Arkansas State is going bowling for a sixth consecutive year — but the venue and opponent will provide some newness.
ASU accepted a bid to the Cure Bowl in Orlando on Sunday and will play Central Florida at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 17. It’ll be the Red Wolves’ first trip to the 3-year-old bowl game, and they will be meeting Central Florida for just the second time and for the first time in 25 years.
The team is scheduled to arrive in Orlando on Dec. 14, and single-game tickets are $25, $50 and $75, according to the bowl's website.
ASU (7-5) will play in the game after beating Texas State 36-14 on Saturday night to wrap up a share of the Sun Belt Conference title, its fifth in the last six seasons.
Central Florida (6-6) finished third in the American Athletic Conference East Division under first-year Coach Scott Frost a year after it went 0-12.
The Knights, who will be playing in their home Camping World Stadium, are going to a bowl for the fourth time in their last five seasons.
ASU is 2-4 in FBS bowl games and has lost bowl games in the last two years under Coach Blake Anderson. The Red Wolves lost to Louisiana Tech 47-28 in last year’s New Orleans Bowl and to Toledo, in the GoDaddy Bowl after the 2014 season.
This year’s bowl gives ASU a chance to match up with a team from the AAC, generally considered the best of the Group of Five conferences. ASU is 0-1 against teams from the league formed in 2013, losing to Memphis 31-7 in 2013.
An eighth victory would be the fourth time since ASU moved to the FBS in 1992 that it reaches that mark.
The only other meeting between the teams came in 1991, when Central Florida won 31-20 in Jonesboro in Al Kincaid’s last season as coach.
Read Monday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more.