Fans react as Washington Huskies receive bid to LA Bowl to play Boise State

The Huskies will again take the field a week from today. In what will be one of the earliest games in bowl season, Washington will take on the Boise State Broncos in the LA Bowl on Dec. 13, as reported by On3's Brett McMurphy.

It will be just the fifth LA Bowl in history, as it's a relatively new bowl game, first played in 2021. Despite its young age, the game has seen a constant change to its naming rights and sponsors, as do most bowl games.

Originally, the LA Bowl was named the "Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl" for 2021 and 2022 before reaching a multi-year sponsorship with NFL star Rob Gronkowski. The sports-nutrition company Bucked Up will also sponsor the bowl for the first time, making the full name of this year's game the "Bucked Up LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk." Quite the title, to say the least.

After being considered a candidate for several other bowl games, Washington ends up in the bowl game that it was projected to be in the most, missing out on others like the Holiday Bowl and Sun Bowl. UW's bid to the LA Bowl came due to the program's previous ties to the Pac-12 Conference. This will be the last year those affiliations will factor into Pac-12-aligned bowl selections.

The Huskies will be taking on a familiar opponent in the LA Bowl with fellow Pacific Northwest program Boise State. Washington and Boise State have met six times previously, with the Huskies holding a 4-2 edge over the Broncos. Two of those contests were in bowl games, including in coach Chris Petersen's final game before retiring in 2019's Las Vegas Bowl.

Boise State won the Mountain West Conference Championship Game on Friday against UNLV to improve to 9-4 on the season. It's the Broncos' third-consecutive year being MWC champions, and they also went to the College Football Playoff a season ago after an 11-1 campaign.

So while the Broncos are certainly an opponent worthy of respect, it's not necessarily the bowl matchup Husky fans were hoping for. The LA Bowl doesn't have a high profile, especially as bowl games have become less meaningful with the expansion of the College Football Playoff. Only one ranked team has appeared in the LA Bowl throughout its history. Last year, the Pac-12 representative was 6-6 California, a far cry from Washington's 2025 season.

Combine that with the early game date, silly naming rights, and lack of a Power Four conference opponent, there's plenty to be disappointed about. The Huskies will miss out on two extra weeks of practices, which would've been invaluable for such a young roster.

Here are more fan reactions from the announcement: