Georgia Tech Lands In The Pop-Tarts Bowl vs No. 12 BYU After Notre Dame Declines Invitation

Georgia Tech will get to face 11-2 BYU in the Pop Tarts Bowl after Notre Dame declined the invitation

Nov 28, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key leads the team on the field before a game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The ACC was in a major holdup due to how the playoff rankings shook out today, but the announcement has come in and Georgia Tech is going to land in one of the premier bowl games in the ACC.

After Notre Dame declined the invitation to play No. 12 BYU in the Pop Tarts Bowl, it was announced that the Yellow Jackets would be invited to play in the bowl game to face the Cougars. This is going to be the 5th all-time meeting between the two programs, and it will be a bowl game between two ranked teams.

📍 @PopTartsBowl

The Yellow Jackets are headed to Orlando! pic.twitter.com/TEOLPWG2ns

— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) December 7, 2025

Georgia Tech & BYU will play in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, sources told @On3sports. Complete list of confirmed bowl bids ⤵️https://t.co/Z4QMu98Uix

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 7, 2025

The bowl appearance is Georgia Tech’s third-straight and 48th all-time. The Yellow Jackets’ 48 bowl appearances are the 14th-most in college football history. Tech is making a third-consecutive bowl appearance for the first time since 2012-14. The Jackets are also tied for 13th all-time with 26 bowl/playoff victories and are 12th in NCAA Division I FBS history with a .553 postseason winning percentage (26-21).

Georgia Tech (9-3, 6-2 ACC) brings its best regular-season record since 2014 into the Pop-Tarts Bowl. The nine-win regular season is only the 16th in Tech’s 133-year football history.

BYU is 11-2 overall, with both of its defeats coming at the hands of No. 4 Texas Tech (once in the regular season and once in Saturday’s Big XII championship game).

The matchup is Georgia Tech’s first ranked-vs.-ranked bowl showdown since the No. 10/9 Yellow Jackets defeated No. 8 Mississippi State, 49-34, in the 2014 Orange Bowl.

Georgia Tech is making its third appearance in the game now known as the Pop-Tarts Bowl. The Yellow Jackets are 2-0 in the bowl, having defeated West Virginia, 35-30, in 1997 when it was known as the Carquest Bowl in Miami Gardens, Fla., and routed Syracuse, 51-14, when it was known as the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando.

It will be the Jackets’ third all-time bowl appearance in the stadium now known as Camping World Stadium, as they topped Nebraska, 45-21, in the Florida Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1, 1991, to clinch the 1990 national championship, when the stadium was called the Florida Citrus Bowl.

This is going to be an interesting matchup between two of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country. Haynes King is this year's ACC player of the year and BYU's Bear Bachmeier leads a powerful BYU rushing attack. The Cougars finished the regular season 11-1 and played in the Big 12 championshpi game yesterday, losing once again to Texas Tech.

Georgia Tech came in at No. 22 in the final 2025 College Football Playoff rankings, which were announced on Sunday. The ranking marks the first time since 2014 - the Playoff’s inaugural season – that Georgia Tech has been in the CFP’s final top 25.

Georgia Tech closed the regular season at 9-3 overall and 6-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. The 9-3 regular season was the Yellow Jackets’ best since they went 10-2 and were ranked No. 12 in the final CFP rankings in 2014. Tech’s 9-3 campaign is also only the 16th nine-win regular season in the program’s 133-year history.

The Jackets’ 6-2 conference record was good for a tie for second in the final ACC standings and was also Tech’s best finish since ’14. Georgia Tech is the only team that has finished in the top four of the ACC each of the last three seasons.

For the first time in the 12-year CFP era, Georgia Tech was included in each of the selection committee’s six weekly rankings this season. Tech was ranked for 6-of-7 weeks during in ‘14.

The two teams have similar identities on offense as far as wanting to run the football, but it is also a matchup of two head coaches who are coaching their alma maters. Kalani Sitake is a former fullback at BYU and has done a great job of making them a contender in the Big 12.

BYU leads the all-time series between the two teams 3-1, but they have not played since 2013 and have never played in a bowl game against each other. Georgia Tech's lone win against BYU came in 2002 in Atlanta, a 28-19 win.

The Pop Tarts Bowl will kick off on Saturday, Dec. 27th at 3:30 and will be televised on ABC.