The 73rd Brut Sun Bowl will feature the Missouri Tigers and the Oregon State Beavers on Dec. 29th at 1 p.m. CT. It will be broadcast nationally by CBS.The 73rd Brut Sun Bowl will feature the Missouri Tigers and the Oregon State Beavers on Dec. 29th at 1 p.m. CT. It will be broadcast nationally by CBS.
Football

Mizzou Accepts Bid from Brut Sun Bowl

Dec. 3, 2006

Watch the Bowl Announcement LIVE!

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri football team has accepted an invitation to play in the 2006 Brut Sun Bowl, as announced today by Mizzou and Brut Sun Bowl officials.

Head Coach Gary Pinkel and his Tigers (8-4 overall, 4-4 and 2nd in Big 12 North Division) will play in the 73rd annual edition of the game, set for Dec. 29th in El Paso, Texas, against the 24th-ranked Oregon State Beavers (9-4 overall, 6-3 in the PAC-10). The game will kickoff at 1 p.m. (central) and will be televised nationally on CBS Sports for the 39th consecutive year, which is the longest running partnership between a network and a bowl game.

The game will mark MU's third bowl appearance in the last four seasons under Pinkel, after Mizzou had gone to only two bowl games in a span of 19 seasons dating from 1984-2002. The bowl appearance will be Mizzou's 24th alltime, with MU holding a 10-13 mark in its previous 23 outings.

"We're very excited to be a part of the Brut Sun Bowl," said MU Head Coach Gary Pinkel. "This game has a long-standing tradition of providing a great experience for the teams, and I can attest to that from personal experience since I've had a chance to play there twice before with Washington. The people associated with the Sun Bowl run a first-class operation, and we're looking forward to preparing for an excellent Oregon State team and getting to El Paso," he said.

Pinkel will be making his third appearance in the Sun Bowl, dating back to his assistant coaching days with Don James at the University of Washington. In 1979, Washington defeated Texas in the Sun Bowl, 14-7, and in 1986, the Huskies returned to El Paso, and dropped a 28-6 decision to Alabama.

"We are proud and pleased for Coach Pinkel and his staff and student-athletes for earning this great opportunity," said MU Director of Athletics Mike Alden. "They have had a great year and are very deserving to play in such a respected bowl game against a quality opponent like Oregon State. This should be a very exciting game, and we look forward to our fans traveling to El Paso to follow the Tigers," he said.

"We are excited to have Missouri play in the Brut Sun Bowl," said Brut Sun Bowl Executive Director Bernie Olivas. "The Tigers have one of the top 15 offenses in the country and that should make for an exciting game for El Paso and our national television audience on CBS. We look forward to extending our West Texas hospitality to the Tigers and their faithful fans," he said.

Mizzou and Oregon State have met just one time previously, and that matchup took place 50 years ago. Oregon State visited Columbia and left claiming a 19-13 win in the 1956 season opener that would be the last year of coaching for MU legend Don Faurot.

Mizzou has played in the Sun Bowl once before, when it claimed a 34-17 win over Auburn in 1973. Interestingly enough, the 1973 season is the last time that Mizzou had begun a season with a 6-0 start, as it did this year, and that Sun Bowl game was also played on Dec. 29th.

The Tigers and Beavers have not played any common opponents in 2006. Oregon State was the only team to have beaten national title contender Southern Cal (33-31 on Oct. 28th) prior to UCLA's win yesterday over the Trojans. OSU has won three straight coming into the bowl game, following an exciting 35-32 win late last night at 25th-ranked Hawai'i.

Ticket information and travel package details will be announced soon. Fans are encouraged to stayed tuned to www.mutigers.com for details, or to contact the Mizzou Ticket Office at 1-800-CAT-PAWS (884-PAWS in Columbia).

For more information about the 2006 Brut Sun Bowl, and the city of El Paso, please visit the official site of the Sun Bowl.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE BRUT SUN BOWL:

  • This will mark the 73rd annual Sun Bowl. Sun Bowl officials refer to their game as the nation's 2nd-oldest bowl game, based on the establishment of its charter...
  • Mizzou becomes the first Big 12 school to appear in the Sun Bowl, since the league formed in 1996. The last current member of the Big 12 to appear in the game was Texas, then a member of the Southwest Conference, when it defeated North Carolina, 35-31 in 1994. The last member of the old Big Eight Conference to play in the Sun Bowl was Oklahoma, which won a 41-10 game in 1993 over future Big 12 member Texas Tech...
  • Oregon State is making its 10th alltime bowl appearance, (including its 6th in the last 8 seasons dating back through the 1999 season) having gone 5-4 in its previous 9 bowl outings. OSU Head Coach Mike Riley is making his third bowl trip with the Beavers, and has won each of his previous two bowl games, 55-14 over New Mexico in the 2003 Las Vegas Bowl, and 38-21 over Notre Dame in the 2004 Insight Bowl. This will be OSU's first-ever appearance in the Sun Bowl...
  • Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso features an Astro Play artificial surface and lists a seating capacity of 50,426. Last year's game between UCLA and Northwestern (UCLA won, 50-38) drew a capacity attendance figure of 50,426. The attendance record for the bowl game came in 1985, when a record crowd of 52,203 saw Arizona and Georgia play to a 13-13 tie...
  • The University of Texas-El Paso is located in El Paso, and the school's Director of Athletics is former Mizzou football coach Bob Stull. Stull was MU's head coach for five seasons, from 1989-93. Stull was just in Columbia, Mo., this fall (for the Oklahoma game), as Mizzou hosted a reunion of players and coaches who were part of the Stull era at Mizzou...
  • MU Head Coach Gary Pinkel is 2-1 in bowl games as a Head Coach, including his 38-31 win over South Carolina in the 2005 Independence Bowl. Prior to that, Pinkel's Tigers were defeated by Arkansas (27-14) in the 2003 Independence Bowl, and Pinkel's Toledo Rockets won a 40-37 overtime game in the 1995 Las Vegas Bowl...
  • The bowl game will be the 15th of Pinkel's coaching career, including his assistant coaching days with Don James at Washington. Pinkel's teams have won 10-of-14 bowl games, including going 8-3 at Washington, 1-0 at Toledo, and 1-1 at Mizzou...
  • The City of El Paso has a popultion of over 600,000, and is located in Southwest Texas, adjoining New Mexico and Mexico. It is referred to as the "Twin Nation Vacation" - a place where you can visit three states (Texas, New Mexico and Chihuahua) and two countries (United States and Mexico) in a matter of minutes. Just minutes away across the Rio Grande is its sister-city, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which has a population of over 1.2 million, putting the total metro El Paso area at a population of nearly 2 million. El Paso is the 4th-largest city in the state of Texas, and the 21st-largest city in the U.S., while Juarez is the 5th-largest city in Mexico...
  • El Paso lists an altitude of 4,000 feet above sea level, and it operates on Mountain Standard Time, and it is the only city in the state of Texas that is not on Central Time...
  • Sun Bowl Stadium is cut between two mountains and the south end zone overlooks the Rio Grande River and into Mexico...
  • El Paso's culture is a blend of Indian, Spanish and American heritage. English and Spanish are spoken interchangeably in El Paso and its sister city, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico...
  • El Paso is home to Fort Bliss, the largest Air Defense Center in the western world...
  • The average daily high temperature in December is 58.2 F; the average low is 30.6 F...
  • The sun rises in El Paso in December at approximately 6:56 a.m. (MST). The sun sets at approximately 5:06 p.m...
  • The oldest road in the United States, Camino Real, leads through El Paso. The Camino Real was carved by conquistadors traveling north in search of gold and land.