NC State will face UCLA in San Diego for Holiday Bowl. Here’s what you need to know

UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond is a North Carolina native.

In February, he inked a deal for North Carolina Central to travel to California in 2023 to play his Bruins in football, keeping a Carolina connection for the Fayetteville native.

Turns out, he’ll get to see a team from his home state way before then.

N.C. State won’t be visiting the Rose Bowl, but the Wolfpack is heading west and will take on UCLA in the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl on Dec. 28 at Petco Park — home of the MLB’s Padres. The game is at 8 p.m.

This is the first year a team from the ACC will play in the bowl. The Holiday Bowl and ACC have a deal that will run through 2025. Pac-12 teams have been playing in the Holiday Bowl for the past 20 years.

There is a $3.2 million payout for each team in the Holiday Bowl. Bowl payouts go to participating conferences and are then divided between each of the schools in those conferences.

The Wolfpack (9-3) and Bruins (8-4) have met twice before, the last contest coming in 1960. N.C. State is 0-2 against UCLA. This will be the first bowl game played in California for the Wolfpack.

N.C. State’s last two bowl games were in Jacksonville, Fla. at the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. The Wolfpack went 0-2 in those two trips. N.C. State’s last bowl win came in 2017 when it defeated Arizona State, 52-31, in the Hyundai Sun Bowl. That was also the last time the Pack played an opponent from the Pac-12. UCLA has not played in a bowl game since the Cactus Bowl in 2017.

The Bruins last trip to the Holiday Bowl came in 2012, when they lost to Baylor 49-26.