Projected final 2020 College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings after Week 16

San Jose State finished 2020 with its first outright conference championship since Terry Shea led the Spartans to the Big West crown in 1990. That year the Spartans also finished 7-0 in conference play. After entering the College Football Playoff Top 25 in the lead-up to the Mountain West championship game, San Jose State locked in their position in the final rankings after taking down Boise State 34-20 in Las Vegas.

Former Texas A&M and Arkansas quarterback Nick Starkel finally claimed a conference crown at his third college program. Starkel finished 32-of-52 for 453 yards and three touchdowns against the Broncos, more than making up for a ground game that finished with only 45 rushing yards. The Spartans defense was even stingier to Boise State’s backfield, holding the Broncos to just three net yards on the ground.

Now champions for the first time in three decades, the Spartans will have to console themselves with a trip to a bowl game for the first time in five years. While it has been a trying campaign for a team that trained at Humboldt State in the preseason and played its “home” games in Sin City this year. In his fourth season at the helm in the South Bay, Brent Brennan’s rebuilding project appears to be ahead of schedule.