The Poinsettia Bowl is an annual college football bowl game. The game was first contested in 2005, created by the organizers of the Holiday Bowl. Through 2016, the game was played in late December each year at San Diego Stadium. After a decade-long hiatus, the bowl was revived in 2026 to be contested at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. Since inception, the bowl's only sponsor has been San Diego County Credit Union (commonly known as SDCCU), currently branding the game as the SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl.
History 2005–2016 The bowl was contested annually from 2005 through 2016, featuring a team from the Mountain West Conference each year it was played, originally against an at-large opponent.
The inaugural game in 2005 matched Navy Midshipmen against the Colorado State Rams; Navy won, 51–30, in front of an attendance of 36,842. In the week leading up to the 2005 game, the Navy Midshipmen accepted an invitation to the 2008, 2009, or 2010 Poinsettia Bowls if Navy was bowl-eligible in those seasons. That there are several United States Navy bases in and around San Diego contributed to this decision by the Midshipmen, at the time an independent program. Navy went on to play in the 2008 EagleBank Bowl and the 2009 Texas Bowl, then returned for the 2010 Poinsettia Bowl.
Bowl organizers announced that if the Army Black Knights were bowl-eligible at the end of the 2006 regular season, they would receive an automatic berth in the Poinsettia Bowl; however, the 2006 Black Knights wound up with a losing record, and thus were not eligible.
In July 2007, it was announced that, starting with the 2008 game, the Pac-10 Conference would send its seventh-place team to the game, and its sixth-place team in 2009 and 2010, replacing the at-large team in the bowl. The 2007 game matched the Utah Utes against the Navy Midshipmen; Utah won, 35–32. The Midshipment became bowl eligible via Navy's win over North Texas, 74–62, a game that set a new NCAA record for most points scored in a college football game.
It was announced that, starting with the 2008 season and continuing through 2009, if the Pac-10 did not have enough bowl-eligible teams to send one to the Poinsettia Bowl (a contractual obligation), the game's organizers reserved the right to select a team from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The 2008 game matched the No. 11 TCU Horned Frogs of the Mountain West Conference against the No. 9 Boise State Broncos, the WAC champion; TCU won, 17–16. Boise State received a berth as the Pac-10 did not have sufficient bowl-eligible teams for this game. The game garnered a 3.74 national television rating on ESPN, the bowl's most watched game ever and the highest rated pre-Christmas game ever on the all-sports network.
Louisiana Tech and TCU received and accepted bids to participate in the 2011 game, which TCU won, 31–24. TCU's participation was somewhat unexpected as they missed out on a third straight Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl invitation by a single national rank position, as they finished their regular season ranked 17th in the nation.
Hiatus On January 25, 2017, the San Diego Bowl Game Association announced plans to eliminate the Poinsettia Bowl and focus solely on the Holiday Bowl. The Poinsettia Bowl remained on hiatus through 2025.
2026–present In April 2026, if was announced that the bowl would once again be resumed, beginning with the 2026–27 bowl season. While initially seeming that the bowl would pit the Pac-12 champion against the Mountain West champion, it was announced the following month that the revived Poinsettia Bowl would pit the Pac-12 champion against a legacy member from the "old" Pac-12, which after conference realignment included teams dispersed across the Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC. The CW was named the bowl's official broadcast partner.
Game results
All rankings are taken from the AP poll prior to the game being played. Date Winning team Losing team Notes December 22, 2005 Navy 51 Colorado State 30 notes December 19, 2006 #25 TCU 37 Northern Illinois 7 notes December 20, 2007 Utah 35 Navy 32 notes December 23, 2008 #11 TCU 17 #9 Boise State 16 notes December 23, 2009 #23 Utah 37 California 27 notes December 23, 2010 San Diego State 35 Navy 14 notes December 21, 2011 #16 TCU 31 Louisiana Tech 24 notes December 20, 2012 BYU 23 San Diego State 6 notes December 26, 2013 Utah State 21 #24 Northern Illinois 14 notes December 23, 2014 Navy 17 San Diego State 16 notes December 23, 2015 Boise State 55 Northern Illinois 7 notes December 21, 2016 BYU24Wyoming 21 notes
MVPs Date played Offensive MVP Defensive MVP Player Team Pos. Player Team Pos. December 22, 2005 Reggie Campbell Navy RB Tyler Tidwell Navy LB December 19, 2006 Jeff Ballard TCU QB Tommy Blake TCU DE December 20, 2007 Brian Johnson Utah QB Joe Dale Utah DB December 23, 2008 Andy Dalton TCU QB Stephen Hodge TCU S December 23, 2009 Jordan Wynn Utah QB Stevenson Sylvester Utah LB December 23, 2010 Ronnie HillmanVincent Brown San Diego State RBWR Andrew Preston San Diego State DB December 21, 2011 Skye Dawson TCU WR Greg McCoy TCU CB December 20, 2012 Cody Hoffman BYU WR Kyle Van Noy BYU LB December 26, 2013 Joey DeMartino Utah State RB Jake Doughty Utah State LB December 23, 2014 Keenan Reynolds Navy QB Jordan Drake Navy LB December 23, 2015 Brett Rypien Boise State QB Kamalei Correa Boise State DE December 21, 2016 Jamaal Williams BYU RB Harvey Langi BYU LB
Most appearances Updated through the December 2016 edition (12 games, 24 total appearances). Rank Team Appearances Record 1 Navy 4 2–2 T2 TCU 3 3–0 T2 San Diego State 3 1–2 T2 Northern Illinois 3 0–3 T5 BYU 2 2–0 T5 Utah 2 2–0 T5 Boise State 2 1–1 Teams with a single appearance Won (1): Utah State
Lost (4): California, Colorado State, Louisiana Tech, Wyoming
Records by conference Updated through the December 2016 edition (12 games, 24 total appearances). ConferenceRecordAppearances by seasonGamesWLWin pct.WonLost Mountain West 12 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 2005, 2012, 2014, 2016 Independent 6 2005, 2012, 2014, 2016 2007, 2010 Pac-12 1 2009WAC 2 2008, 2011 MAC 3 2006, 2013, 2015 The record of the Pac-12 includes appearances when the conference was known as the Pac-10 (before 2011). Conferences that are defunct or no longer active in FBS are marked in italics. Independent appearances: BYU (2012, 2016), Navy (2005, 2007, 2010, 2014)
See also List of college bowl games
References
Further reading
External links