| 2012 WAC football season | |
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| League: | NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision |
| Sport: | Football |
| Pixels: | 250px |
| Duration: | August 30, 2012 through December 27, 2012 |
| No Of Teams: | 7 |
| Tv: | ESPN |
| Draft: | 2013 NFL Draft |
| Draft Link: | 2013 NFL Draft |
| Top Pick: | CB Will Davis, USU |
| Picked By: | Miami Dolphins, 93rd overall |
| Season: | Regular Season |
| Season Champs: | Utah State |
| Season Champ Name: | Champions |
| Mvp: | QB Colby Cameron, La. Tech DL Travis Johnson, SJSU |
| Seasonslistnames: | Football |
| Prevseason Year: | 2011 |
| Nextseason Year: | 2021 |
The 2012 Western Athletic Conference football season was the 51st and final college football season for the Western Athletic Conference in the top level of NCAA football, known since 2006 as Division I FBS. Seven teams competed in the 2012 season: Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Texas State, Utah State, and UTSA. Utah State went undefeated against its conference opponents to become, at the time, the final WAC conference champion. It was also chosen to represent the WAC in one of its two bowl berths; conference runner-up San Jose State was chosen to fill the conference's other bowl berth.
Due to a major wave of departures that hit the WAC hard over the previous three seasons, the 2012 WAC football season marked what was at that time the conference's final season sponsoring football. Before the season began, San Jose State and Utah State announced they would be leaving to join several other former WAC schools in the Mountain West Conference. Louisiana Tech and UTSA joined several other schools in moving to Conference USA after the season, which also contains several former WAC members. Texas State moved to the Sun Belt Conference. Idaho and New Mexico State joined Notre Dame, Army, Navy, and BYU as FBS independents for 2013 before becoming Sun Belt football-only members in 2014 (Idaho left the WAC entirely as part of the realignment; while electing to keep their football team as a Bowl Subdivision member, the Vandals returned to the Big Sky Conference for other sports).
The WAC will reinstate football in the fall 2021 season, but at the second level of NCAA football, Division I FCS. For more information on the revival of WAC football, see the section of the main conference page that discusses this development.
See main article: 2011 Western Athletic Conference football season.
See also: 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings.
| Improvement in ranking | ||
| Drop in ranking | ||
| Not ranked previous week | ||
| align=center style="width:20px; border:1px solid #aaaaaa; background:white;" | RV | Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll |
| т | Tied with team above or below also with this symbol | |
| Pre | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Wk 14 | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idaho Vandals | AP | ||||||||||||||||
| C | |||||||||||||||||
| HAR | Not released | ||||||||||||||||
| BCS | Not released | ||||||||||||||||
| Louisiana Tech Bulldogs | AP | RV | RV | RV | 23 | RV | 24 | 22 | 19 | 19 | RV | ||||||
| C | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | 24 | RV | RV | 23 | 18 | 19 | RV | RV | RV | RV | |
| HAR | Not released | 24 | RV | RV | 24 | 19 | 20 | RV | RV | RV | |||||||
| BCS | Not released | 25 | 20 | 20 | |||||||||||||
| New Mexico State Aggies | AP | ||||||||||||||||
| C | |||||||||||||||||
| HAR | Not released | ||||||||||||||||
| BCS | Not released | ||||||||||||||||
| San Jose State Spartans | AP | RV | RV | RV | 24 | 21 | |||||||||||
| C | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | 24 | 21 | |||||||||
| HAR | Not released | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | |||||||||||
| BCS | Not released | 25 | 24 | ||||||||||||||
| Texas State Bobcats | AP | RV | |||||||||||||||
| C | |||||||||||||||||
| HAR | Not released | ||||||||||||||||
| BCS | Not released | ||||||||||||||||
| Utah State Aggies | AP | RV | RV | RV | RV | 25 | 20 | 18 | 16 | ||||||||
| C | RV | RV | RV | RV | 22 | 20 | 17 | ||||||||||
| HAR | Not released | RV | RV | RV | RV | 22 | 21 | ||||||||||
| BCS | Not released | 24 | 22 | ||||||||||||||
| UTSA Roadrunners | AP | ||||||||||||||||
| C | |||||||||||||||||
| HAR | Not released | ||||||||||||||||
| BCS | Not released | ||||||||||||||||
| Index to colors and formatting | |
|---|---|
| WAC member won | |
| WAC member lost | |
| WAC teams in bold |
| Bowl Game | Date | Site | Television | Time (EST) | Visiting Team | Home Team | Score | Attendance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Famous Idaho Potato Bowl | December 15 | Bronco Stadium * Boise, ID | ESPN | 4:30 p.m. | Toledo | Utah State | 15-41 | 29,243 | |
| Military Bowl | December 27 | RFK Stadium * Washington, D.C. | ESPN | 3:00 p.m. | San Jose State | Bowling Green | 29-20 | 17,835 |
| Team | Stadium (Capacity) | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 | Game 6 | Total | Average | % of Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idaho | Kibbie Dome (16,000) | 11,136 | 13,558 | 14,755 | ||||||
| Louisiana Tech | Joe Aillet Stadium (30,600) | 23,228 | 21,850 | 40,453 | 20,255 | 23,645 | 25,614 | |||
| New Mexico State | Aggie Memorial Stadium (30,343) | 12,118 | 25,211 | 14,341 | 12,118 | |||||
| San Jose State | Spartan Stadium (30,456) | 7,462 | 7,189 | 15,168 | 7,093 | 15,494 | ||||
| Texas State | Bobcat Stadium (30,000) | 33,006 | 17,188 | 14,210 | 16,973 | |||||
| Utah State | Romney Stadium (25,513) | 17,009 | 25,513 | 24,226 | 17,001 | |||||
| UTSA | Alamodome (65,000) | 30,416 | 25,742 | 30,862 | 23,519 | 25,784 | 39,032 | |||