The first New Year’s Six bowl matchup of 2015 will see American Athletic Conference Champion (18) Houston take on (9) Florida State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl as announced by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee today.
The 48th annual Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will host its matchup of two top-20 teams on Dec. 31 at 12:00 p.m. ET from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The game will be nationally televised by ESPN.
“This certainly should be an exciting game between two very potent offenses with a lot of star power,” said Gary Stokan, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl president and CEO.
Houston (12-1, 7-1 AAC) will play in its first Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and enters the game as champions of the American Athletic Conference. Led by AAC Coach of the Year Tom Herman, the Cougars’ final three wins of the season came over (21) Memphis, (15) Navy and (22) Temple. Houston completed only its second 12-win campaign in program history (2011) running the nation’s eighth-highest scoring offense at 42 points per game. Standout quarterback Greg Ward, Jr. threw for 2,590 yards with 16 touchdowns and ran for 1,041 yards and an additional 19 scores.
Florida State (10-2, 6-2 ACC) will return to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl for the first time since 2010 when it defeated South Carolina 26-17. The Seminoles finished second to (1) Clemson in the ACC-Atlantic and capped the season with three straight wins including a 27-2 win over SEC East Champion Florida. Florida State features an explosive offense averaging 32.3 points per game and the sixth-rated scoring defense in the nation that allowed only 15.8 points per game. Heisman hopeful Dalvin Cook led the ACC in both rushing yards (1,658) and touchdowns (19).
“We are extremely honored to be selected for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and represent the University and City of Houston as we face a very strong test in Florida State. This is something we’ve been looking forward to since January,” said Tom Herman, Houston head coach. “Our goal was to build a championship culture at the University of Houston and we knew for our program to play in a game of this magnitude, we were going to need to accomplish one of our goals and win The American Championship. We know our season is not over and we look forward to reaching one more goal with a Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Championship.”
The Cougars own the all-time series with the Seminoles 12-2-2, but the teams have not met since 1978. The teams first met in 1960.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Prime location tickets are still available and are on sale now through the Bowl’s website or through Ticketmaster. Visit www.Chick-fil-APeachBowl.com or www.Ticketmaster.com to purchase tickets. Fans can also purchase tickets in the team allotments through the university ticket offices.
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl has sold out 18 of the last 20 years and organizers encourage fans to purchase their tickets early to avoid missing out on tickets.
For information, visit Chick-fil-APeachBowl.com and follow @CFAPeachBowl on Twitter.
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ABOUT THE CHICK-FIL-A PEACH BOWL
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is the ninth-oldest bowl game in the country and is one of ‘New Year’s Six Bowls’ selected to host the College Football Playoff. In 2015, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will host top nationally ranked teams as assigned by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. In 2016, the Bowl will host its first College Football Playoff Semifinal (#1 vs. #4 or #2 vs. #3).