EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The wait was worth it for Borderland football fans.
After a several hour delay, the 90th annual Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl has its teams — Oregon State from the Pac-12 will face Notre Dame, one of the most illustrious names in college football history.
The game will be at noon on Friday, Dec. 29.
Notre Dame has made just one appearance in the Sun Bowl and that came in 2010 when it faced Miami of Florida, in a game that sold out in a matter of minutes.
Oregon State is ranked No. 19 in the final College Football Playoff rankings and finished its regular season at 8-4, while Notre Dame is ranked 16th and is 9-3 overall. It’s the first time since 2008 that both Sun Bowl teams are ranked.
Sun Bowl Executive Director Bernie Olivas said the long wait came after Florida State was snubbed from the College Football Playoff on Sunday and delayed the ACC’s selection process.
Notre Dame was not expected to fall into the Sun Bowl’s pool of teams, so much so that the committee did not even have the Fighting Irish’s helmet on site for the selection.
Olivas said that when Notre Dame was not selected in the bowl tier above the Sun Bowl – the Holiday Bowl, PopTart’s Bowl and Gator Bowl had first choice after the New Year’s Six bowls – their was an “audible gasp” over the selection room.
Since every other bowl in the Sun Bowl’s tier wanted the Fighting Irish, the ACC put the five eligible bowls into a hat and drew a name and the Sun Bowl was the game that was drawn, Olivas said.
Notre Dame is an FBS Independent program, but plays in the ACC for all sports except football and is paired with the ACC for bowl games.
Tickets are currently on sale and Sun Bowl officials expect the game to be a sellout.
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