Bowl Us Over

By Ron Donoho
The 2012-13 NCAA football season won’t end until 35 bowl games have been played. That’s a lot of nachos and cheese served to millions of face-painted boosters. But who’s counting? We are.

San Diego hosts two postseason matchups at Qualcomm Stadium: the Poinsettia and Holiday Bowls. A national champion is not going to emerge from either game, but they’re happening here, so we dug up the crucial facts and figures you need to know for these nationally televised (ESPN) gridiron games:

Poinsettia Bowl vs. Holiday Bowl
Game Day: December 20 / December 27
Match-up: MWC vs. BYU*/ WAC / Big 12 vs. PAC 12
Hoopla: Battle of the School Bands / Big Bay Balloon Parade
First Year: 2005 / 1978
Sponsor: San Diego County Credit / Union Bridgepoint Education

*If BYU is bowl-eligible (with six wins), it is contracted to play in the game.

BYU: Brigham Young University
MWC: Mountain West Conference
WAC: Western Athletic Conference
PAC: Pacific Athletic Conference
poinsettiabowl.com, holidaybowl.com

Bowl Full (of factoids)

SDSU appearance in the Holiday Bowl: 1986 loss to Iowa, 39-38
SDSU appearance in Poinsettia Bowl: 2010 win over Navy, 35-14
This year, the Aztecs could play in: The Poinsettia Bowl, if they come in second in the Mountain West Conference.
Cities other than San Diego that annually host two bowl games: New Orleans and Orlando
Worst College Football Bowl Game Names: Chick-fil-A Bowl (Atlanta), Meineke Car Care Bowl (Houston), Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (Detroit)