Fresno State will face off against Miami of Ohio in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin and Juice on Dec. 27 in Casino Del Sol stadium in Tucson, Arizona.
The Bulldogs (8-4) is coming off a year that landed them fifth in the Mountain West standings. Miami of Ohio (7-6) will return to the bowl game after winning against Colorado State last year.
The RedHawks finished second in the Mid-American Conference.
“We are always looking for two things: We’re looking for a really great match up and we are looking for teams that are going to come here settle in, and enjoy our amazing hospitality,” Kym Adair , the game’s executive director said. “We’ve been looking to get Fresno State here for a long time… On the flip side, Miami was such an incredible team last year, made it to the conference championship. We wanted to bring them back and give them a chance to defend that title (Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl).”
Founder and chairman Ali Farhang explained the process of picking the two teams.
“I thought I knew who our teams were on Friday, and you saw us up the end we didn’t know because the way college football is right now,” he said. “We’re just really pleased that it ended up the way we wanted from the beginning.”
The Bulldogs had a season filled with upsets, notably beating Oregon State, Hawaii, and eventual Mountain West Champion Boise State. On the other hand, Fresno State was blown out against the Kansas (31-7) to start the year, another one-sided loss to Colorado State (49-21), and being blanked by San Diego State (23-0).
A familiar face for Wildcat fans will be Rayshon Luke, better known as “Speedy” Luke, who spent two years at Arizona before transferring to Fresno State before this season.
Miami of Ohio got off to a rocky start this year losing three straight games to Wisconsin, Rutgers and UNLV. The RedHawks were able to right the ship though only losing two games in the conference to Toledo (24-3) and Ohio (24-20) before falling to Western Michigan in the conference championship (23-13).
Apart from the game itself, the benefits that the bowl game provides for the community is something that must be talked about.
“Still the only bowl game in the nation (that) gives 100% of our net proceeds to charity,” Eric Rhodes, the VP of Communications for the Arizona Bowl, said. “This past year, we gave 25 different charities money, so in our 11 years now, over 90 charities we’ve been able to give to right here in Southern Arizona.”
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