Michelle Gardner

Arizona Republic

Arizona State football has found out its bowl destination, and it's the one most prognosticators had the Sun Devils headed to after the final regular-season game had been played. Coach Herm Edwards and his team will face No. 21 Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 15 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Las Vegas Bowl executive director John Saccenti announced the participants on Sunday afternoon.

This will be the 31st bowl appearance for the Sun Devils (7-5), who are 14-15-1 in those games. It will be ASU's second appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl, the first coming in 2011 when they lost to Boise State 56-24. It also marks ASU's sixth bowl appearance in the past seven years.

The Sun Devils finished second in the Pac-12 South behind Utah. They won three of their last four games, capped off by a 41-40 win over rival Arizona for the Territorial Cup to end the regular season.

MORE:Las Vegas Bowl picks, predictions: Who wins ASU vs. Fresno State game?

"The Las Vegas Bowl invitation provides a tremendous opportunity for our team and coaching staff to compete against a quality program and close out the 2018 season," Edwards said. "We look forward to representing Arizona State University and our fans. A bowl game is a reward for a good season and I am happy for our players and coaching staff to be able to have this experience."

It looked like the Sun Devils were going to draw Boise State in this game again but Fresno State (11-2) upset Boise State 19-16 in overtime in the Mountain West Championship Game on Saturday to slide into the spot opposite ASU. That win by Fresno State avenged a 24-17 loss to Boise State in the regular season.

This will be the 28th bowl appearance for the Bulldogs who are 13-14 in previous games. In 2017 the Bulldogs defeated Houston 33-27 in the Hawaii Bowl. Fresno State will be appearing in the Las Vegas Bowl for the third time. It lost to Utah 17-16 in that game in 1999 and 45-20 to USC in 2013.

This will be the fourth game between ASU and Fresno State but the first one in the modern era of college football. The two teams played in 1931, 1933 and 1941 – all ASU victories.

"This will be a rare matchup of programs from two historic programs from the West who have not met on the field in nearly eight decades," Saccenti said. "Fresno State's impressive season continued with a big win in the snow up in Boise while Arizona State made national news with its turnaround this fall under Herm Edwards. Neither team has been here in a while so we are excited to host the Bulldogs and Sun Devils and their tremendous fan bases for another great bowl week in Las Vegas."

This is the earliest of the bowls and presents the ASU coaching staff with quite a dilemma. Schools are permitted 15 practices leading up to the bowl game but with this one being early, they won't be able to get that many.

The other drawback is that early signing day for football is Dec. 19 so the week before is usually spent visiting and talking with prospective recruits. The ASU staff will have to try and do that now while preparing for a game.

The other bowl game that looked like a possibility for the Sun Devils was the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31 in El Paso but ASU played in that game just last season and committees don't typically take the same team two years in a row unless there is a specific conference tie-in. The Sun Bowl chose Stanford to oppose Pitt in that game.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public at 9 a.m. Monday and can be purchased through the ASU ticket office.

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