There was some uncertainty over where Pitt would end up after a campaign in which they overachieved in relation to initial expectations but underachieved down the stretch with a blowout loss to Miami to close out the regular season and a similar loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game. The two primary candidates to emerge were the Pinstripe Bowl and the Sun Bowl, and on Sunday afternoon, it was announced that Pitt would face Stanford in the latter.
“We’re going to have Stanford out of the Pac-12, and they’re going to play the winner of the Coastal Division in the ACC, and that’s Pittsburgh,” said Sun Bowl football committee chairman John Folmer.