The UTSA Roadrunners football team (8-4) found out Sunday that, for the second time in three seasons, its bowl destination will be the Frisco Bowl.
UTSA, in its fourth straight bowl game, will play the Marshall Thundering Herd (6-6) at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19. Marshall is a member of the Sun Belt Conference. The Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl will be the Herd’s seventh straight bowl game.
“We are excited to be playing in the state of Texas and I know our crowd will be fired up about that,” UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said. “We got a really good opponent in Marshall. I got a lot of respect for Coach (Charles) Huff and their tradition. Whenever you make a bowl for 10 out of the last 11 years that’s incredible.”
Two years ago, UTSA was in what was then called the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl, where the team met Mountain West runner-up San Diego State. The Roadrunners fell to the Aztecs 38-24.
This will be the Roadrunners’ third bowl game in the D-FW Metroplex.
“Seventy-eight percent of our football roster is from the state of Texas, so it’s important for friends and family to be able to support them,” UTSA Athletic Director Lisa Campos said. “Our fanbase loves traveling (in Texas) and being able to support our program.”
The spot in the Frisco Bowl comes with a $650,000 payout for both teams. Bowl payouts go to each conference and are then divided among all the members of a conference. UTSA is one of six teams from the American Athletic Conference to make a bowl game this season. Not counting the Fenway Bowl, which does not publicly release its payout, the five other bowls involving AAC teams will pay out a little over $9 million.
UTSA also earns all money from tickets bought through its athletics ticket office.
“Please purchase your tickets through UTSA Athletics,” Campos said. “That’s important for future bowls and to help us cover costs. It’s an exciting opportunity to get to have another bowl game opportunity.”
UTSA will look to win its first bowl game in its fifth all-time appearance. Prior to this current streak of four bowls in a row, the Roadrunners made just one bowl appearance in the first nine seasons, that being the 2016 New Mexico Bowl. UTSA also played in the 2020 First Responder Bowl and last year’s Cure Bowl.
“I’m excited about how close it is to San Antonio,” Traylor said. “I know how our crowd travels and gives us great support. It doesn’t matter where we go, they show up.”
The Roadrunners and Thundering Herd met three times before when they were both members of Conference USA. Marshall leads the all-time series 2-1. UTSA won the only time the two teams played in Texas, 9-7, in 2017.
