San Diego State, North Texas to meet in New Mexico Bowl

No. 23 North Texas and San Diego State will meet in the Isleta New Mexico Bowl, the bowl announced Sunday.

Hosted at University Stadium, the bowl represents the first matchup between the Mean Green (11-2, 7-1 in American Conference play) and the Aztecs (9-3, 6-2 in Mountain West play) since 1975. North Texas and San Diego State last appeared in the New Mexico Bowl in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

North Texas’ inclusion also represents the first time a team ranked in the AP Top 25 (No. 23) and College Football Playoff rankings (No. 25) has been selected to appear in the 20-year-old bowl.

Kickoff is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. on Dec. 27. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

New Mexico Bowl executive director Jeff Siembieda told the Journal he was excited to land the matchup in the wake of the “wildest” bowl selection day he said he’s seen in his two decades with the bowl. Three bowl-eligible teams — including 10-2 Notre Dame — and multiple 5-7 teams declined postseason bids Sunday, ushering on one of the most hectic bowl selection days in recent memory.

“There was a lot of movement over the last 24 hours or so,” Siembieda said Sunday. “But I’m thrilled — I think we’ve got a premier matchup. And (the way) it all played out, in this market, football fans are the winners.”

Entering Sunday, UNM was expected to play in the New Mexico Bowl but was selected to play Minnesota in the Rate Bowl (Dec. 26) instead. Siembieda said there was “mutual interest” between both parties, while head coach Jason Eck noted Sunday that teams were wary of playing against the Lobos in University Stadium.

“People didn’t want to come play us in our home stadium,” Eck said iduring a news conference Sunday. “Some of the teams — like, North Texas is going to play here now against San Diego State, but they weren’t excited about the prospect of playing us in our home stadium.”

“I think a priority for both the bowl game and for New Mexico is making sure we’re able to put together the right matchup,” Siembieda added, “and ultimately as it all played out, I think that happened.”

Between North Texas’ offense and San Diego State’s defense, the New Mexico Bowl will feature one of the most intriguing strength-on-strength matchups this postseason. The Mean Green led the country in scoring offense (44.8 points per game) while the Aztecs finished the regular season with the fifth-best scoring defense (12.6 points per game) in the 136-team FBS.

North Texas played for a CFP berth in the American Conference Championship on Friday, falling 34-21 to Tulane. San Diego State finished in a four-way tie for first place in the Mountain West but was not selected to play in the league title game.

Both teams will be managing coaching changes entering the New Mexico Bowl. North Texas head coach Eric Morris is transitioning to the same role at Oklahoma State but is expected to coach in the game, per Siembieda. San Diego State defensive coordinator Rob Aurich is reportedly leaving the Aztecs for the same position at Nebraska; it is unclear if he will coach in the bowl.

Tickets for the game are expected to go on sale this week.