Drama, always drama.
Each year, the Holiday Bowl matchup seems pretty straightforward heading into conference championship weekend.
Then something turns everything on its head and Selection Sunday becomes filled with wonder and anticipation and hand-wringing and frustration and, finally, happiness with the matchup (regardless of the matchup).
When a nearly three-hour wait for the announcement ended Sunday, No. 17 Arizona (9-3) and SMU (8-4) were announced as the participants for the 46th anual game. The teams will meet Jan. 2 at Snapdragon Stadium. It is the first time in Holiday Bowl history for a post-New Year’s kickoff.
The Holiday Bowl gathered its Red Coats on Sunday morning at the Cox Business Lounge inside Snapdragon Stadium to announce the matchup. There was news before the news: The bowl announced a new title sponsor, welcoming Trust & Will to go above the Holiday Bowl logo.
This year’s teams were supposed to be announced in the next breath, but that would have been too easy.
Instead, bowl officials adjourned to an adjoining room to haggle over who’s coming on the ACC side of the matchup.
“Thank you for your patience,” one Holiday Bowl official said as the wait stretched from one to two hours. “A lot of negotiating taking place.”
When another Holiday official apologized as the delay continued, she said, “This is what college football is. It keeps us on our toes.”
As the wait stretched into a third hour, Red Coats, the bowl’s ambassadors, kept themselves busy with a group photo on the field, taking a second trip through the brunch spread and talking about the weather.
The Holiday Bowl matches a former Pac-12 team against an ACC member. Throughout the week, signs pointed to an Arizona-SMU matchup.
Arizona, which moved to the Big 12 last season, held up its end of the bargain.
Things got more complicated in the ACC because of what transpired on Saturday night, when Duke upset Virginia in the conference title game. That knocked Virginia out of the College Football Playoff picture and set a domino or two in motion.
Then on Sunday morning, the CFP committee put Miami (10-2) into the playoff and left Notre Dame (10-2) out. Notre Dame is grouped with ACC teams for bowl purposes, so that put it in the pool for consideration, along with Virginia (10-3), Georgia Tech (9-3) and SMU (8-4).
And the fight began over the Fighting Irish. Then Notre Dame disrupted everything by announcing it would not be participating in a bowl.
The Holiday Bowl was competing for teams with the Gator Bowl and Pop-Tarts Bowl. Each bowl submits the name of the team it wants. If all three bowls submit different schools, then they get those teams. If two or more bowls want the same team, then the conference and bowls discuss things to determine who goes where.
That’s where one word led to another and one hour after another passed before there was a decision of Arizona vs. SMU.
All that time to get back to where they started.