McMurphy: Nebraska will play Utah in Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 31
Viva Las Vegas. It appears Nebraska’s bowl game destination is set.
On3’s Brett McMurphy reported on Saturday that NU (7-5) will take on No. 15 Utah (10-2) on Dec. 31 in the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl.
The game is set for a 2:30 p.m. CT kickoff on ESPN at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
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After the College Football Playoff, the Las Vegas Bowl has the third pick in the Big Ten bowl lineup. The four Pac-12 teams in the Big Ten are still tied to their original bowl contracts, which expire after this season, sending USC to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio and Washington to the LA Bowl at SoFi Stadium.
Michigan is projected to play in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando and Iowa in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa. The Las Vegas Bowl picks after them, and it chose NU over Illinois and Minnesota.
Utes-Huskers have a chance to shatter attendance mark
Not only will Utah be a tough draw for the Huskers, but the game also has a good chance to shatter the Las Vegas Bowl attendance record.
NU always draws around 20,000 fans, just about any time they play on the West Coast. Meanwhile, Salt Lake City is only 420 miles from Las Vegas, making it a short 5 1/2-hour drive for their fan base.
The game has been played in Allegiant Stadium for two years now, with last year’s USC vs. Texas A&M match-up drawing 26,671 fans. The previous year, the game drew just 20,897 for Utah vs. Northwestern. Wisconsin vs. Arizona State in 2021 attracted the game’s largest crowd at Allegiant Stadium, 32,515.
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The all-time attendance record at the Las Vegas Bowl was 44,615 in 2006, when BYU defeated Oregon. The game has generally drawn strong crowds, particularly when BYU or Utah has played in it.
This year’s match-up has a pretty good chance of easily topping the attendance record of 44,615.
Utah vs. Nebraska history
Nebraska and Utah have met four times, with the Huskers holding a 4-0 record in the series.
Their last meeting was in 1992, when NU won 49-22 in Lincoln. They also met in 1968, 1980 and 1989. All four meetings were at Memorial Stadium.
The big question heading into this game is whether this will be long-time head coach Kyle Whittingham’s final game at Utah. He took over in 2005 after Urban Meyer left for Florida.
Whittingham has not made any official statements about his future. Over his 21 seasons as a head coach, Whittingham has a 177–88 record, including an 11-6 mark in bowl games.
Nebraska is officially expected to kick off bowl practices on Monday.
