The first college football game played in Puerto Rico and the return of the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego join this season\u2019s bowl lineup, sources told On3.<\/p>\n
The Poinsettia Bowl, which was last held in 2016, could feature the champions from the Mountain West and the newly formed Pac-12, sources said.<\/p>\n
The two additional bowls in Puerto Rico and San Diego will both matchup Group of 6 programs, sources said. They help replace three bowls (Bahamas, Detroit and LA) that were canceled last year.<\/p>\n
Also, the Xbox Bowl in Frisco, Texas, which replaced the Bahamas Bowl last year, will return this season. So, in 2026, 82 teams will again be needed to fill 41 bowls, including the 12-team College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n
Even though the bowl contracts expired after last season, the bowls are extending their conference tie-ins for another season through 2026. The bowls cannot secure any long-term deals until the format of the College Football Playoff is determined beyond next season. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Puerto Rico Bowl will be the first American college football game ever played in Puerto Rico. Last October, the HBCU Puerto Rico Bowl was scheduled to be played in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, between Division II schools Kentucky State and Franklin Pierce. However, the game was canceled because of poor field conditions.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Puerto Rico Bowl is not affiliated with the HBCU contest. An official site for the FBS bowl game has not been finalized, a source said.<\/p>\n
The Poinsettia Bowl returns after a 10-year absence. With the LA Bowl previously pitting the Mountain West champion against a Pac-12 school, the Poinsettia could match the champions from those two leagues after they were drastically restructured by conference realignment.<\/p>\n
The new-look Pac-12 will feature five schools \u2013 Boise State<\/a>, Colorado State<\/a>, Fresno State<\/a>, San Diego State<\/a> and Utah State<\/a> \u2013 that were Mountain West members last season.<\/p>\n The former Pac-12 teams that left the league after the 2023 season: Cal<\/a> and Stanford<\/a> (ACC); Arizona<\/a>, Arizona State<\/a>, Colorado<\/a> and Utah<\/a> (Big 12) and Oregon<\/a>, UCLA<\/a>, USC<\/a> and Washington<\/a> (Big 12) are considered Pac-12 legacy teams for bowl purposes and will play in \u201cPac-12\u201d bowls and not bowls affiliated with their current conferences in 2026.<\/p>\n It remains undecided which bowl tie-ins the new Pac-12 will have.<\/p>\n The Poinsettia Bowl was held for 12 years from 2005-2016. The Poinsettia and Holiday bowls make San Diego one of six communities with multiple bowl games in 2026, along with Dallas\/Arlington\/Frisco, New Orleans, Orlando, Tampa and Phoenix\/Glendale.<\/p>\n The complete list of the 41 bowl games in 2026 (not including four on-campus first-round playoff games to be determined).<\/p>\n Cure, Citrus and Pop-Tarts Bowls (Orlando, Fla.); New Orleans and Sugar Bowls (New Orleans); Gasparilla and ReliaQuest Bowls (Tampa, Fla.); First Responder, Cotton, Frisco and Xbox Bowls (Dallas\/Arlington\/Frisco); Rate and Fiesta Bowls (Phoenix\/Glendale, Ariz.); Poinsettia and Holiday Bowls (San Diego)<\/p>\n 68 Ventures Bowl (Mobile, Ala.); Myrtle Beach Bowl (Conway, S.C.); Salute to Veterans Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.); Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, Idaho); Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, Fla.); Hawai\u2019i Bowl (Honolulu);\u00a0First Responder Bowl (Dallas); Military Bowl (Annapolis, Md.); Pinstripe Bowl (Bronx, N.Y); Fenway Bowl (Boston); Arizona Bowl (Tucson, Ariz.)<\/p>\n New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque, N.M.); Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, Fla.); Texas Bowl (Houston); Birmingham Bowl (Birmingham, Ala.); Independence Bowl (Shreveport, La.) Music City Bowl (Nashville, Tenn.); Alamo Bowl (San Antonio, Texas); Sun Bowl (El Paso, Texas); Las Vegas Bowl (Las Vegas); Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas); Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.); Duke\u2019s Mayo Bowl (Charlotte, N.C.); Orange Bowl (Miami); Peach Bowl (Atlanta); Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.)<\/p>\n Official bowl game dates are not expected to be announced until summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first college football game played in Puerto Rico and the return of the Poinsettia Bowl in San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-869245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116426465308808431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}