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BYU Football: The Cougars will play in one of these nine bowls

By Shaun Gordon

SAN DIEGO, CA - DECEMBER 21: Jamaal Williams #21 of the Brigham Young Cougars carries the offensive player of the year award offstage after defeating the Wyoming Cowboys 24-21 in the Poinsettia Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium December 21, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA - DECEMBER 21: Jamaal Williams #21 of the Brigham Young Cougars carries the offensive player of the year award offstage after defeating the Wyoming Cowboys 24-21 in the Poinsettia Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium December 21, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /
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DETROIT, MI – DECEMBER 26: Austin Davis #50 and Mike Ramsay #99 of the Duke Blue Devils celebrate with the trophy after defeating the Northern Illinois Huskies 36-14 in the Quick Lane Bowl at Ford Field on December 26, 2017 in Detroit Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI – DECEMBER 26: Austin Davis #50 and Mike Ramsay #99 of the Duke Blue Devils celebrate with the trophy after defeating the Northern Illinois Huskies 36-14 in the Quick Lane Bowl at Ford Field on December 26, 2017 in Detroit Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Big Ten Tie-Ins

A big chunk of BYU’s bowl opportunities will come thanks to the Big Ten. If you count their one guaranteed slot in a New Year’s Six bowl, the conference has a total of nine bowl tie-ins.

But the Big Ten will almost certainly get two, and may even get three teams into an NY6 bowl. If that happen’s they’ll have either 10 or 11 bowl slots to fill.

However, the conference is only guaranteed to have eight bowl eligible teams. If Maryland can upset No. 12 Penn State, they’ll be the ninth.

But that’s it. Which means that the conference could have as many as three bowl slots that they can’t fill. Of course they’ll fill the most prestigious ones first, which means that the following bowls may be open to bringing in BYU:

Redbox Bowl – San Francisco, CA

December 31, 1:00pm MT, $3.6 Million Payout

In terms of quality, this could be BYU’s best landing spot. It’s a high-paying bowl played on New Year’s Eve featuring teams from the Big Ten and PAC-12.

It’s still one of the lower-tier bowls in the Big Ten’s arsenal, though, so it might be available, and bowl organizers would be drawn to the crowds of Cougar fans that would come watch this one.

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First Responder Bowl – Dallas, TX

December 26, 11:30am MT, $1.67 Million Payout

This is another one that could be a strong landing spot for BYU. It’s another high-paying bowl played in a college football landmark (The Cotton Bowl) against a top Conference USA team.

Oddly enough, there’s a slight chance that C-USA won’t fill their available slot either, so this bowl may be looking for two at-large teams.

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Quick Lane Bowl – Detroit, MI

December 26, 3:15pm MT, $750,000 Payout

This is the least prestigious of the Big Ten’s tie-ins, and the most likely to have an open spot. For BYU, it would be a chance to play on an NFL field again (Ford Field) against an ACC opponent.

And just like with the First Responder Bowl, there’s a slight chance the ACC won’t fill all their slots either, setting up a potential clash of at-large teams.

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