2026 Pop-Tarts Bowl: The Big 12 Has Won Three Straight, and the ACC Is Overdue

Bowl season has a participation problem. Half the country spends December arguing about which stars will opt out, which starters have already hit the portal, and whether a non-playoff bowl means anything at all.

And then there’s the game in Orlando where a giant toaster sits at midfield, the winning locker room eats a mascot, and nobody has to be talked into showing up.

The 2026 Pop-Tarts Bowl kicks off Tuesday, Dec. 29 at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN from Camping World Stadium.

2026 Pop-Tarts Bowl: the details

A few things worth knowing about that table. This is the 13th straight season the game has drawn from the ACC and Big 12, so the tie in is stable even as both leagues keep reshuffling. The stadium is in the middle of a $400 million renovation scheduled to finish in 2027, which means 2026 will be played at reduced capacity. Between a shrunken building and a game that has become appointment television, waiting until after the Dec. 6 selection show to think about tickets is a plan with a flaw in it.

The 5:30 p.m. ET Tuesday slot is also a change worth noting. The last two editions were Saturday afternoon games on ABC at 3:30. This one is a weeknight prime time window on ESPN, which is the treatment a bowl gets once it starts drawing seven figure audiences.

The Big 12 has taken the last three

Three years under the Pop-Tarts banner, three Big 12 wins:

• 2023: Kansas State 28, NC State 19. Freshman QB Avery Johnson takes MVP in his first career start with 178 passing yards, 71 rushing, and three total touchdowns.
• 2024: Iowa State 42, Miami 41. The Cyclones outlast Cam Ward in a shootout to clinch the first 11-win season in program history. More than 6.8 million people watch.
• 2025: BYU 25, Georgia Tech 21. The Cougars score 15 unanswered in the fourth quarter. True freshman Bear Bachmeier throws for 325 yards and a touchdown and takes MVP.

BYU walks in as the defending champion

The 2025 win is the one worth sitting with, because of how the Cougars got there.

Nine days before kickoff they had been run off the field 34-7 by Texas Tech in the Big 12 Championship Game. That is the kind of loss that ends seasons quietly. Plenty of teams in that spot treat the bowl as an obligation, rest the starters, and go home.

Instead BYU showed up in Orlando with a new helmet for the occasion, fell behind Georgia Tech, and then took the fourth quarter 15-0 in front of 34,126 people. Kalani Sitake afterward said he was simply proud of the whole group, and noted how hard that kind of season is to pull off in the Big 12.

What it added up to:

• A 12-win season, the fifth in program history, the first since 2001, and the first ever under Sitake.
• A third straight bowl victory, the longest current streak of its kind for the Cougars.
• The program’s first Pop-Tarts Bowl appearance, and a 1-0 record to go with it.
• A freshman MVP. Bear Bachmeier threw for 325 yards and a touchdown in his first postseason start.

That last one is the part that matters past December. Bachmeier was a true freshman putting up a 325-yard night on national television, the kind of performance that used to vanish into a highlight package and now becomes a brand. He finished the season with 3,033 passing yards and 15 touchdowns, and he is listed as a sophomore on BYU’s roster, which means the reigning MVP is still in Provo and still uncommitted to any fan on RallyFuel. Cougar fans who were paying attention in Orlando got a year’s head start on everyone else.

Fuel BYU athletes on RallyFuel →

Where the whole thing started: Kansas State, 2023

Every bit of the mythology traces back to one December night in Orlando and one Kansas State team.

The Wildcats beat NC State 28-19 in the first Pop-Tarts Bowl, which made them the first program ever handed a toaster instead of a trophy, and the first locker room to eat a mascot on national television. Strawberry went into the toaster, an edible replica came out, and the clip went everywhere.

The football was quietly excellent too. Avery Johnson, a freshman making the first start of his career, took MVP honors with 178 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 71 rushing yards and a rushing score. Chris Klieman had handed the keys to a first-time starter in a bowl game and gotten three touchdowns back.

Johnson is a senior now, coming off an 18 touchdown season, and the arc from that first career start in Orlando to where he sits today is exactly the kind of run fans can back early.

K-State’s place in the bowl’s history is now permanent: when Pop-Tarts sent its surviving mascots to Dublin for the 2025 Aer Lingus College Football Classic, the trip was built around the first two champions of the game the Wildcats started.

Fuel Kansas State athletes on RallyFuel →

Iowa State turned it into must watch television

If Kansas State built the format, Iowa State proved it could carry a great football game.

The 2024 Pop-Tarts Bowl finished Iowa State 42, Miami 41, a back and forth night in front of 38,650 people that more than 6.8 million watched on television, making it one of the most viewed non playoff bowls of the season. The Cyclones did it against a Miami team led by Cam Ward, who went first overall in the following NFL Draft.

