No. 15 Utah, Nebraska set to square off in 34th Las Vegas Bowl

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LAS VEGAS – No. 15 Utah and Nebraska were officially announced as the participants in the 2025 Las Vegas Bowl on New Year's Eve, setting the stage for the 34th edition of the game and the fifth to be held at Allegiant Stadium. 

Utah is making its return to the bowl after falling to Northwestern 14-7 in the 2023 game, putting an end to a season that began with College Football Playoff hopes in the four-team era before injuries to quarterback Cameron Rising and other key players severely limited that team’s potential. 

This group of Utes is coming to Las Vegas under much different circumstances this year. A season that wasn’t accompanied by too many major expectations at all ended in Utah going 10-2 in the regular, just outside the Big 12 championship and college football playoff picture. 

Utah quarterback Devon Dampier still has a year of eligibility left and doesn’t appear to be an immediate candidate to enter the transfer portal, so the expectation is for him to play in Las Vegas at this point. Dampier threw for 2,140 yards and 22 touchdowns this season while throwing just five interceptions, and he threw for 2,768 yards and ran for 1,116 yards as a sophomore at New Mexico in 2024.

While Dampier is likely to play at this point, the same can’t be said for highly publicized Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola. All indications and prior reports already suggested that Raiola and the Huskers were likely headed for a divorce, and that seems even more inevitable after Nebraska fired his uncle, offensive line coach Donovan Raiola, earlier this week. 

It’s clear the bookmakers in Las Vegas aren’t expecting Raiola to show up. Utah opened as a 13.5-point favorite upon the matchup being revealed on Sunday morning, and I wouldn't be surprised if that spread bet to an even larger number in the coming weeks before the game. 

Nebraska holds a 4-0 advantage over Utah in their all-time meetings on the gridiron, but the most recent of those matchups occurred in 1992 when Nebraska was still one of the dominant powers in the sport and Utah was still a growing mid-major.

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