Oregon to Meet Michigan State in 2018 Redbox Bowl at Levi’s® Stadium
Sunday, December 2, 2018
The pairing is set for the first playing of the Redbox Bowl – the 17th overall installment of the Bay Area’s annual bowl game – as Oregon (8-4, 5-4 Pac-12) will take on Michigan State (7-5, 5-4 Big Ten) at Levi’s Stadium on Monday, December 31st. The Ducks and Spartans have split their six previous meetings, all of which have taken place in the regular season. In August of this year, the teams announced that they would meet in a home-and-home series set for 2029 and 2030.
The Redbox Bowl will be held at 12:00 p.m. PT in front of a national television audience on the FOX broadcast network. The game will also be simulcast in Spanish on FOX Deportes. Tickets and event details are now available through Ticketmaster at LevisStadium.com. Media looking to request credentials to cover the game must apply online at SportsSystems.com/RedboxBowl.
“The Redbox Bowl is thrilled to welcome two storied college football brands with shared history like Oregon and Michigan State to play in front of a primetime national audience at Levi’s Stadium,” said Ryan Oppelt, executive director of the Redbox Bowl. “The Ducks and Spartans have large alumni contingents in the Bay Area so we couldn’t ask for a better way to kick off an incredible week of post-season football in the Bay Area that will culminate with the CFP National Championship on January 7th.”
Michigan State won the last meeting between the two teams, 31-28 on September 12, 2015 in East Lansing. The home team has won each of the previous six match-ups.
Michigan State is making its 28th all-time appearance in a bowl game and its 11th under head coach Mark Dantonio, the most bowl games of any coach in the program’s history. MSU set a school record with nine consecutive bowl appearances from 2009-17, including a school-record four-game winning streak (2011 Outback Bowl over No. 18 Georgia; 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl over TCU; 2014 Rose Bowl over No. 5 Stanford; 2015 Cotton Bowl over No. 4 Baylor). MSU is 12-15 all-time in bowl games and 5-5 under Dantonio. Dantonio’s five bowl wins, including last year’s Holiday Bowl against No. 18 Washington State, are also a school record.
Oregon will make a bowl appearance for the 13th time in the last 14 years and its second under head coach Mario Cristobal, who coached his first game at the helm of the Ducks at last season’s Las Vegas Bowl. Oregon is 13-18 all-time in its 31 bowl appearances and has played 11 of those games in the state of California. Over their last seven bowl games, in which they have won four times, the Ducks have scored 30-plus points five times while averaging 36.9 points over that span.
Redbox is in the first of a multi-year partnership with the Bay Area bowl game. Since its inception in 2002, the bowl game has become an annual fixture in the Bay Area’s sporting landscape. It was previously held at AT&T Park before moving to Levi’s Stadium in 2014.
As in previous years, a day of community service by the players and coaches of the participating teams will be a featured component of their visit to the Bay Area. This year Oregon and Michigan State players will volunteer to help those in need at GLIDE and St. Anthony’s in San Francisco.
