Paso than some of the other ones, but the Big Ten has a great menu of schools as well,” Olivas said.

“I think either one would be fantastic. We’ve been associated with both conferences in the past and they were both great conferences to work with. They’ve both sent us some fabulous schools to play in the Sun Bowl.”

One of the Pac-12 tie-ins the Big 12 won’t be taking over is with the Alamo Bowl, since the Big 12 is already the other bowl tie-in. McMurphy projects, though, that either the SEC or Big Ten could fill the Pac-12’s position.

As for the fifth Pac-12 bowl tie-in in question, the Los Angeles Bowl, McMurphy said it’s impossible to project.

That’s because it currently pits a Pac-12 team against the Mountain West Conference champion, and there are reports that the Pac-12 and MWC could merge.

That could impact Utah’s other FBS team — Utah State beat Oregon State in the inaugural LA Bowl in 2021 after the Aggies won their first MWC championship.

What about the Rose Bowl?

The Pac-12’s longtime association with the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl won’t be affected by the Pac-12’s defections. That’s because last year was the final traditional Pac-12 vs. Big Ten matchup, as the Deseret News previously reported.

The Rose Bowl will host a CFP semifinal this season, and after the 2024 and 2025 seasons, the Rose Bowl agreed to host a playoff quarterfinal matchup in the new 12-team format.

Once a new CFP contract begins with the 2026 season, it’s expected that the New Year’s Six bowls, including the Rose Bowl, will host either a quarterfinal or semifinal game.

Utah played in the past two Rose Bowls, including last year’s matchup between the Utes and Penn State.

Will the number of Big 12 bowl tie-ins increase with the league expanding?

McMurphy noted that conferences are limited on the number of bowl tie-ins they can hold, so any additions from those Pac-12 tie-ins could impact other Big 12 bowl tie-ins they currently have.

In 2023, the Big 12’s bowl tie-ins are as follows:

• College Football Playoff/New Year’s Six.

• Alamo Bowl.

• Pop-Tarts Bowl.

• Texas Bowl.

• Liberty Bowl.

• Guaranteed Rate Bowl.

• Armed Forces Bowl/First Responder Bowl (this is a flex pick between the two bowls).

• Independence Bowl.

Conference expansion, though, could have an impact on the number of bowl tie-ins a conference can hold in the future.

Next year, both the SEC and Big 12 will have 16 teams, while the Big Ten is increasing to 18 teams.

“The NCAA currently limits the number of bowl tie-ins per conference based on the historical average number of bowl teams provided each year,” McMurphy explained.

“That, of course, was based on past conference membership before Oklahoma and Texas left for the SEC, all the defections from the Pac-12 and other recent moves in the AAC, Sun Belt and Conference USA.

“The NCAA Football Oversight Committee will address whether to increase those limits or leave it up to each conference at a future time, a source said.”