It seemed like a nice little consolation prize, albeit unwanted, for No. 12 BYU and No. 11 Notre Dame after both were snubbed by the College Football Playoff selection committee when the final 12-team bracket for the CFP was announced Sunday morning.
The 10-2 Irish against the 11-2 Cougars in warm and sunny Orlando, Florida, two days after Christmas, in one of the better bowls outside the CFP, the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
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For BYU, still stinging from Saturday’s 34-7 loss to No. 4 Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game, it was probably the matchup it would have most wanted outside a CFP berth, and maybe even inside a CFP berth.
BYU fans still feel like Notre Dame owes the Cougars a game after BYU went to South Bend in 2012 and 2013 and never got the contracted return game, instead settling for a matchup in Las Vegas in the Irish’s annual Shamrock Series.
But the Irish are taking their ball and staying home.
After several outlets reported that a BYU-Notre Dame clash in Florida was in the works, the Irish announced they were withdrawing “as a team” from bowl consideration.
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Big 12 teams Iowa State and Kansas State also opted out of bowl games this weekend, drawing $500,000 fines from the conference.
So the institution that gave us “Rudy” — a movie about a walk-on that refused to quit — is indeed quitting after the perceived snub.
That’s not the case for BYU, which will take a “positive approach” to being left out of the Big Dance, coach Kalani Sitake said Sunday afternoon via Zoom.
The Cougars will face off against the ACC’s Georgia Tech, which went 9-3 in the regular season and finished in a five-way tie for second place in that league.
The Yellow Jackets missed going to the conference championship game on tiebreaker rules.
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Kickoff is Saturday, Dec. 27, at Camping World Stadium in downtown Orlando at 1:30 p.m. MST. Georgia Tech, which fell 16-9 to No. 3 Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in its last game, on Nov. 28, is No. 22 in the CFP rankings.
“This is a huge, huge game for us,” said Georgia Tech coach Brent Key, whose squad is trying to get to double-digit wins for the first time since 2014.
“We have one mission, and that is to go to Orlando to win a football game. Bottom line.”
BYU is 3-1 all-time against Georgia Tech, losing to the Jackets 28-19 in Atlanta in 2002 and beating the Jackets 24-13 in Provo in 2003, 41-17 in Atlanta in 2012 and 38-20 in Provo in 2013.
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It will be the Cougars’ 42nd bowl game appearance.
“We are really, really excited to play BYU. What a great team, and a great coach,” Key said. “He’s done unbelievable job. I’ve only had the pleasure of meeting him once or twice, but I just can’t say enough great things about him and that program. … They’ve had an outstanding (year).
“Two really good teams, but also two teams that I think go about doing things the right way and have high values, high character. This should be a really good football game.”
Sitake on facing the another ‘Tech’ instead of Notre Dame
If Sitake and the Cougars are disappointed at not getting a shot at the Irish, the coach didn’t show it during his portion of the Zoom teleconference Sunday.
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“I don’t know all the other specifics behind it, the details,” Sitake said. “We’re just honored to play Georgia Tech.”
The coach noted that his wife, Timberly, is a “Polk County Girl” from the Orlando area and his in-laws still live there. Just like last year when they spent Christmas in San Antonio before the Alamo Bowl, the Cougars will arrive “as soon as they will let us” and will be happy to spend the holidays together, Sitake said.
“Part of the bowl prep is to develop our young guys and develop our depth, so we’re going to utilize all the extra practices to get our team ready, and then just make sure that we’re ready to go, because Georgia Tech’s not an easy team to play,” Sitake said.
“They do a lot of things that will be difficult for us (to play against), and I know they’re going to be at their best, and we have to be at ours, too.”
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How is freshman QB Bear Bachmeier doing?
Sitake said the Cougars “didn’t play as well as we wanted to” against Texas Tech, but he still called the whole ordeal “a cool experience” for everyone involved in the program.
Of course, just as BYU was taking a 7-0 lead, freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier sustained a left ankle injury that limited what he could do the rest of the way.
Sitake seemed to indicate that Bachmeier will be good to go in three weeks.
“Yeah, he’s a fast healer. He’ll be fine,” Sitake said.
Why BYU dropped in CFP rankings and Alabama didn’t
Earlier Sunday, BYU dropped from No. 11 to No. 12 in the CFP rankings, while another team that was manhandled in its conference championship game, Alabama, did not drop at all.
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CFP chair Hunter Yurachek, who also serves as the athletic director at another SEC school, Arkansas, gave the following explanation when he was asked about that inconsistency on Sunday.
“The biggest difference in those two situations was the fact that Alabama had already beaten Georgia earlier in the year. BYU had that same opportunity at Texas Tech earlier in the year, and BYU did not perform and look great in either one of those games versus Texas Tech, the one that was played about four weeks ago and then of course yesterday’s game,” Yurachek said in a Q&A with reporters after the selection show.
“That was the biggest difference, is Alabama had that big win at Georgia, which is arguably the best win of any team this season.”
After the Cougars’ big loss at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, at least one BYU player publicly questioned why it played in a championship game if it meant dropping in the rankings.
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BYU’s drop allowed Miami to move past BYU and into the CFP.
“It makes you mad. To have the conference championship (result) as the reason why we can’t get in is not right,” said receiver Parker Kingston.
“I mean, what is the point of even getting to the conference championship if it is going to hurt your odds of getting into the playoff?”
Cougars on the air
Pop-Tarts Bowl
No. 12 BYU (11-2) vs. No. 22 Georgia Tech (9-3)
• Saturday, Dec. 27, 1:30 p.m. MST
• At Camping World Stadium
• Orlando, Florida
• TV: ABC
• Radio: 102.7 FM/1160 AM
