Inside The Huskies

Repeat UW Trip to Sun Bowl Floated, Seems Unlikely

Multiple media outlets envision the Huskies returning to El Paso for the postseason.
Dan Raley|
Jedd Fisch dons the local apparel after he and the Huskies arrived in El Paso, Texas, for the 2024 Sun Bowl.
Jedd Fisch dons the local apparel after he and the Huskies arrived in El Paso, Texas, for the 2024 Sun Bowl. | UW

The Sun Bowl supposedly has an unwritten rule that it doesn't invite a team to play in its New Year's Eve football game over consecutive years.

In fact, the organizers of the nation's second-oldest bowl game -- a distinction shared with the Orange and Sugar, with each one created in 1935 -- haven't brought a team to El Paso for back-to-back appearances in 23 years.

The University of Washington can confirm as much.

The Huskies lost to Purdue 34-24 in El Paso in 2002, a year after the Boilermakers lost the Sun Bowl to Washington State 33-27.

Prior to that, it was another 23 years before another repeat participant took part in this postseason game.

The UW can verify that scenario, as well.

In 1979, the Huskies beat Texas 14-7 shortly before Christmas, this coming a year after the Longhorns had beaten Maryland 42-0 in this longstanding bowl game on the border.

Some of the analysts think this will happen once more for the UW, with pairings announced on Sunday after all of the conference championship games are decided nationwide.

Kyle Bonagura of ESPN envisions the Huskies (8-4 overall, 5-4 Big Ten) facing 21st-ranked SMU (8-4 overall, 6-2 ACC) for the first time ever in its history in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31 while USA Today envisions the UW playing against 22nd-ranked Pittsburgh (8-4 overall, 6-2 ACC) in this Texas outing.

The Huskies met the Panthers in the 1937 Rose Bowl, and lost 21-0, and haven't faced Pitt since 1979, when they lost 26-14. Overall, the UW is 1-4 against that school.

While that's an interesting proposition -- a return trip to El Paso -- more prognosticators still see the UW playing in the Dec. 13 LA Bowl at SoFi Stadium more than anywhere else.

Among them, Mark Schlabach of ESPN, Athlon, College Football News and Sports Illustrated..

The first three media outlets favor the UW taking on Boise State (8-4 overall, 6-2 Mountain West) in the LA Bowl on the first day that bowls can be held, while SI is forecasting the Huskies will be opposite UNLV (10-2 overall) 6-2 Mountain West) in the Inglewood, California, game.

And, yes, there remains one hold-out for the Huskies ending up in the Jan. 2 Holiday Bowl in San Diego, with CBS putting the UW and Pitt together, which, like the Sun Bowl, seems most unlikely.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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