Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl: Colorado State Rams set to face Miami (Ohio) Redhawks

The latest edition of the Arizona Bowl, now sponsored by Snoop Dogg’s “Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop, will be a matchup between the Colorado State Rams and the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks on Dec. 28 at Arizona Stadium.

This year will mark the fifth season — 10th overall game — for the Arizona Bowl pitting upper-echelon teams from the Mountain West and Mid-American Conference.

“We have a history of providing really good matchups,” Kym Adair said at the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl announcement event at Playground Bar & Lounge in downtown Tucson on Sunday. “When our teams go toe-to-toe, it is a slugfest. I feel like this year will be the same. These teams are equally matched. They both did really well in their conference. … These are two really tough teams that could’ve been conference champions, so we’re really excited to bring both of them here for this matchup.”

The Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl will be broadcasted on CW Network, which drew more than 1.1 million viewers on its Arizona Bowl broadcast last season. CW Network became a broadcasting partner with the Mountain West and the two-team Pac-12 this season. Snoop Dogg will be a part of the Arizona Bowl broadcast.

Colorado State (8-4) returns to the Arizona Bowl for the first time since the bowl game’s inaugural season in 2015. The Rams are led by third-year head coach Jay Norvell, who coached Nevada to a win in the Arizona Bowl in 2018. The Rams finished third in the Mountain West behind College Football Playoff-bound Boise State and conference runner-up UNLV.

“We’re so excited to have Jay back. He’s a terrific guy and his family is amazing. They enjoyed the experience when they were here with Nevada and it’s fun to have him back with Colorado State,” Adair said.

Colorado State is making its first bowl appearance since 2017. The Rams haven’t won a bowl game since the 2013 New Mexico Bowl.

Adair said 114,000 CSU alumni live in Colorado and “they have a large contingent here in Arizona as well as California.”

“Their alumni footprint is around us,” Adair said. “We think we’ll get fans to travel here. I also think since they didn’t perform in a conference championship, the fans of those teams don’t have the expenses going towards another game and they are ready to come to Southern Arizona. They’ll be a motivated fanbase to come out. Colorado versus Arizona in the winter? We’ll get a lot of people.”

Miami (8-5) will make its first-ever appearance in the Arizona Bowl after ending the regular season with seven straight wins before losing to Ohio 38-3 in the MAC championship in Detroit. The Redhawks went 7-1 in MAC play this season. Miami is quarterbacked by Brett Gabbert, the brother of former NFL quarterback Blaine Gabbert. The younger Gabbert has 59 career touchdown passes, which is the third-most in Miami history behind Ben Roethlisberger (84) and Zac Dysert (73). Miami has qualified for the postseason five straight years, but hasn’t won since the 2021 Frisco Football Classic.

Since the MAC partnership started in 2020, Miami’s athletic director David Sailer routinely texted Adair every season about receiving an invitation to the Arizona Bowl.

“’Kym, can we do this year? Come on, we want to be invited. Let us come to Tucson.’ That’s always fun to hear, because it shows the reputation that we have as a first-class bowl game is getting out to the other teams,” Adair said. “Those teams want to come. Miami has been on our radar for a long time. Now we have a chance to bring them here and we couldn’t be more excited.”

This year is the Arizona Bowl’s first season with hip-hop icon and renowned personality and spokesperson Snoop Dogg — and his alcoholic beverage — as the title sponsor. The Arizona Bowl is the first college football bowl game to have an alcohol brand as the title sponsor.

Snoop Dogg, who has around a combined 200 million followers on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Facebook, was recently a personality and correspondent during NBC’s coverage of the Olympics in Paris. Snoop Dogg’s involvement in the Olympics, in addition to his several commercials and brands, provides the Arizona Bowl with a wide-reaching platform.

“When you watch T-Mobile commercials, you can see our helmet with Snoop and Patrick Mahomes,” Adair said. “It’s fantastic and surreal. But we’ve taken strategic steps for years to get to this point, so we’re really excited about being able be here and have the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl. … It’s Snoop’s world and we’re just living in it. People got a sneak peek of bowl week by watching the Olympics. Having a good time and being around athletes and their endeavors is something that fuels Snoop.”

Added Ali Farhang, chairman of the Arizona Bowl: “Snoop Dogg is the most popular icon in the world right now. It’s not going to take it to the next level; it’s going up 10 levels.”

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The Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop beverage, a canned gin-based cocktail, launched earlier this year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Snoop Dogg’s breakthrough album “Doggystyle.” The beverage has four flavors: apricot, citrus, melon and passionfruit.

Snoop Dogg is no stranger to Tucson. Along with hosting concerts, Snoop Dogg has also brought youth football teams from Los Angeles to Arizona to face local teams in the Old Pueblo. In 2015, the “Snoop Dogg All-Stars” youth football team faced the Tucson Rams at Tucson High. Afterwards, Snoop Dogg attended the Arizona Wildcats’ loss to UCLA, a game that was featured on ESPN’s “College GameDay.”

During the week of the Arizona Bowl, the Snoop Youth Football League will host a youth football national tournament with 24 teams from around the country. The games will be played at Rillito Park and the UA. The championship game will be held at Arizona Stadium on Dec. 29, the day after the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl.

The Arizona Bowl was sponsored by Nova Home Loans for the first five years when it started in 2015. Offerpad was the bowl game’s sponsor for one season in 2020, when San Jose State, led by current Arizona head coach Brent Brennan, lost to Ball State in the pandemic-influenced game that had no fans in attendance. Barstool Sports took over sponsorship in 2021 and ended its three-year contract last year. Due to the controversial background of the media outlet’s founder, Dave Portnoy, the Pima County Board of Supervisors pulled its $40,000 in funding support for the game.

The Arizona Bowl has generated nearly $150 million in economic impact in Southern Arizona; over $6 million has been donated to local charities.

“Our economic impact is only second to the gem show,” Farhang said. “That’s immense and it has a meaningful difference to the people that live here. With Snoop Dogg’s partnership and Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop, there’s no ceilings to how big we can make this. We have a new foundation and a new starting point. … There’s going to be a bunch of people here, eating at our restaurants, staying at our hotels. The economic impact on this and the spotlight on Tucson cannot be quantified.

“It’s time to stop hiding the fact that we live in the best city in the world. Let’s let everyone know. With Snoop Dogg, it’s going to accentuate that even more.”

Here are results of the previous Arizona Bowl games:

2015: Nevada 28, Colorado State 23

2016: Air Force 45, South Alabama 21

2017: New Mexico State 26, Utah State 20 (overtime)

2018: Nevada 16, Arkansas State 13 (overtime)

2019: Wyoming 38, Georgia State 17

2020: Ball State 34, No. 19 San Jose State 13

2021: Canceled for pandemic-influenced reasons

2022: Ohio 30, Wyoming 27 (overtime)

2023: Wyoming 16, Toledo 15