Boise State wins Mountain West championship as first expanded CFP class takes shape

Boise State is headed to the College Football Playoff.

The Broncos captured the Mountain West Conference title on Friday night and secured their spot in the sport’s first 12-team playoff with a 21-7 victory over UNLV in the Mountain West championship game.

Star running back Ashton Jeanty ran for 209 yards and a touchdown in his sixth 200-yard game this season.

With 2,497 rushing yards this season, Jeanty is now fourth on the FBS all-time single-season rushing list, behind only Barry Sanders (2,628 yards in 1988), Melvin Gordon (2,587 in 2014) and UCF’s Kevin Smith ( 2,567 in 2007). . Jeanty also finished the regular season with 29 rushing touchdowns.

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Running back Ashton Jeanty of the Boise State Broncos breaks through a hole in the line during the first half of the Mountain West Championship against the UNLV Rebels at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho. (Loren Orr/Getty Images)

Jeanty gave Boise State a game-changing play with a 75-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, his 12th carry of 50 or more yards this season.

Boise State will maintain or improve its 10th-place finish in the final College Football Playoff rankings, which will be released Sunday. This means the Broncos would almost certainly be no worse than the fourth-best conference defending champion and would have a bye in the first round.

Saturday’s Big 12 title game pits No. 15 Arizona State against No. 16 Iowa State.

The winner is in the playoffs, but the only realistic way for either team to earn a bye (and the additional $4 million that comes with it) would be to combine that win – preferably a convincing one – with a loss to Atlantic Coast to combine conference leaders, No. 8 SMU, playing No. 17 Clemson.

IOWA STATE, SMU ADVERTISEMENTS GO INTO WORDS AFTER LATEST CFP RANKINGS: “STAY OFF MY LAWN!”

Offensive lineman Mathyus Su’a of the UNLV Rebels and outside linebacker Jayden Virgin-Morgan, #5 of the Boise State Broncos, battle along the line of scrimmage during the first half of the Mountain West Championship at Albertsons Stadium on December 6, 2024. in Boise, Idaho. (Loren Orr/Getty Images)

The Big 12 commissioner and Iowa State’s athletic director are among those already doing wrong. When the title games are over and the brackets are announced, they won’t be the only ones.

Now the country will turn its attention to the other conference championship games as the first playoff picture of the expanded playoff era emerges.

Oregon, the top-ranked and only undefeated team in the country, is also there. But Saturday’s game against No. 3 Penn State is for the Big Ten title and a first-round bye.

If Penn State prevails, there’s an argument to be made that the Nittany Lions could end up on top.

In the SEC it’s No. 2 Texas vs. No. 5 Georgia. Unfortunately, Bevo won’t be in the building. The winner receives a bye and a championship. The loser should still be in, but if that loser is Georgia, the Dawgs could be headed to the first round.

Depending on how the groups pan out, these teams could face each other three times this season.

Unless something completely unexpected happens, it will take either an SMU loss, a change of heart by the selection committee, or both to knock Alabama out of the round. If the Tide make it, the Southeastern Conference will have four teams in the playoffs.

Since the selection committee ranked the Crimson Tide last week at No. 11, one spot ahead of Miami, it looks very likely that the Tide will stay ahead of the Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The way the rankings went last week meant Alabama was in and Miami was out.

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Ashton Jeanty, number 2 of the Boise State Broncos, warms up the crowd before the start of the Mountain West Championship between the Boise State Broncos and the UNLV Rebels at Albertsons Stadium on December 6, 2024 in Boise, Idaho. (Loren Orr/Getty Images)

A handful of teams aren’t playing this weekend and don’t have much to worry about. No. 4 Notre Dame should get a home game.

No. 9 Indiana, one of four Big Ten teams expected to make the playoffs, will likely be on the road.

In between lies No. 6 Ohio State and No. 7 Tennessee. In the round scheduled for last week, the 10-2 teams met in a first-round game played at the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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