Notre Dame football is headed to the Sun Bowl against Oregon State

SOUTH BEND — Sorry, Notre Dame football fans. The Revenge-a-Palooza Bowl against former coach Brian Kelly and LSU wasn't in the cards on Selection Sunday.

Instead, a trip to El Paso, Texas and the Sun Bowl awaits the 16th-ranked Irish (9-3). Notre Dame’s opponent will be 19th-ranked Oregon State (8-4) on Dec. 29 at 2 p.m.

This will be Notre Dame’s second-ever trip to the Sun Bowl. Kelly’s first season in South Bend ended with a 33-17 win over Miami on New Year’s Eve to close out an 8-5 season in 2010.

Oregon State is 2-0 all-time against Notre Dame, handing the Irish losses of 41-9 in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl and 38-21 in the 2004 Insight Bowl. Both games were played in the Greater Phoenix area.

This will be the 90th Sun Bowl but the first matchup between ranked teams since 2008. Seating capacity at the 60-year-old stadium is 45,971; before reconfiguration, the 2010 game set the Sun Bowl attendance record at 54,021.

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman is 1-1 at the helm in bowl games. The Irish outlasted South Carolina 45-38 last year in the Gator Bowl and fell 37-35 to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl that also marked Freeman’s debut as Kelly’s successor.

Marcus Freeman: Right Notre Dame football coaches are in place, including Gerad Parker

Former Notre Dame quarterback and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees is headed back to the College Football Playoff with No. 4 Alabama after toppling Georgia in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday.

Alabama’s win created a domino effect that upended widespread projections of a Notre Dame-LSU grudge match in the ReliaQuest Bowl on New Year’s Day in Tampa. Instead, that matchup will pit LSU against unranked Big Ten representative Wisconsin (7-5).

The newly rebranded Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando was looking like a suitable consolation prize until unbeaten Florida State was left out of the four-team playoff by the selection committee. That set off an extended period of horse trading via conference call as the ACC bowl tie-ins (which include Notre Dame as a scheduling partner) were slowly hammered out.

Video from the Sun Bowl news conference showed the helmets of seven ACC teams displayed on the dais: Boston College, Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State, Georgia Tech, Miami and Virginia Tech.

Having three-loss Notre Dame fall to the Sun Bowl was such an afterthought, bowl organizers didn't have a famed gold helmet to show off. The official announcement didn't come until 5:50 p.m. Eastern, roughly three hours after the original bowl reveal was due on ESPN.

Oregon State will have interim coach Kefense Hynson handle the bowl game in the wake of Jonathan Smith's departure for Michigan State, with former defensive coordinator Trent Bray focusing on his recruiting and staff-building duties as newly elevated head coach.

Meanwhile, Irish offensive coordinator Gerad Parker recently received a public vote of confidence from Freeman, who dismissed receivers coach Chansi Stuckey one day later after two seasons at Notre Dame. Activity in the transfer portal told a different story.

Of the 10 Irish players to enter the transfer portal since the regular season ended with a 33-point win at Stanford, six were on the offensive side, including four receivers and 31-game starter Zeke Correll on the offensive line.

Of the five skill position players to depart — wideouts Chris Tyree (graduate), Tobias Merriweather (sophomore), Rico Flores Jr. (freshman) and Braylon James (freshman); and sophomore tight end Holden Staes — 12 remaining years of eligibility walk out the door.

Their combined 2023 output: 83 receptions for 1,348 yards and 10 touchdowns. Those totals represented 39.2%, 45.3% and 35.7% of Notre Dame’s regular-season production in those respective categories.

As for whether quarterback Sam Hartman will close out his record-setting career with an Irish bowl game, Freeman said on Nov. 27 he planned for Hartman to play but that could change.

“I think that’s where his head is, too,” Freeman said. “We’ll have a meeting to make sure it’s still there. Unless I hear otherwise through a conversation, my plan would be for Sam Hartman to be our quarterback for the bowl game.”

Oregon State quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, who went 0-2 against Notre Dame while at Clemson, has entered the transfer portal after one season with the Beavers.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and is on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football learns its bowl destination after long wait