2020 Arizona Bowl: How to watch, keys to victory and a prediction

The 2020 Arizona Bowl will be the first ever matchup between San Jose State and Ball State, two of the seasons unlikeliest conference champions

Bowl season is all about the opportunity to see some unique matchups between teams that don’t get the opportunity to play each other and the 2020 Arizona Bowl will see two of the best stories of the 2020 season when San Jose State and Ball State take the field on Thursday.

San Jose State won the Mountain West and will look to complete an undefeated season with a victory, while Ball State won the MAC and will be looking for its first bowl win in school history.

San Jose State boasts one of the top defenses in the group of five and it has been what has guided the Spartans to an undefeated record, along with some great play by Texas A&M transfer quarterback Nick Starkel. This will be the stiffest test for a defense that has not allowed more than 24 points in a single game all season.

Ball State was a double digit underdog in the MAC Championship to Buffalo, but they were able to force some turnovers and slow down the Bulls rushing attack on their way to a conference championship. The Cardinals have been knocking on the door of success under head coach Mike Neu and finally had the breakthrough season that some thought Neu had been building too since he arrived in Muncie.

These are two programs that have had a hard time finding success in their program history and both teams will be looking for rare bowl wins.

Ball State football has never had bowl win in their programs history and San Jose State football has not been to a bowl game since 2015, but the program is on a four game winning streak in bowl games.

Here is how you can watch Ball State vs San Jose State on Thursday.

Date: Thursday, Dec 31

Time: 2:00 p.m ET

Venue: Arizona Stadium

Location: Tucson, AZ

TV: CBS

Live Stream: CBS Sports and FUBO TV

Keys to Victory

For the San Jose State offense, they will need to be able to establish more of a ground attack than they have in recent games. This offense is only averaging 143 YPG on the ground and they can not rely on Starkel to be the only source of offense. If the Spartans can be balanced, they should be able to have a good amount of success against the Cardinals.

For the San Jose State defense, the Spartans will need to slow down what has been a pretty solid passing attack by Ball State. Ball State is averaging right at 34 PPG and a large part of that is because of their weapons in the pass game.

For the Ball State offense, they have to avoid the turnovers against a stingy San Jose State defense. San Jose State does not give up many explosive plays and makes you earn everything so staying ahead of the chains and not giving the Spartans extra possessions is going to be crucial.

For the Ball State defense, forcing turnovers is how the Cardinals win. They are not a great defensive team by any means, but they won the game vs Buffalo and their high powered offense by creating turnovers and scoring off of those turnovers. For Ball State to win, they need to force at least three turnovers in my opinion.

Betting Odds

All odds are provided courtesy of the Action Network

Spread: San Jose State -9.5

Total: 64

Prediction

I think this is one of the more underrated bowl games between two teams that have enjoyed unexpectedly great seasons and won their conference championships. It will be a fun matchup between the San Jose State defense and the Ball State offense and I think the advantage will go to the Spartans defense. I do not trust the Ball State defense to get enough stops in this one and San Jose State will capture the first undefeated season in the programs history.

Final Score: San Jose State 34, Ball State 27