The 2017 Holiday Bowl was a postseason

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bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

, played at

SDCCU Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in San Diego, California, United States. Opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium; it was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium for sportswriter Jack Murphy from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 to 2017, the stadium's namin ...

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, California, on December 28, 2017. This was the first time that the

Holiday Bowl The Holiday Bowl is an annual college football bowl game held in San Diego, California. Operating since 1978, its current conference tie-ins are with the Pac-12 Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The bowl is held at Snapdragon S ...

was played at

. Previous to the 2017 season, the Holiday Bowl was played at

Qualcomm Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in San Diego, California, United States. Opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium; it was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium for sportswriter Jack Murphy (sportswriter), Jack Murphy from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 t ...

. The 40th edition of the Holiday Bowl featured the

Washington State Cougars The Washington State Cougars (known informally as the Cougs) are the sport, athletic teams that represent Washington State University. Located in Pullman, Washington, WSU is a member of the Pac-12 Conference in NCAA Division I. The athletic pr ...

of the

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versus the

Michigan State Spartans The Michigan State Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Michigan State University. The school's athletic program includes 23 Varsity team, varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a Spartan Army, Spartan warrior named Sparty, and the sc ...

of the

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. It was one of the 2017–18 bowl games concluding the 2017 FBS football season. Sponsored by San Diego County Credit Union, the game was officially known as the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl.

Teams

Washington State

This was Washington State's fourth appearance in the Holiday Bowl, having lost to #14 Brigham Young in 1981, having defeated #5 Texas in 2003, and having lost to Minnesota in 2016. The Cougars finished the 2017 regular season at 9–3, and were third in the Pac-12 North Division (6–3). The season featured wins against then-#5 USC and then-#18 Stanford.

Michigan State

This was Michigan State's first appearance in a Holiday Bowl. The Spartans finished the 2017 regular season at 9–3, and were second in the B1G East Division (7–2). The team had upset wins over then-#7 Michigan and then-#7 Penn State. Their three losses were all against teams that finished in the AP Top 20 (#14 Notre Dame, #20 Northwestern and #5 Ohio State).

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

References

{{Michigan State Spartans bowl game navbox

Holiday Bowl 2010s in San Diego Washington State Cougars football bowl games Michigan State Spartans football bowl games

December 2017 sports events in the United States