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The Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl is one of the greatest events annually in Shreveport. The 2021 version of the game is set up to be one of the biggest versions of the game we've had in over a decade.

After a weekend full of Conference Championship games, the picture for the teams that will be coming to Shreveport is a little more clear. The Indy Bowl has an agreement for BYU to come to this year's game, and the only thing that could stop that is if BYU ended up in the Top 10 of the College Football Playoff rankings. If that happens, BYU will head to a New Years Six bowl game instead. However, based on how the Conference Championship games went, and where the AP Top 25 lays teams out afterwards, it looks like BYU to Shreveport is a safe bet.

Arizona State v Bigham Young
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BYU is now ranked 12th in the AP Top 25, which is roughly where they will likely end up in the final College Football Playoff rankings. The Cougars would have needed to jump multiple spots in that poll for it to be likely they would jump in the Playoff rankings.

The other side of the game has also been full of intrigue. The Independence Bowl has an agreement with Conference USA to bring in a team to take on BYU, which seems really simple. But a concept from a college football insider shook that up a few weeks ago.

Long-time college football reporter Brett McMurphy of Action Network declared on the Independence Bowl's weekly radio show that the ESPN/ABC network could work to shuffle the deck, and push a Conference USA team out of the Indy Bowl. The concept McMurphy presented was that ESPN/ABC would want a big time matchup for a Saturday afternoon broadcast on major network ABC. So the network could offer to flip a team from a major conference into Shreveport, and give a Conference USA team a different landing spot.

This opened the door for many to predict LSU would arrive in Shreveport for the Indy Bowl, but that idea has cooled a bit.

It would appear, based on a lot of predictions, that we are back to where we were at the start. Today we should see BYU and a team from Conference USA announced to headline the 2021 Independence Bowl...which will more than likely lead to there being two Top 25 ranked teams facing off in Shreveport on December 18th. Which would set up for one of the biggest Indy Bowls in a long time.

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