The Arizona Bowl will officially debut this season after securing a naming rights deal with Nova Home Loans, a source told ESPN on Thursday.

The Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl will be played Dec. 29 between teams from Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference at the University of Arizona's stadium in Tucson.

The status of the new bowl was in doubt and it would not have been played this year without the naming rights sponsorship, a source said.

With the Arizona Bowl officially starting this season, there will be a record 41 bowls (two more than last year), which includes the College Football Playoff title game. That means 80 bowl teams will be needed to fill the bowls, or 63 percent of the 128 FBS programs will go bowling this season.

In May, the NCAA certified three new bowls (Cure Bowl in Orlando, Florida; Arizona and Austin, Texas), but Austin bowl officials decided not to start their bowl this season.