The 2023 Las Vegas Bowl was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

played on December 23, 2023, at

Allegiant Stadium Allegiant Stadium is a domed stadium located in Paradise, Nevada. It is the home stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL), the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Rebels college football team, the Las Ve ...

Paradise, Nevada Paradise is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, adjacent to the city of Las Vegas. It was formed on December 8, 1950. Its population was 191,238 at the 2020 census, making it the fif ...

, southwest of adjacent

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. The 31st annual

Las Vegas Bowl The Las Vegas Bowl is an NCAA Division I FBS annual post-season college football bowl game held in the Las Vegas area. First played in 1992, the bowl was originally held at the 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nevada before moving to the ...

featured the

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the Runnin' ...

from the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

and the

Northwestern Wildcats The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern ...

from the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. The game began at approximately 4:30 p.m. PST and was aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. The Las Vegas Bowl was one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by SRS Distribution, a roofing materials and building supplies company, and was officially known as the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl.

Teams

Consistent with conference tie-ins, the game featured the

from the

and the

from the

. This was the fourth meeting between Northwestern and Utah. Entering the game, the Wildcats held a 2–1 series lead, including a win over the Utes in the

2018 Holiday Bowl The 2018 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 31, 2018. It was the 41st edition of the Holiday Bowl, and one of the 2018–19 bowl games concluding the 2018 FBS football season. This was the second season in which ...

Northwestern Wildcats

The Wildcats entered the game with a 7–5 record (5–4 in the Big Ten), tied for second place in their conference's West Division. This was the first Las Vegas Bowl appearance for Northwestern.

Utah Utes

The Utes entered the game with an 8–4 record (5–4 in the Pac-12), tied for fourth place in their conference. This was Utah's sixth Las Vegas bowl, tying in-state rival

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

for the most appearances in the game. Entering the game, the Utes held a 4–1 record in the Las Vegas Bowl, tied with

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...

for most Las Vegas Bowls wins. This was Utah's final game as a member of the Pac-12, as the Utes committed to join the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

for the 2024 season.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Utah Utes bowl game navbox

Las Vegas Bowl

Northwestern Wildcats football bowl games Utah Utes football bowl games