Sports

BYU QB Calls Bowl Game Vs. Buffs ‘The People’s Big 12 Championship’ After Failure To Make Title Bout

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The BYU football team runs onto the field

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BYU will face off against Big 12 rival Colorado in the Valero Alamo Bowl on Saturday. Cougars QB Jake Retzlaff referred to the postseason matchup as “The People’s Big 12 Championship Game.”

Each team exceeded expectation on the field this past season. Still, both missed out on the conference title game. Retzlaff suggested that this is the game the fans truly wanted to see. He might have a point.

Arizona State and Iowa State squared off in the Big 12 title in December, with the Sun Devils beating the Cyclones 45-19. The contest was held in AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. Only about 55,000 people showed up to watch.

For reference, the venue seats 80K, with a capacity nearing 105K with standing room ticketing included. The stadium was only about half full, even with a playoff spot on the line!

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark commented on the crowd size after the fact, suggesting that the College Football Playoff forced fans to make tough decisions on which games to attend. Still, it wasn’t the best look for the league’s biggest matchup.

On the flip side, Colorado was one of the Top 10 programs in attendance rate with an average crowd of 52,514 in 2024. That’s 104.64% of the Folsom Field capacity.

BYU, meanwhile, boasts the largest stadium in the Big 12, which it filled on numerous occasions during the Cougars’ 10-2 campaign. The Colorado-BYU matchup likely would’ve drawn a larger crowd in Dallas than the Sun Devils and Cyclones.

That doesn’t change the fact that neither team was good enough to actually make the Big 12 Championship Game. They’ll now play for a consolation prize in the Alamo Bowl while soon watching Arizona State compete in the College Football Playoff.