EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Despite a major shift in the landscape of college football, El Paso’s annual Sun Bowl game will look largely the same, at least for now.
Bernie Olivas, executive director of the Sun Bowl Association, tells KTSM the 10 schools leaving the Pac-12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, and Washington) will still play in Pac-12 affiliated bowl games the next two seasons — including the Sun Bowl — and not in bowl tie-ins with their new conferences.
With Oregon State and Washington State the only two remaining schools in the Pac-12 for the upcoming season, the six bowl games with Pac-12 ties (Alamo Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Los Angeles Bowl, Sun Bowl, and the Independence Bowl) couldn’t be fulfilled. Olivas says the contracts between the conferences and the bowl games won’t expire until after the 2025 season, meaning the pool of schools for El Paso’s big game will look the same.
While the process for selecting schools remains uncertain, stakeholders will keep former Pac-12 programs as well as Oregon State and Washington State with Pac-12 bowls until the new bowl contracts begin in 2026.
The ACC will also remain tied to the Sun Bowl through the 2025 season.
“We are grateful and excited to still maintain our relationships with teams that are making moves,” Olivas said. “This will help the transition in the future, whatever that may be.”
Olivas, who attended Big 12 Media Days this week in Las Vegas, expects to keep the ACC in the Sun Bowl for the foreseeable future, while also keeping their options open for a second conference tie-in in 2026.
It was announced last week that Kellogg’s renewed their naming rights (Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl) with the second-oldest bowl game in the country through the 2025 season.
The 91st Annual Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl Game will be played this year on Tuesday, Dec. 31. The game will kickoff at noon (MT) and will be televised on CBS for the 56th consecutive year, which is the longest-running partnership between one bowl game on one network.
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