As the college football regular season came to a close this weekend, bowl game matchups were released on Sunday โ and the Arizona Bowl announced that it will host Mountain West champion San Jose State Spartans and Mid-American Conference winner Ball State Cardinals on New Year's Eve.ย ย
The sixth edition of Tucson's bowl game will feature winners from the Mountain West and MAC for the first time in its brief history. The Arizona Bowl always garnered mid-tier Mountain West or Sun Belt teams โ or the rare case in New Mexico State, which made history by winning its first bowl game in 57 years during the '17 Arizona Bowl.ย
โWe are thrilled to invite these two conference champions to the Arizona Bowl to battle it out one last time this season," said Arizona Bowl executive director Kym Adair.
"The adversity that each of these teams have had to overcome to win their conference championship matches is unprecedented. We know that they will both be determined to finish their historic seasons with a win at the Arizona Bowl ensuring that this game will be competitive until the end."
San Jose State (7-0) won its first Mountain West championship in program history after holding off Boise State 34-20 on Saturday. Spartans head coach Brent Brennan, who is widely viewed as a top candidate for the Arizona Wildcats head coaching vacancy, coached under the late Dick Tomey at the UA and SJSU. Brennan is in his fourth season as head coach at San Jose State. This year is the first time the Spartans have posted a winning record under Brennan.ย
Ball State (6-1), based out of Muncie, Indiana, took down Buffalo 38-28 to win its first MAC championship since 1996.ย
Kickoff for the Arizona Bowl at an empty Arizona Stadium on New Year's Eve will be at noon and televised on Ch. 13 (CBS).ย ย
