New Pac-12 finalizing deal with restart Poinsettia Bowl; Mountain West not included

Boise State holds 1-1 Poinsettia Bowl record

Boise State offensive lineman Marcus Henry (72) and safety Darian Thompson hold the Poinsettia Bowl trophy. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The first piece of the new Pac-12’s bowl game lineup for the 2026 season is falling into place.

On3’s Brett McMurphy reported on Wednesday that the reborn Poinsettia Bowl is finalizing a deal to have the Pac-12 champion—assuming the team doesn’t qualify for the College Football Playoff—face a Pac-12 legacy team at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. 

The Pac-12 legacy teams are Arizona (Big 12), Arizona State (Big 12), California (ACC), Colorado (Big 12), Oregon (Big Ten), Stanford (ACC), UCLA (Big Ten), USC (Big Ten), Utah (Big 12) and Washington (Big Ten). 

Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State are all leaving the Mountain West on July 1 to join the Pac-12. The eight-team football conference will also feature holdovers Oregon State and Washington State and Texas State of the Sun Belt. Gonzaga, which does not compete in football, is the conference’s ninth full member. 

The College Football Playoff will remain a 12-team field for the 2026 season. The CFP is expected to expand to 16 or 24 teams in 2027, which will have a trickle-down effect on bowl season. 

The modern Poinsettia Bowl began in 2005 and ran through the 2016 season. All 12 matchups featured a Mountain West team.

The 2008 Poinsettia Bowl was a classic with ninth-ranked Boise State, then of the Western Athletic Conference, taking on No. 11 TCU of the MWC. The Horned Frogs secured a 17-16 victory. 

Boise State also played in the 2015 Poinsettia Bowl and scored a 55-7 blowout win over Northern Illinois. 

The Poinsettia Bowl is the new Pac-12’s first bowl tie-in for the 2026 season. 

The LA Bowl, which pitted the MWC champion against a Pac-12 team, folded after the 2025 season. 

Boise State went 0-2 in the LA Bowl with losses to UCLA in 2023 and Washington in 2025. 

The MWC has four remaining bowl tie-ins: the Arizona Bowl, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, the Hawaii Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl.

The rebuilt MWC will have 10 football-playing teams for the upcoming season: Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Illinois, North Dakota State, San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP and Wyoming. 

Earlier this week, the Pac-12 and MWC announced in a joint statement that the two conferences had agreed to a settlement in principle to end two lawsuits over poaching penalties and exit fees. 

The MWC was seeking more than $150 million from the Pac-12 and the departing members.