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Over the last seven years, the Mountain West has earned 22 bowl bids, including a record four in 2005.
Three of the four league teams will be making their first appearance in their respective bowl games (BYU-Las Vegas, Colorado State-Poinsettia, Utah-Emerald), while TCU is making its second trip to the Houston Bowl.
The Poinsettia Bowl will mark the fourth time since 2000 that a Mountain West Conference team will participate in an inaugural bowl game.
Mountain West teams will be in unfamiliar territory during the postseason, as Conference teams are a combined 4-0 all-time against their four bowl opponents. TCU and BYU are each 2-0 against their respective opponents (Iowa State and California), while Colorado State and Utah have first-time match-ups against Navy and Georgia Tech, respectively.
Utah has been victorious in each of its last four bowl appearances. The Utes last loss was to Wisconsin in the 1996 Copper Bowl (38-10).
The Mountain West has posted the third-most wins (5) among all NCAA Division I-A leagues against non-conference automatic-qualifying BCS opponents for the second straight year.
Since 1999, the Mountain West champion has produced a 16-4 record vs. non-conference automatic-qualifying opponents. The .800 win percentage is the best among the 11 NCAA Division I-A conference champions, while the 16 victories is third behind the Pac-10 and Big East (affiliation includes Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech).
BYU is the only school outside the present BCS automatic-qualifiers to win a National Championship (1984), in the last 20 years.
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