What the win meant in Ames was bigger than one game. It clinched the first 11 win season in program history, breaking a school record that had stood for decades, and capped what Matt Campbell called a year defined by injuries the roster refused to flinch at.

Rocco Becht took MVP honors, and as the winning quarterback he got the ceremonial call on which mascot went into the toaster. He chose Frosted Cinnamon Roll. The trophy from that game, a functional 77 pound GE Appliances toaster, later went on display at the College Football Hall of Fame during national championship week. Becht has since moved on, and now shows up on RallyFuel as a senior quarterback at Penn State, which is a fitting bit of symmetry given that Penn State lost the very first edition of this bowl back in 1990.

Iowa State has now played in three of the last eight editions, more recent trips to Orlando than any other Big 12 program.

Fuel Iowa State athletes on RallyFuel →

Oklahoma State has never lost in Orlando

Two trips, two wins, two quarterbacks who walked off with the MVP award. Oklahoma State has the cleanest record of any repeat visitor to this game other than Florida State.

Mason Rudolph got the first one in 2017, a 30-21 win over Virginia Tech in front of 39,610. Spencer Sanders got the second in 2020, a 37-34 finish over Miami that was every bit as wild as the 2024 shootout and almost nobody saw in person. That game was played during the pandemic with no reported attendance, an empty Camping World Stadium and a one score finish. Brennan Presley caught three touchdowns that night, still the single game record for the bowl.

Mike Gundy coached both wins, which makes him the only active head coach with multiple victories in this bowl. If the Cowboys land back in Orlando, the streak is the story.

Fuel Oklahoma State athletes on RallyFuel →

Texas Tech still holds the scoreboard record

Texas Tech has been to this game exactly once and left a mark nobody has erased.

The 2002 Tangerine Bowl finished Texas Tech 55, Clemson 15, a 40 point margin that remains one of the most lopsided results in the bowl’s history. Mike Leach’s Air Raid was in full flight and Kliff Kingsbury took MVP honors. Wes Welker, a year before he started a long NFL career, ripped off a 59 yard punt return that still stands as the bowl record.

The Red Raiders have not been back since, which is its own kind of statistic: one appearance, one blowout, one perfect record. They arrive at the 2026 season as reigning Big 12 champions after a 34-7 win over BYU in the title game, so a return trip to Orlando would mean something very different than the last one did.

Fuel Texas Tech athletes on RallyFuel →

Baylor put on the best offensive performance the bowl has seen

The 2015 edition is the one offensive coordinators still bring up. Baylor beat North Carolina 49-38 in a game that produced 87 combined points, the most in the bowl’s history, and the Bears did it shorthanded.

Baylor played that night without its top two quarterbacks, its leading rusher and its best receiver. What followed was a record rewrite: 645 rushing yards as a team and 38 first downs, both still bowl records. Johnny Jefferson took MVP with 299 yards on the ground and three touchdowns, the single game rushing marks for the game.

One appearance, one win, and a permanent residency in the record book.

Fuel Baylor athletes on RallyFuel →

The ACC still leads the ledger

Three straight losses stings, but the long view is firmly ACC. The conference has appeared in this bowl 31 times and won 17 of them, more appearances and more wins than anyone else in the game’s 36-year history.

• Florida State is 4-0, the most wins by any program and a perfect record stretching from the 1990 inaugural game to the 35-32 thriller over Oklahoma in 2022, still the last ACC win in Orlando.
• Georgia Tech is 2-1, with the only loss coming last December, and they led that game into the fourth quarter.

The ACC has been the better program in this bowl for three decades. It has simply lost the last three coin flips, two of them by a combined five points.

NC State has been the quarterback factory of this bowl

No program’s history in Orlando is stranger or more quarterback-shaped than NC State‘s. Six appearances, a 3-3 record, and a record book with the Wolfpack’s name all over it.

Philip Rivers is the only two-time MVP in the game’s history. He won it in 2000 as the Wolfpack beat Minnesota 38-30, then again in 2003 in a 56-26 win over Kansas. That night he threw for 475 yards and five touchdowns, both still bowl records more than two decades later.

Russell Wilson took MVP in 2010, in a 23-7 win over West Virginia. So in the space of eleven years, one program sent two future NFL starting quarterbacks to Orlando and watched both walk off with the trophy.

The Wolfpack’s most recent trip was the 2023 loss to Kansas State, which snapped a three-game winning streak in the bowl. They’ve been here more than any ACC school except Miami, and when they win it, it usually involves a quarterback doing something absurd.

Fuel NC State athletes on RallyFuel →

Clemson wins this game with defense

Clemson has four trips and a 3-1 record, and the wins share a signature that has nothing to do with scoring.

In 2005 the Tigers beat Colorado 19-10 and held them to 124 total yards, still the fewest any team has allowed in this bowl. In 2014 they beat Oklahoma 40-6 and allowed 103 passing yards, another record that has stood since. In 2021 they beat Iowa State 20-13 in a game decided by field position, with defensive back Mario Goodrich taking MVP honors and B.T. Potter hitting a 51 yard field goal that remains the longest in the bowl’s history.

