Book the flight. Book the hotel. Pitt is going back to El Paso.
The Panthers will oppose No. 18 UCLA in the 2022 Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl on Dec. 30 in El Paso, Texas, the programs and the Sun Bowl Association each announced on Sunday afternoon.
The game will kick off at 2 p.m. EST, and it will be televised on CBS.
Bowl Bound βοΈ @TonyTheTigerSB
β Pitt Football (@Pitt_FB) December 4, 2022
Pitt Panthers π UCLA Bruins
π 12.30.22 β° 2 p.m. EST
πΊ @CBSSports π El Paso, Texas#H2P Β» #WeNotMe pic.twitter.com/dEX906vaon
π Let's go bowling! @TonyTheTigerSB pic.twitter.com/XYir8HQtnY
β UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) December 4, 2022
π LOCKED IN π Who will come away with the win?
β Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl (@TonyTheTigerSB) December 4, 2022
ποΈ: December 30th
β°: 12:00 pm MST
πΊ: @CBSSports
π: Sun Bowl#SunBowl #BowlSeason pic.twitter.com/0wevNQi3Zi
This is the fifth trip the Panthers will make to the Sun Bowl, the second in five seasons, and the second in the Pat Narduzzi era. Pitt is 2-2 all-time in the Sun Bowl, including wins over Kansas (1975) and Texas A&M (1989) and losses to Oregon State (2008) and Stanford (2018).
Pitt is 5-9 all-time against UCLA, but the programs have not faced each other since Sept. 16, 1972, in Pittsburgh. UCLA won that game, 38-28. The last Pitt win against the Bruins was the year prior, when the Panthers won 29-25 on Sept. 11, 1971, inside the LA Memorial Coliseum.
The 2022 Sun Bowl will be the first neutral-site matchup between the teams.
UCLA finished 9-3 overall and 6-3 in the Pac-12 this season. Their year included back-to-back home wins over ranked Pac-12 rivals. The Bruins topped No. 15 Washington 40-32 on Sept. 30, and followed it with a 42-32 triumph over No. 11 Utah the next week. The Bruins and coach Chip Kelly achieved a No. 9 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 following those victories, but fell back to No. 12 after losing to No. 10 Oregon in the next week.
Pitt ended the regular season at 8-4 overall and 5-3 within the ACC. They had a surge in November, finishing the month with a 4-0 record. That followed a 1-3 record in October. The Panthers opened the season with a thrilling 38-31 win over West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, and fell to now-No. 6 Tennessee in overtime, 34-27, the following week. Pitt had achieved a season-high ranking of No. 17 in the AP poll, which it carried from the preseason and after the win in the Backyard Brawl. The Panthers dropped to No. 23 in the AP poll following the loss to Tennessee. They have not held a ranking since Oct. 6, following a home loss to Georgia Tech.
This story was first posted at 2:55 p.m. on Dec. 4, and was last updated at 4:25 p.m. Dec. 4.
