West Coast bowl trips used to be the norm for the University of Toledo, as the Mid-American Conference champion went to the California Bowl and Las Vegas Bowl for nearly two decades.
But the proliferation of bowl games at the turn of the century changed that dynamic, with the MAC receiving multiple guaranteed slots, mostly in the Deep South and Florida. UT’s trip to the Arizona Bowl is its first bowl game west of the Mississippi since the 2012 Potato Bowl and its first warm weather West Coast trip since the 1995 Las Vegas Bowl.
The Rockets are aiming for their first bowl game win streak since they ended the 2014 and 2015 seasons with victories in the GoDaddy and Boca Raton bowls.