The moment the scoreboard clock reached 0:00 on Friday night at Snapdragon Stadium and SMU players began celebrating their 24-19 victory over No. 21 Arizona in the Trust & Will Holiday Bowl, the 2025 bowl season was in the books.
There remain three College Football Playoff games on the schedule, but all the other games have been played.
And the Holiday Bowl, like all the other bowls, became a free agent.
Conference tie-ins for the bowls go in six-year cycles, and the current cycle expired with this season’s games. The Holiday Bowl’s agreement with the ACC and teams formerly in the Pac-12 is up.
One of the primary tasks on the Holiday Bowl’s 2026 agenda is coming up with new tie-ins. The bowl will also be negotiating a new TV deal — Friday’s game aired on Fox — and looking for a new title sponsor. Trust & Will sponsored this year’s game on a one-year deal, although it could be extended.
So what does the future hold for the Holiday Bowl and its peers? It is an especially pertinent question amid the expanded CFP and public perception among many college football fans that the bowl system has been diminished.
“There’s going to be a bowl system, and there’s still a lot of value in the bowls,” said Mark Neville, CEO of Sports San Diego, which stages the Holiday Bowl. “Because of that, there’s going to be a way to make this work. I’m confident that the Trust & Will Holiday Bowl is going to be around for a long time.
“Now, in what format, I can’t tell you. There’s a lot of variables out there that will point in the direction.”
Variables include the new conference tie-ins and where on the calendar to place the kickoff date.
Neville said nearly every conference has reached out for a potential tie-in.
One question: Are they all interested in the game at a reduced payout?
The Holiday Bowl’s financial reserves were depleted when the 2020 and 2021 games were canceled because of COVID-19. It has become more and more difficult to cover costs, with sponsorships more challenging to come by and decreased demand for tickets.
The Holiday Bowl’s combined payout during the cycle that just ended was approximately $6 million. A future payout of $2 million or $3 million would put the bowl on much more favorable financial footing.
The Arizona-SMU game was the first Holiday Bowl played post-New Year’s in the bowl’s 47-year history. The game kicked off during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day for the past three decades. It was a pre-Christmas event before that.
Attendance for this year’s game was announced at 30,602. That was substantially higher than the 23,920 announced a year ago, when Washington State played Syracuse on Dec. 27. Was attendance a function of the teams or the timing? What kick date would be most beneficial? That will require some discussion.
“There’s a lot to be figured out,” Neville said. “A lot of that will start with what happens with the playoff, expansion and things like that.”
Ah, the playoff.
The College Football Playoff was expanded last year from four to 12 teams. There is talk that it could be expanded to 16 or even 24 teams. Adding an additional four teams could be accommodated as soon as the 2026 season. Boosting it beyond that would require more time to handle logistics and contract details.
The College Football Playoff Management Committee was going to determine the 2026 format last month, but pushed its decision to Jan. 23 so it would have two years of data from the 12-team format.
So the Holiday Bowl will wait until something is decided.
“The bowl games are really good about bobbing and weaving and rolling with things,” Neville said.
Among the biggest questions with an expanded field is whether to host the additional games at bowl sites or on the campus of the higher-seeded team.
Neville said bowls need to continue to evolve regardless of what happens with the CFP. They need to challenge and reinvent themselves.
“We’re still going to be putting on games,” he said. “That’s never going to change. A lot of bowl games have gotten more creative out there. I’d like to think we’re one of them.”
Creative in what ways?
“To make it more of a fan spectacle,” Neville said. “To get the fans more engaged. I don’t know that our messaging has changed that much through the years. We’re going to have a great football game. We’re also going to have spectacular pageantry. … We’re going to have more fun with it. We’ve challenged ourselves to make it a can’t-miss experience.”
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