BOISE, Idaho — No. 10 Boise State (12-1) unofficially clinched the first automatic berth to the expanded College Football Playoff with a 21-7 win over No. 20 UNLV (10-3) in Friday’s Mountain West championship.
While the CFP field won’t be officially announced until Sunday, the Broncos were the highest-ranked Group of 5 team entering the weekend. The Broncos will earn a top-four seed and accompanying first-round bye if they remain ahead of the winner of Saturday’s Big 12 championship between No. 15 Arizona State and No. 16 Iowa State.
It was Boise State’s second straight Mountain West championship and fifth since joining the conference in 2011. It last finished as the highest-ranked Group of 5 champ in 2014, when the Broncos went 12-2 and went on to beat Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl.
Boise State got another spectacular performance from star running back Ashton Jeanty on Friday. In his closing argument to Heisman voters, Jeanty ran for 209 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown run shortly before halftime that gave the Broncos a 21-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Jeanty passed USC’s Marcus Allen for fourth all-time on the FBS single-season rushing chart. He has run for 2,497 yards and 29 touchdowns through 13 games.
UNLV shut out Boise in the second half, but could not dig out of its first-half hole. One of its best chances came in the third quarter, when running back Kylin James burst for an 86-yard run. But Broncos safety Seyi Oladipo caught James from behind at the 5-yard-line, and UNLV failed to score on four plays.
Should it earn the first-round bye, Boise State will likely begin its CFP path in the Dec. 31 Fiesta Bowl, site of the program’s famous win over Oklahoma in 2007.
It’s been a remarkable 13 months for Boise State, which sat at 5-5 last season when AD Jeremiah Dickey fired head coach Andy Avalos on Nov. 13 and promoted defensive coordinator Spencer Danielson to be interim head coach. The Broncos won their next two games to reach the Mountain West Championship Game, which it won 44-20 at UNLV. Danielson was named the full-time head coach.
This season, the Broncos lost 37-34 at then seventh-ranked Oregon in Week 2 and then never stumbled again, reaching 12 wins for the first time since 2019. They won 29-24 at UNLV in their first matchup on Oct. 25.
UNLV this season won 10 games for the first time since 1984. The Rebels will likely finish their season in the Dec. 18 L.A. Bowl.
(Photo: Loren Orr / Getty Images)
