Could college football bowl games, the icon of the sport’s postseason and a staple of the December athletics calendar, be moved to the start of the season? On its face, the notion is radical, even absurd. But it shouldn’t be dissmessed out of hand as it’s a possibility with growing support. The idea of playing bowl games in August, is one that dates back several years. ESPN put out an article in 2022 exploring the idea and featured quotes from key personnel in the collegiate sports landscape. A year later, the now-ended popular show, Pardon the Interruption, saw its hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon discuss the very same idea. As recently as this past August, former NFL QB Christian Ponder threw out the idea on X, formerly Twitter. I need someone to run this up the flagpole at the @NCAA: bowl games should be played at the beginning of the year. Your record this year earns you the bowl game to kickoff next season. Star players play & the game matters. Playoffs only to end the season. — Christian Ponder (@cponder7) August 31, 2025 “I need someone to run this up the flagpole at the @NCAA,” Ponder said in his

When Utah State football head coach Bronco Mendenhall interviewed for and took the job of head coach in Logan, he wasn’t given the prettiest picture of the state of the Aggies gridiron program. Sure, on the outside most could see a team that had just gone through a 4-8 season, and also that Utah State hadn’t posted a winning campaign since 2021. But surely things weren’t that bad, right? “I was told some pretty harsh things about the state of the program and the state of the institution,” Mendenhall said, “including there’s no chance that we’d be able to make a bowl. There would be a bowl ban because the academics weren’t strong enough. That was stated multiple times. There won’t be a chance to play post-season.” These concerns over academics played a role in the firing of Mendenhall’s predecessor, Blake Anderson. Former USU President Elizabeth Cantwell and former Director of Athletics Diana Sabau, cited the NCAA’s Academic Performance Rate (APR) metric in documents outlining their reason for dismissing Anderson. According to those documents, sent by Assistant Utah Attorney General Jaqualin Friend Peterson to Anderson’s legal team, Utah State had seen a decline in its APR from 965 to 899. Furthermore, according to Peterson’s

Tomorrow the Utah State Aggies and Washington State Cougars will meet on the blue turf at Albertsons Stadium for the 29th edition of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The two sides converge not only as opponents but as future conference mates as USU will join WSU in the new Pac-12 in July. That yet-to-be connection adds a little bit of flavor to this edition of the series that has seen several recent entries. The Aggies and Cougars met last year because of the scheduling agreement between the Pac-12 and Mountain West (which is now the subject of a lawsuit) and met in 2021, a game that kicked off USU’s eventual conference-title-winning season. Game Info: Kickoff: 12:00 p.m. (Mountain Time) Location: Albertsons Stadium (Boise, ID) TV Broadcast/Stream: ESPN Radio: KVNU (102.1 FM, 610 AM), kvnutalk.com, KVNU mobile app KVNU Aggie Gameday pregame show with Stockton Jewkes and J.D. Walker: Begins at 10:00 KVNU Aggie Call Postgame: Will begin immediately following Coach Bronco Mendenhall’s postgame comments Text (435) 554-1175 or call (435) 753-5868 during the pregame or postgame show to give your thoughts and reactions for the game. Both teams arrived in Boise on Thursday and have spent the last few days enjoying their time with activities organized by the