BYU football: Cougars to play in Las Vegas Bowl

It's official: for the fourth consecutive season, BYU will play in the Las Vegas Bowl.

The opponent is Arizona, which will be making its first postseason appearance since 1998, when it won the Holiday Bowl. The Cougars (10-2) and Wildcats (7-5) square off on Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. (MT) in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN.

The Wildcats defeated in-state rival Arizona State Saturday to earn a spot in the Las Vegas Bowl. They finished fifth in the Pac-10 standings.

The Cougars, who placed third in the Mountain West Conference, will be looking for their third straight Las Vegas Bowl victory, having defeated Oregon (38-8) and UCLA (17-16) the previous two seasons.

BYU and Arizona played in 2006 and 2007, with the two teams splitting their two-game series. The Wildcats won in the 2006 season-opener in Tucson, 16-13, while the Cougars emerged victorious in the 2007 season-opener, 20-7.

This will be the first time the two schools have met in a bowl game. But this will be their 22nd meeting in a series that dates back to 1936. Arizona leads the all-time series, 11-9-1.

"We look forward to showcasing two the the highest-scoring offenses in college football going against each other in front of a sold-out crowd on Dec. 20," said Las Vegas Bowl executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy. "BYU has proved to not only be extremely popular in our community but also a top-notch competitor in our game under coach Bronco Mendenhall. On the other side, we congratulate head coach Mike Stoops and his Wildcats team for winning their way into the bowl. Our executive committee is ecstatic to be hosting Arizona in the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl for the first time."

Said BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe in a statement: "The Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl has been very good to BYU. We love coming to Las Vegas and playing in one of the best bowl games around. We are excited about our football team and the great things it has accomplished over the past four seasons under coach Mendenhall and his staff. The program has achieved three straight 10-win regular seasons and received its fourth straight bowl invitation. The coaching staff and the players deserve a tremendous amount of credit for what they have accomplished."

"We appreciate the invitation to play in the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl," said Mendenhall. "We have enjoyed our previous experiences in Las Vegas and look forward to competing in our fourth straight bowl game. Our focus will be on playing to our potential and improving our football program."