San Diego State gets tough draw in New Mexico Bowl

The Aztecs will have to move past the bad memories

San Diego State Aztecs wide receiver Jordan Napier. | Photo courtesy of San Diego State University Athletics

San Diego State will be making another trip to Albuquerque this season, this time to play No. 23 North Texas in the Isleta New Mexico Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 27.

Kickoff is set for 2:45 p.m. PT at University Stadium and the game will air on ESPN. 

The Aztecs will have to move past the bad memories of their trip to Albuquerque on Nov. 28, when they lost 23-17 in double overtime to New Mexico, the first of two results that knocked the Aztecs out of the Mountain West championship game.

The Aztecs ended the regular season in a four-way tie at 6-2 with New Mexico, Boise State and UNLV, and MW officials used computer rankings to pick BSU to host UNLV for the title. The Broncos won and are set to face Washington in the Los Angeles Bowl.

Why this matters

But this is still a big deal for the Aztecs (9-3), who had a six-win turnaround in Sean Lewis’ second season as head coach to earn their first bowl invitation in three seasons. 

The six-win improvement over the 3-9 record in Lewis’ first season matches the largest win increase by SDSU since the program started in 1921. The only other time the Aztecs had that big of a swing was going from 1-6-1 in 1960 to 7-2-1 in 1961.

Scouting the Mean Green

North Texas finished the regular season at 11-2 and 25th in the College Football Playoff Rankings after losing 34-21 to Tulane in the American Conference Championship Game. Tulane will face Ole Miss in the first round of the CFP. 

North Texas dropped to No. 23 in The Associated Press poll on Sunday and was receiving votes in the coaches poll. The 11 victories are the most in Mean Green history.

The Aztecs are 6-1 all-time against North Texas, but haven’t played in 50 years, with SDSU winning 30-12 in 1975.

SDSU bowl history

SDSU is playing in its 17th bowl game in its Division I era and 21st overall. The Aztecs are going bowling for the 13th time in the last 16 seasons. 

They played in 10 straight bowl games from 2010-2019. They withdrew from consideration in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season before returning to postseason action in 2021 and 2022. They missed the postseason in Brady Hoke’s final season as head coach in 2023 and Lewis’ first season last fall.

San Diego State is playing in the New Mexico Bowl for the second time after beating Central Michigan 48-11 in 2019.