- \n
- Saturday, Dec. 27, 1:30 p.m. MST<\/li>\n
- Orlando, Florida<\/li>\n
- TV: ABC<\/li>\n
- Radio: 102.7 FM\/1160 AM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Georgia Tech and No. 12 BYU, the schools that will be clashing on Dec. 27 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, hope to rewrite that narrative. That\u2019s especially true of the No. 22 Yellow Jackets, who got the call after Notre Dame \u201cwasn\u2019t in the pool (of teams) when it came time to pick,\u201d said Florida Citrus Sports CEO Steve Hogan on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as they gave us the pool (of eligible teams from the ACC), we jumped at the chance to take Georgia Tech,\u201d Hogan said. \u201cThe fact that the opportunity to get BYU here to go with them is a special treat.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman and athletic director Pete Bevacqua were livid over the snub, BYU coach Kalani Sitake was not in the same boat, at least outwardly. A case could be made that BYU also deserved a more favorable ranking, even after the Cougars were drubbed 34-7 by Texas Tech<\/a> in the Big 12 championship game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t really say anything other than they (the committee) did their best, and I\u2019m looking forward to watching how the playoff plays out,\u201d Sitake said, having already noted Saturday that Texas Tech is the best team in the country. \u201cI think there\u2019s some great teams in there. The unfortunate part is that there\u2019s a bunch of teams that could play in it, and that\u2019s what made it really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
For much of the season, it appeared that BYU and Georgia Tech were on track to make the 12-team playoff field, until the Cougars ran into the buzzsaw known Texas Tech twice<\/a> and the Jackets lost three of their last four games, including a very competitive 16-9 loss to No. 3 Georgia the Friday after Thanksgiving. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe get one of the first two teams out of the playoff going to play another ranked team,\u201d Hogan said. Georgia Tech quarterback \u201cHaynes King and coach (Brent) Key, these guys have put on a show this year.<\/p>\n
They played Georgia very tough. This is, probably, next to the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (pitting Texas and Michigan) one of the top games in the country outside of the CFP.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kickoff at Camping World Stadium is at 1:30 p.m. MST and the fifth all-time meeting between BYU and Georgia Tech will be televised by ABC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very happy with Georgia Tech,\u201d Hogan said, after acknowledging the \u201crawness of the last few hours\u201d for Notre Dame. \u201cGeorgia Tech vs. BYU was a game we were circling (weeks ago). \u2026 The opportunity (for Georgia Tech) to play those guys, BYU, someone on the (CFP) bubble, this will get intense as we get closer. Two class acts. Two really good football teams. Stars all over the field. We feel blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the storylines in the bowl dubbed as \u201cThe People\u2019s National Championship\u201d will be the quarterback battle pitting Tech\u2019s 24-year-old King against BYU freshman Bear Bachmeier, who is 19. Of course, that is assuming King \u2014 an NFL draft prospect \u2014 doesn\u2019t opt out and Bachmeier is healthy after sustaining a left ankle injury in the first quarter against Texas Tech.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a fast healer,\u201d Sitake said of Bachmeier. \u201cHe will be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Key was asked about the possibility of any of his players opting out, he shrugged off the notion as if he would be surprised if it happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless, we\u2019re gonna have 11 people on each side of the football. We\u2019re gonna go out there and compete,\u201d Key said. \u201cOne of the four pillars of our program is commitment. And when you commit to something, you commit for the full time, and that\u2019s my belief. That\u2019s the way I feel, and that\u2019s the way I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/T6J6HC4H5ZAYPPJUUJNCB2ON2Q.jpg\")
Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King (10) runs against Georgia linebacker Raylen Wilson (5) during game, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Atlanta. | AP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As it sits right now, the 2025 Pop-Tarts Bowl will be remembered as the bowl game Notre Dame…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":438957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,1680,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-438956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-news-feed-local","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115698201729211308","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}