Boise State wins Mountain West championship as first expanded CFP bracket begins to take shape

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Boise State is headed to the College Football Playoff. 

The Broncos captured the Mountain West Conference title Friday night and earned 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-plus-yard game this season.

With 2,497 rushing yards for the 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 finishes the regular season with 29 rushing touchdowns.

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Running back Ashton Jeanty of the Boise State Broncos busts through a whole in the line during the first half of the Mountain West Championship against the UNLV Rebels at Albertsons Stadium on December 6, 2024, in Boise, Idaho. (Loren Orr/Getty Images)

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

Boise State will hang on to or improve on its No. 10 ranking in the final College Football Playoff rankings that come out Sunday. That would almost certainly make the Broncos no worse than the fourth-best conference titlist and in line for a first-round bye.

The Big 12 title game on Saturday pits No. 15 Arizona State against No. 16 Iowa State.

The winner is in the playoff, but the only realistic route left for either team to earn a bye (and the extra $4 million that comes with it) would be to combine that win — preferably a convincing one — with a loss by the Atlantic Coast Conference leader, No. 8 SMU, which plays No. 17 Clemson.

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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 crying foul. By the time the title games are over, and the brackets are revealed, 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 will shake out. 

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

If Penn State prevails, then there’s an argument that the Nittany Lions could end up with that top seed.

In the SEC, it’s No. 2 Texas vs. No. 5 Georgia. Sadly, Bevo will not be in the building. The winner gets a bye and a championship. The loser should still be in, but if that loser is Georgia, the Dawgs could be on the road for the first round.

Depending on how the brackets shape up, these teams could face each other three times this season.

Barring something completely unexpected, it will take either a loss by SMU, a change of heart from the selection committee or both to knock Alabama out of the bracket. If the Tide make it, the Southeastern Conference will have four teams in the playoff.

Since the selection committee placed the Crimson Tide at No. 11 last week, one spot ahead of Miami, it looks very much like the Tide will stay ahead of the Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The way last week’s ranking shook out, that meant Alabama was in and Miami was out.

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Ashton Jeanty, #2 of the Boise State Broncos, fires up the crowd prior to 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 projected to make the playoff, will probably be on the road.

In between, there is the matter of No. 6 Ohio State and No. 7 Tennessee. Last week’s projected bracket paired the 10-2 teams in a first-round game to be played at the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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