Holiday Bowl gets new title sponsor, then — wait for it — an Arizona-SMU matchup

Drama, always drama.

Each year, the Holiday Bowl matchup seems pretty straightforward heading into conference championship weekend.

Then something turns everything on its head and Selection Sunday becomes filled with wonder and anticipation and hand-wringing and frustration and, finally, happiness with the matchup (regardless of the matchup).

When a three-hour wait for the announcement ended Sunday, No. 17 Arizona (9-3) and SMU (8-4) were announced as the participants for the 46th anual game. The teams will meet Jan. 2 at Snapdragon Stadium. It is the first time in Holiday Bowl history for a post-New Year’s kickoff.

The Holiday Bowl gathered its Red Coats on Sunday morning at the Cox Business Lounge inside Snapdragon Stadium to announce the matchup. There was news before the news:  The bowl announced a new title sponsor, welcoming Trust & Will to go above the Holiday Bowl logo.

This year’s teams were supposed to be announced in the next breath, but that would have been too easy.

Instead, bowl officials adjourned to an adjoining room to haggle over who’s coming on the ACC side of the matchup in a conference call with officials from the Gator Bowl, Pop-Tarts Bowl and ACC.

“Thank you for your patience,” one Holiday Bowl official said as the wait stretched from one to two hours. “A lot of negotiating taking place.”

When another Holiday official apologized as the delay continued, she said, “This is what college football is. It keeps us on our toes.”

As the wait stretched into a third hour, Red Coats, the bowl’s ambassadors, kept themselves busy with a group photo on the field, taking a second trip through the brunch spread and talking about the weather.

Finally, Mark Neville, CEO of Sports San Diego, which runs the Holiday Bowl, stepped to the microphone and quipped: “I’m glad this went quickly.”

“It was crazy, and how we actually got to this and how we arrived at this matchup is pretty wild,” Neville said. “The stuff that was going on there with Notre Dame and (opt outs also by) Iowa State and Kansas State, it’s bad for college football. I can’t believe that it’s actually happening.

“With Notre Dame in particular today, it’s a bad look for college football. But that said, I’m pushing that aside because what we got here in San Diego is an amazing show with SMU and Arizona.”

The Holiday Bowl matches a former Pac-12 team against an ACC member. Throughout the week, signs pointed to an Arizona-SMU matchup.

Things got more complicated in the ACC because of what transpired on Saturday night, when Duke upset Virginia in the conference title game. That knocked Virginia out of the College Football Playoff picture and set a domino or two in motion.

Then on Sunday morning, the CFP committee put Miami (10-2) into the playoff and left Notre Dame (10-2) out. Notre Dame is grouped with ACC teams for bowl purposes, so that put it in the pool for consideration, along with Virginia (10-3), Georgia Tech (9-3) and SMU (8-4).

And the fight began over the Fighting Irish. Then Notre Dame disrupted everything by announcing it would not be participating in a bowl.

A statement from the team posted on X (formerly Twitter) read: “As a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideraton for a bowl game following the 2025 season. We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we’re hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”

pic.twitter.com/TyzavvzpC1

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 7, 2025

The Holiday Bowl was competing for teams with the Gator Bowl and Pop-Tarts Bowl. Each bowl submits the name of the team it wants. If all three bowls submit different schools, then they get those teams. If two or more bowls want the same team, then the conference and bowls discuss things to determine who goes where.

Bowl officials were left cooling their heels, though, as Notre Dame contemplated what it wanted to do.

“It’s pretty obvious (Notre Dame was the holdup),” Neville said. “That’s a big shoe to drop there. We were just waiting to see what’s going on.”

Things moved quickly once the Fighting Irish said they weren’t going to play.

“Everybody was eager to get their matchups set and expedited the process to get our announcements out,” Neville said.

And so the Holiday Bowl ended up right back where it started in midweek, with Arizona vs. SMU.

“We got an announcement that when I woke up this morning I was thinking would be awesome if we could make this work,” Neville said. “And it happened.”

It just took some doing to get there.

About the Wildcats

Arizona, which joined the Big 12 last season, comes into the game riding a five-game winning streak, capped last week with a 23-7 win over rival Arizona State. Other victories in the streak came over Colorado (52-17), Kansas (24-20), Cincinnati (30-24) and Baylor (41-17).

The Wildcats rank 33rd in the nation in scoring offense (32.6 ppg) and 19th in scoring defense (18.9 ppg).

Quarterback Noah Fifita (247-for-385, 2,963 yards, 26 TD/5 INT passing/101 carries, 143 yards, 3 TD rushing) leads the offense. Kris Hutson (57 catches, 740 yards, 4 TD), Javin Whatley (38-443, 4 TD) and Tre Spivey (21-359, 6 TD) are his favorite receivers. Running backs Ismail Mahdi (123 carries, 791 yards, 4 TD) and Kedrick Reescano (83-394, 9 TD) lead the ground game.

Arizona has made two previous trips to the Holiday Bowl, beating Nebraska 23-20 in the 1998 game and losing 33-0 to the Cornhuskers in the 2009 contest.

About the Mustangs

SMU won six of seven games late in the season before a 38-35 loss to Cal to conclude the regular season. That cost the Mustangs a chance to finish atop the ACC standings with Virginia and play for the conference championship. The highlight to SMU’s season was a 26-20 overtime victory over Miami. The Mustangs also beat Clemson (35-24), Boston College (45-13) and Louisville (38-6) the second half of the season.

SMU ranks 30th in the nation in scoring offense (32.9 ppg) and 32nd in scoring defense (20.7 ppg). The Mustangs are led by quarterback Kevin Jennnings (279-for-422, 3,363 yards, 26 TD/10 INT), who has spread the ball among nine receivers with at least 16 receptions. Wide receiver Jordan Hudson (56 catches, 749 yards, 6 TD) is his top target. Safety Ahmaad Moses (91 tackles, 5 INT) and defensive end Isaiah Smith (51 tackles, 8 1/2 sacks) lead the defense.

This is the second Holiday Bowl visit for SMU, which lost 46-45 to BYU in the 1980 game that is regarded among the best bowl games in college football history.