SAN DIEGO – After a two season hiatus, San Diego State is once again part of college football bowl season as the Aztecs announced that they accepted an invitation to the Isleta New Mexico Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 27 to face American Athletic Conference championship game finalist North Texas.

SDSU (9-3, 6-2) equaled the best single-season turnaround in program history (since 1921) during 2025, finishing in a four-way tie for first place in the regular season in the Mountain West Conference and not advancing to the championship game due to a computerized rankings tie-breaker.

It’s the first bowl appearance for the Aztecs since the 2022 season, and the 13th time in the past 16 years that the program has played in a bowl game. This is the Scarlet and Black’s 21st bowl appearance and 17th in the DI era, with this appearance their second time competing in the New Mexico Bowl — SDSU defeated Central Michigan 48-11 in Albuquerque, NM in 2019.

The No. 23 North Texas Mean Green (11-2, 7-1) lost 34-21 to the College Football Playoff-qualifying Tulane Green Wave in the AAC title game, with their only other regular season loss coming to the South Florida Bulls on Oct. 10. They have outscored opponents by an average of 44.8-24.9, led by quarterback Drew Mestemaker passing for a nation-best 4,129 yards with 31 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

UNT led the nation averaging 504.3 yards per game while boasting the No. 2 passing attack that averaged 323.2 yards per game. Led by Mountain West Co-Defensive Player of the Year defensive back Chris Johnson, the SDSU defense allowed the fifth-fewest points per game (12.6) nationally and their 157.0 passing yards allowed were the sixth-fewest.

The only shared opponent for the season was Washington State, who the Scarlet and Black fell to 36-13 on Sept. 6 in their second game of the season. The following weekend the Mean Green blew out the Cougars 59-10 on Sept 13 in Denton, Texas.

It will be the eighth meeting all-time between the two programs, with the Aztecs holding a 6-1 advantage in the series that last saw the teams meet in 1975.

The Isleta New Mexico Bowl will kickoff at 2:45 p.m. PT on Dec. 27 at University Stadium, with television coverage by ESPN and radio coverage by San Diego Sports 760 AM.

SDSU’s Department of Athletics will release ticket information soon.

This story was updated at 12:40 p.m.