DirecTV Holiday Bowl gets No. 21 Syracuse, Washington State for 45th annual game – elcajon newson Elcajon News only

Drama, always drama.

At least this year’s drama didn’t prevent the DirecTV Holiday Bowl from announcing that No. 21 Syracuse will play Washington State in the 45th annual game.

“We’ve got two-high-scoring offenses and really exciting teams heading to San Diego for the DirecTV Holiday Bowl,” said Mark Neville, CEO of Sports San Diego, which stages the Holiday Bowl. “We look forward to welcoming their great fan bases to San Diego later this month.”

The teams will meet Dec. 27 in the Holiday Bowl’s return to its Mission Valley roots after three years downtown at Petco Park. The game will be played at 32,500-seat Snapdragon Stadium. Kickoff is 5 p.m. for a game that will air on Fox.

Neville was with other bowl executives and ACC officials in Charlotte, N.C., which is annually Drama Central.

The Holiday Bowl had Clemson’s Tigers by the tail for the third straight year. The previous two years Clemson was wrestled away during wrangling in a hotel suite. Last year, that created a two-hour delay in the Holiday’s official announcement.

At least this year, Clemson got away by something that happened on the field. The Tigers kicked a walk-off field goal to beat SMU 34-31 in Saturday night’s ACC championship game for an automatic berth into the playoff.

The Holiday Bowl matches teams from the ACC against current and former members of the Pac-12.

With Clemson unavailable and Miami ticketed to the Pop-Tarts Bowl regardless of what happened in the NCAA title game, it left either SMU or Syracuse for the Holiday Bowl.

That’s where the drama came in.

Most everyone assumed SMU would drop from the playoff picture with the loss, with the committee choosing Alabama for the last at-large spot in the 12-team playoff.

When the bracket was unveiled this morning on ESPN, the last spot revealed was the one occupied by either SMU or Alabama.

Who had the SEC team getting the short end of the stick on their bingo card?

SMU coaches and players were probably covering their eyes, although there was no watch party for the Mustangs when the jaw-dropping news came.

With SMU in the playoff, that left Syracuse (8-4) getting its first invitation to the Holiday Bowl.

This is the fifth visit to the local bowl game for Washington State (8-4). The Cougars were no drama by comparison.

Arizona State’s 45-19 victory over Iowa State in the Big 12 championship removed the Sun Devils from the Holiday Bowl picture.

Colorado was ticketed to the Alamo Bowl regardless of the outcome in the Big 12 title game.

So Washington State was next team up for the Holiday.

The only drama in Pullman was the status of dual-threat quarterback John Mateer, who leads the nation with 44 combined touchdowns (29 passing/15 rushing).

A rumor early in the week had Mateer headed to the transfer portal, perhaps following Cougars offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle to Oklahoma.

The Seattle Times reported that Mateer participated Friday in the Cougars’ first bowl practice, and Washington State’s NIL collective stepped up with a package to keep Mateer in the fold.

Washington State has played at Snapdragon Stadium once this season, beating San Diego State 29-26 in a midseason game.

Mateer was 19-for-27 for 257 yards in the game, passing for two touchdowns and rushing for two more against the Aztecs.