Three wins, three defensive performances, and the only blemish is the 2002 loss to Texas Tech. When Clemson comes to Orlando, the over is usually a bad bet.

Fuel Clemson athletes on RallyFuel →

Miami has been here more than anyone

Seven appearances, more than any program in the game’s history, and a 3-4 record that tells its own story about how the bowl has changed.

Miami won its first two trips comfortably, 31-21 over Virginia in 1996 and 46-23 over NC State in 1998, both under Butch Davis. Brad Kaaya added a third in 2016, a 31-14 win over West Virginia. Since then the Hurricanes have taken three straight losses in Orlando, and the last two hurt in different ways: a 37-34 finish against Oklahoma State in an empty pandemic stadium in 2020, then the 42-41 loss to Iowa State in 2024, a game Miami led and lost by a single point with a future first overall NFL pick at quarterback.

No fan base has more history in this game, and none has more unfinished business with it.

Fuel Miami athletes on RallyFuel →

Why players actually want to be there

The Pop-Tarts Bowl figured out something the rest of the mid-tier bowl landscape hasn’t: give players a reason to care beyond the trophy case.

The lore, briefly, for anyone who’s been offline since 2023. The bowl introduced “Strawberry,” billed as the first-ever edible mascot, lowered into a giant toaster at midfield and served to the winning team. In 2024 fans voted on the flavor, and Cinnamon Roll beat out Hot Fudge Sundae and Wild Berry. The trophy became a working GE Appliances toaster weighing 77 pounds. Iowa State’s Rocco Becht, as game MVP, got to pick which mascot his teammates ate.

Last year BYU chose the Team Sprinkles mascots. Then Protein Slammin’ Strawberry escaped the postgame ceremony and went on the run. He was spotted at the Super Bowl, then at the LA Marathon, and was finally captured, toasted and consumed at the 2026 NFL Draft.

Ridiculous? Completely. But the bowl marketed last year’s game as “The People’s National Championship,” and no one is making memes about anybody else’s December trophy. When players want to be in a game, the game is better, and the athletes get the exposure that actually moves the needle for them.

Who could land in Orlando

The bowl typically takes a high non-playoff selection from each league, so the teams in the mix are usually the ones that finished a game or two short of a conference title. A few notes as the picture clarifies before Dec. 6:

• West Virginia has been to this bowl five times and is still chasing its first win in it. The 1997 loss to Georgia Tech was a five-point game; the 1995 loss to South Carolina was a three-point game. The Mountaineers are overdue.

The two who have never been

Thirty six editions, and Duke and Wake Forest are the only current ACC members who have never played in this game. Not once, under any of its nine names.

The irony is that both were there at the beginning. When seven Southern Conference schools walked out of a meeting outside Greensboro in 1953 and wrote their own bylaws, Duke and Wake Forest were two of the seven. The name itself came from Duke’s athletic director, Eddie Cameron, whose motion carried unanimously. Seventy three years later, the league those schools founded has sent 31 teams to Orlando for this bowl, and neither of the two has been one of them.

Wake Forest has the smallest undergraduate enrollment in the ACC and has spent most of its football history being told what it cannot do, which is exactly the profile that makes a first trip to a game like this land harder than a seventh.

A debut has to happen eventually. It is the rare bowl storyline that needs no history at all to sell, and fans of either program can back the roster now rather than after it happens.

Fuel Duke athletes → · Fuel Wake Forest athletes →

One team that can’t fix its record

Oklahoma went to this bowl twice and lost both, a 40-6 defeat to Clemson in 2014 and the 35-32 loss to Florida State in 2022 that still stands as the last ACC win in Orlando. Then the Sooners left for the SEC, which means an 0-2 record in this game is now permanent. No conference tie in, no rematch, no way to settle it. Of every program in the bowl’s history, Oklahoma is the only one whose ledger here is closed for good.

Sooner fans can still back their athletes: Fuel Oklahoma athletes on RallyFuel →

Fuel the players who’ll be on that field

Every quarterback in this post was a name worth knowing before he was a name everybody knew. Avery Johnson was a freshman making his first start. Bear Bachmeier was a true freshman nobody had fueled yet. December in Orlando is where that turns.

RallyFuel makes backing them simple: verified, transparent deals where 90% goes directly to the athlete, and a full refund if the conditions aren’t met.

Whichever side of this matchup you land on, you don’t have to wait for a selection show. Browse ACC athletes or Big 12 athletes and fuel the ones you’re already watching.

The 2026 Pop-Tarts Bowl kicks off Tuesday, Dec. 29 at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN from Camping World Stadium in Orlando. The stadium is hosting at reduced capacity during a $400 million renovation set to finish in 2027, so tickets will move fast once teams are announced Dec. 6.