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Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer
UNLV will host Boise State in the Mountain West championship game Saturday, the conference announced Sunday.
The Rebels and Broncos finished tied with San José State at 6-2 in conference play. Because UNLV and Boise State did not play each other during the regular season, the three-way tie was broken by an average of four computer rankings: Anderson & Hester, Colley Matrix, Massey and Wolfe.
UNLV and Boise State were the highest-ranked teams headed into the final week of the regular season, but after San José State beat UNLV 37-31 on Saturday, the possibility of the Spartans — who won their final six games — overtaking Boise State loomed. It wasn’t enough.
The Broncos will make their seventh trip to the Mountain West title game since it was introduced in 2013, while this will be UNLV’s first appearance. The Rebels will host the game because their average computer ranking is better than Boise State’s.
Boise State (7-5) will head to Las Vegas despite firing coach Andy Avalos after a 42-14 win against New Mexico earlier this month with two games left in the season. Spencer Danielson took over as interim coach.
UNLV (9-3) has been a revelation in coach Barry Odom’s first season. Prior to this season, the Rebels had finished with a winning record in Mountain West play just twice since joining from the WAC in 1999. Their nine wins are the most they have had since going 11-2 in 1984 as a member of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association.