The Mid-American Conference announced today that it is an official conference tie-in with the new, and hopefully improved, Puerto Rico Bowl.
The league’s statement today:
BAYAMON, PUERTO RICO – The 2026 college football postseason lineup is set to feature the first-ever Puerto Rico Bowl, developed and managed by Complete Sports Management and ESPN Events in collaboration with Discover Puerto Rico, marking the first time the Island is set to host an American college football game. The game is a part of the expanded 41- bowl game lineup for the upcoming season recently sanctioned by the NCAA.
The Puerto Rico Bowl is slated to be played at Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium in Bayamón and broadcast by ESPN. This milestone marks the first time the destination hosts a matchup in which a Mid-American Conference team faces a fellow NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision conference opponent. The game's December debut date and kickoff time will be announced at a later date.
Cool, I guess!
Fun fact: the Puerto Rico Bowl was supposed to be a thing last year as a neutral, non-conference event between Kentucky State and Franklin Pierce at the Division II level.
It was supposed to be labeled as the HBCU Puerto Rico Bowl, but Kentucky State’s press release to announce the 2025 schedule didn’t exactly make this game seem like it was a very important highlight. Doesn’t help that the stadium location was still listed as TBA at the time.
The game was slated for October 18. A week before the game, the two schools mutually agreed to relocate the game, citing poor field conditions. The Caribbean HBCU Puerto Rico Bowl was played on a non-HBCU campus in New Hampshire.
KSU won 17-14.
At the time of this announcement, however, the MAC does know that it’ll play in Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium
The bowl game also only has the MAC as a conference tie-in, which I wish more bowls would do. There’s no reason to have two, specific conferences tied to each and every bowl game.
The MAC already saw two of its bowl-partnered games recently go away. In December, The Bahamas Bowl turned into the Xbox Bowl after it had nine games played since 2014, and in February, the GameAbove Bowl in Detroit (formerly known as: the Motor City Bowl, or the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, or the Quick Lane Bowl) folded after 29 years.
