Utah's bowl game destination and matchup revealed following final College Football Playoff rankings

Utes learned of their postseason matchup after the 12-team bracket was revealed on ESPN

Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham will be involved in his 18th bowl game following a 10-2 regular season. | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

What many expected would be Utah football's postseason path following the conclusion of the regular season came to fruition on Sunday.

The Utes (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) will be headed to Sin City for the Las Vegas Bowl at Allegiant Stadium on New Year's Eve to take on Nebraska (7-5, 4-5).

It'll be Utah's second trip to Allegiant Stadium for a postseason game in a three-year span. The Utes lost to Northwestern, 14-7, in the 2023 Las Vegas Bowl.

This time around, though, the Las Vegas Bowl will take place on Dec. 31 — not Dec. 23 — and feature a matchup between the Big 12's No. 3 team against the Big Ten's No. 10 squad in a 1:30 p.m. MT. kickoff.

On3's Brett McMurphy reported the Utes would meet the Cornhuskers (7-5, 4-5 Big 12) at Allegiant Stadium on New Year's Eve prior to Saturday's Big 12 championship game. The two teams haven't played each other since September 1992.

Seven other Big 12 teams will be involved in the 2025-26 college football postseason, including the conference champion, Texas Tech, which is the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff. The Red Raiders will play the winner of a first round matchup between No. 5 Oregon and No. 12 James Madison in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1.

Two bowl-eligible teams from the Big 12 that had recent head coaching changes — Kansas State (6-6, 5-4 Big 12) and Iowa State (8-4, 5-4 Big 12) — decided to bow out of the postseason, resulting in each getting a $500,000 fine from the Big 12. That came after the the Wildcats announced Collin Klein will replace Chris Klieman as the program's head coach. The Cyclones hired former Washington State coach Jimmy Rogers to replace Matt Campbell, who was recently named the next head coach of Notre Dame.

Time will tell whether the Big Ten's leading rusher plays in the Las Vegas Bowl; Nebraska running back Emmet Johnson declared for the 2026 NFL Draft and didn't specify whether he'd play in Cornhuskers' postseason game.

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound junior from Minnesota was named the Big Ten Running Back of the Year after totaling 1,451 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, plus 46 catches for 370 yards and three more touchdowns. His 1,821 scrimmage yards ranked No. 2 in the country.

Johnson's availability will be worth monitoring, considering Utah struggled defending the run down the stretch of the regular season. The Utes gave up 275.3 rushing yards per game and yielded 7.1 yards per carry in November, including 472 yards on the ground to Kansas State on Nov. 22.

No Utah players had announced intentions of going pro prior to Sunday, indicating the Utes will be at full strength will be for what will be their 18th bowl game under head coach Kyle Whittingham. The 66-year-old is 11-6 in bowl games and will have an opportunity to tie Clemson's Dabo Swinney for the most bowl game victories by an active head coach (12).

The Utes will seek their first bowl game win since beating West Virginia, 30-14, in the 2017 Heart of Dallas Bowl and snap their five-game losing streak in bowls games. Utah, which is 17-9 all-time in bowl games, also can clinch its first 11-win season since 2019 with a victory over Nebraska.

BOWL SEASON IS HERE 🔔 🏈 @HuskerFootball will face @Utah_Football in the @LasVegasBowl #BowlSeason #CFB #CollegeFootball pic.twitter.com/V2G6FdXz4n

— Coca-Cola Bowl Season (@BowlSeason) December 7, 2025