The Sun Bowl is set for one more year of Pac-12 Legacy vs. the ACC, as the new tie-ins that were slated for the coming season are now in a holding pattern.
Sun Bowl executive director Bernie Olivas said he hasn’t heard anything official, but Coca-Cola Bowl Season — the official, non-playoff bowl organizer for the FBS postseason — announced that all FBS bowl games not part of the College Football Playoff will retain the conference affiliations they had in 2025.
That means the Sun Bowl will again feature a team that was in the 12-team Pac-12 in 2023 (so not the teams moving from the Mountain West into the new Pac-12) against a team from the ACC.
“We’ve had great success with all the conferences we’ve had,” Olivas said. “It’s been good for us.”
The expectation when the 2025 Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl was played on New Year’s Eve is that it was going to get new tie-ins, as all of the existing tie-ins were contractually concluding, but before new contracts could be negotiated the NCAA needed to decide on the size of the playoffs.
Eventually it was decided the playoff would stay at 12 teams for one more season amid ongoing discussions about expanding to 14, 16 or 24 teams for 2027-28. Then the current tie-ins were carried over one more year.
“We believe maintaining stability across the bowl system for 2026 is the most appropriate path forward given the CFP’s decision to extend the current format through this upcoming season,” Bowl Season director Nick Carparelli said in a statement. “This approach provides clarity for our stakeholders while preserving flexibility as we collectively evaluate the future of the postseason.”
Next up for the Sun Bowl is renewing its sponsorship, which is also up. The Sun Bowl has expressed a desire to re-up with Kellogg’s and keep the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl name, but sponsorship negotiations are ongoing.
“I’m working on it right now,” Olivas said, adding that he hopes to have more on that “soon.”
The 2026 Sun Bowl is confirmed for Dec. 31, the traditional date for the game. It falls on Thursday this year.
2026-27 bowl alignments
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Sun Bowl extends Pac-12 Legacy vs ACC tie-ins for 2026
Reporting by Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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