Stanford Cardinal to Face North Carolina in the Sun Bowl

With conference championships out of the way, Bowl Season is upon us. On Sunday, matchups for all 40 Bowl games were announced. The Stanford Cardinal are on the 80 teams that will partake.

More from Golden Gate Sports

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve

On Friday, December 30th, the Stanford Cardinal will take on the North Carolina Tar Heels in El Paso, Texas as part of the Sun Bowl. The Sun Bowl is one of the oldest bowl games still in existence, with the first edition being played in 1935, the same year that the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl began play.

The Cardinal finished 9-3 overall on the season, and 6-3 in conference play in the Pac-12. They finished third in the Pac-12 North, their first finish outside the top two in the division since 2008.

Stanford began the season ranked eighth, and jumped up to seventh over the next few weeks. They dropped to 15th after losing to Washington, currently one of the four teams in the College Football Playoff, before dropping out completely. They jumped back to 17th after a win in the regular season finale, and sit 16th in the AP rankings now (18th in the CFP rankings).

This will be Stanford’s eighth straight season to end with a Bowl game, the longest active streak in the Pac-12. They are 4-3 in the previous seven games. In 26 Bowl games all time, the Cardinal are 13-12-1.

The Cardinal have taken part in the Sun Bowl three times before, and are 2-1. In 1977, they beat the LSU Tigers 24-14, and beat the Michigan State Spartans 38-0 in 1996. In 2009, the first game in their current Bowl streak, the Oklahoma Sooners beat Stanford 31-27.

More from Stanford Cardinal

• Stanford Football: Walker Little opts out, declares for NFL Draft
• Stanford and Cal football seasons canceled with recent Pac-12 announcement
• Stanford, Cal Football: Pac-12 will only play conference games this season
• Stanford Football: Cardinal land Air Force transfer QB Isaiah Sanders
• Stanford Football: Walker Little is a legitimate first-round prospect

As for their opponents, the Tar Hells finished the regular season 8-4, and were tied for second in the ACC Coastal division with a 5-3 conference record. They were ranked 22nd in the preseason polls after finishing last season 15th, their first end-of-season ranking since 1997. North Carolina jumped up to 15th during the season, but were knocked out after losing to the Duke Blue Devils on November 10th.

The Tar Heels are headed to a Bowl game for the fourth straight season. They beat the Cincinnati Bearcats in the Belk Bowl in 2013, but have lost their last two games. The Rutgers Scarlet Knights came away with a win in the 2014 Quick Lane Bowl, while the Baylor Bears won the 2015 Russell Athletic Bowl over North Carolina. In 32 all-time Bowl games, the Tar Heels are 14-18.

Next: Washington Rolls Colorado for Pac-12 Championship

This is a fairly fresh matchup of teams, as the Cardinal and Tar Heels have only faced each other twice before. In 1997, North Carolina beat Stanford 28-17, and the Cardinal returned the favor in 1998, beating the Tar Heels 37-34. This will be their first Bowl matchup.