The Last Non-Power Conference Teams to Make A Sun Bowl
Central Michigan joins nearly unprecedented company thanks to COVID-19 opt-outs.
It has been a chaotic last couple of days on the college football landscape, to say the least. On Sunday, Miami opted out of the Sun Bowl due to COVID-19 issues, and the following day, Boise State opted out of the Arizona Bowl for the same reason.
That left Washington State and Central Michigan destined for each other on New Year’s Eve. Two teams with very different backgrounds will find each other before the ball drops on midnight New Year’s Day. If it sounds like a holiday rom-com, it is not, it is simply the Sun Bowl.
A MAC squad playing in the Sun Bowl is just as rare as one might think as the Chippewas join the 1946 and 1950 Cincinnati Bearcats, 1947 Miami (Ohio), and 1962 Ohio teams as the only MAC teams to play in the bowl.
Surprisingly, over the past fifty years, it has become nearly as rare for non-automatic qualifying teams to make the Sun Bowl. Since UTEP’s final appearance in the Sun Bowl in 1967, only Army in 1988 and TCU in 1998 have made the Sun Bowl outside of non-automatic qualifying conferences/the Power Six (Big East included).
1988 Army
In 1988 Army made it to El Paso with a 9-2 record, their best record since 1967. Interestingly enough, four wins against Division 1-AA (FCS) opponents padded that record. In one of the more exciting games in the bowl’s history, the Black Knights went back and forth with an 8-3 and #20 ranked Alabama team.
Despite facing future Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas, the Black Knights ran for 366 yards with fullback Ben Barnett leading the way with 177 yards on only 14 carries. Despite the great performance on the ground, David Casteal’s two-yard touchdown with 4:01 to go gave the Crimson Tide a 29-28 win.
Interestingly enough, the Sun Bowl website notes that this game is the lowest rated Sun Bowl to date as it competed with an AFC Wild Card game for viewers.
1998 TCU
Exactly a decade later, a team from the WAC became the last non-automatic qualifying team to make the Sun Bowl. The Big Ten sent Wisconsin and Ohio State to the Rose and Sugar Bowls, respectively, and only had three other bowl eligible schools, meaning they could not fulfill their obligation to send their #5 team to the Sun Bowl.
As a result, TCU who finished 6-5 in the 16-team WAC, with losses to 5-7 SMU and 5-6 Rice, found themselves in El Paso. The Horned Frogs only completed 47 percent of their passes and threw for 97 yards per game, but a strong rushing attack led by Basil Mitchell and a young back named Ladainian Tomlinson offset their aerial struggles.
The 8-4 USC Trojans, fresh off a win over #9 Notre Dame to end their regular season, awaited the Horned Frogs in El Paso. Yet, the Horned Frogs pulled the upset in a game that displayed the stark contrast in styles.
Basil Mitchell’s 185 yards led a rushing attack that ran for 314 yards for TCU while throwing for only 51 yards on only six passes. USC on the other hand ran for -23 yards while throwing for 280 as TCU won 28-19 for their first bowl win since the 1957 Cotton Bowl.
Since this 1998 game, the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and ACC have all rotated in sending teams to El Paso. Due to the bowl’s rich history, high payout, and CBS television spot, it has been relatively high on each conference’s bowl selection order.
With this in mind, Central Michigan’s appearance in El Paso may be one of the more feel-good moments of the 2021 college football season. On New Year’s Eve, Central Michigan will play a role of spoiler that few schools since the LBJ administration have played in El Paso.