The Holiday Bowl has been a staple of the college football postseason since 1978, bringing two teams to face off for the namesake trophy in San Diego, California.
Since 2021, the game has been played annually at Petco Park, home of the MLB's San Diego Padres, but the organizers of the game reportedly made an insane change in venue proposal over the summer for this season's edition.
According to FOIAball editor in chief David Covucci, organizers included a poll for athletic directors from the ACC to gauge interest in the bowl game being moved from San Diego to Saudi Arabia.
You read that correctly. The Holiday Bowl wanted to move the 2025-26 edition to the Middle East.
Holiday Bowl's proposal to move game to Saudi Arabia highlights greed in college football
Besides the obvious political blowback organizers would likely face for making such a move, there are plenty of other problematic factors to consider here.
Football is trying really hard to become ever more international but at least ventures in college football have stuck with proven venues like the Big 12 playing a game at London's Wembley Stadium next season. Going straight to a hot bed of controversy is not the wisest choice.
Saudi Arabia is flush with cash, so it's not surprising the bowl game's organizers would explore a potentially lucrative offer from the country. It will be hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2034 and is already a popular destination for motor racing. Opponents of allowing Saudi Arabia to host these kinds of events point to it "sportswashing" the country's poor human rights record.
On top of that, the time difference for potential participants would be atrocious. The country is 10 hours ahead of the Pacific time zone so you're likely to see just about every team offered a berth in the game turn it down based on that alone. The ACC and teams historically in the old Pac-12 are the traditional invitees.
Hopefully every ACC AD voted "disapprove" on the Holiday Bowl's poll on its relocation proposal. There's no room for the sport to be associating with questionable and, honestly, laughable venues like that.