Despite being bowl eligible, the Wyoming Cowboys will be staying home for the holidays after all the bowl matchups were announced Sunday.

The Cowboy football team won four straight games at the end of the regular season but is one of four programs eligible that don’t get to play in the postseason. Instead, they’ll take that win streak into 2019.

University of Wyoming Athletics Director Tom Burman and head football coach Craig Bohl both released statements Sunday with their reaction to the news. These were released by the university.

Coach Bohl had this to say:

“Our team certainly got better throughout the year, winning four games in a row to end the season. A lot of that is a credit to the leadership of our senior class. I do know that the Mountain West is an unbelievably competitive conference, and our schedule reflected that with the number of Top 25 teams that we faced this season. I thought we played the best competition we could. The bowl picture is one that is hotly debated across the country in terms of the number of bowl games that we should have. I do believe that our seniors deserved the opportunity to play another game because of the way we finished, but those decisions are not in my hands.”

Here’s what Burman had to say:

“We are disappointed that our football team will not get the opportunity to play in a bowl game this season. The young men in our program and our coaching staff finished off this season with four consecutive wins. They deserved an opportunity to conclude this season, and in the case of our seniors their careers, with a bowl game. Our players and coaches did a masterful job of dealing with the challenges they faced this year. It was a season that included a schedule filled with ranked opponents and a year that saw many key injuries. We are very proud of what they accomplished. This group of seniors was a special group, who accomplished great things throughout their careers. We will miss them very much. We will be working with the Mountain West Conference to improve the postseason opportunities for conference football teams moving forward. We have an excellent league, and every Mountain West team who is bowl eligible should have an opportunity to play in a bowl game. Finally, we are very excited about the group of players we have coming back next season, and the home schedule we have with big games against Missouri and Colorado State in War Memorial Stadium. Coach (Craig) Bohl and his staff have built a program that is consistently competitive within the Mountain West, and we look forward to great things in the future.”

The other teams that did not receive an invitation to a bowl game were Southern Miss (6-5), Miami of Ohio (6-6), and Louisiana-Monroe (6-6).

Wyoming is in the midst of recruiting for the early signing period, Dec. 19-21, 2018. The Cowboys will head into their off-season and return with spring practice in late March 2019.

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