Stanford-Pitt Set to Headline the 85th Annual Hyundai Sun Bowl

The wait is over and bowl season is here, as Pittsburgh is set to take on Stanford for the 85th annual Hyundai Sun Bowl on Dec. 31 at noon.

The announcement came after the Holliday Bowl surprisingly took Utah over Stanford to play Northwestern. That decision made it so Stanford would drop to the Sun Bowl. Since the Camping World Bowl took Syracuse, it resulted in Miami to the Pinstripe, NC State to Gator and Pitt to the Sun Bowl over Boston College, which was probably because of Pitt's 6-2 league record to Boston College's 4-4 finish in the ACC.

Stanford (8-4) will represent the Pac-12 in the Sun Bowl, coming off a third-place finish in the Pac-12 North. They finished their season strong with three-straight wins (Oregon State, UCLA and Cal). The Cardinal are making their second Sun Bowl appearance in three years, having beaten North Carolina (25-23) in 2016.

Pittsburgh (7-6) will be the ACC affiliate team to the Sun Bowl. The Panthers finished first place in the ACC Coastal, but have lost their last two games after winning four-straight before that. They are making their first trip back to the Sun Bowl since their low-scoring 2008 Sun Bowl against Oregon State, where the Beavers won 3-0 over the Panthers in the lowest-scoring major bowl game in a half-century at that point.

Kickoff between the two teams is set for noon on New Year's Eve at the Sun Bowl.