2015 Alamo Bowl, Oregon vs. TCU: Date, time, location and more

The Valero Alamo Bowl is one of the few games held between New Year’s Day and the National Championship Game after spending most of its history being played in December. Instead, it will be on Jan. 2 and will feature another matchup of the Big 12 and Pac-12.

After three straight years on the losing end, the Pac-12 is back to .500 in the history of the Alamo Bowl, with back-to-back wins in the last two years. The conference will look to make it three-in-a-row in another game against the Big 12, which has had a conference tie-in with the Alamo Bowl for two decades.

For the entire history of the game, the Alamodome has served as its home, although Valero has not always served as the title sponsor. First the game was sponsored by Builders Square, then it was Sylvania and MasterCard before Valero took over title rights in 2007.

Here is everything you need to know to get ready for this year’s Valero Alamo Bowl:

Date and time: Sat., Jan. 2, 6:45 p.m. ET

TV channel: ESPN

Location: San Antonio, Texas

Stadium: Alamodome, 65,000

Last year’s score: UCLA 40, Kansas State 35

Last year’s attendance: 60,517

Last year’s TV rating: 3.4

Last year’s payout for each school: $3.825 million

Teams with the most all-time appearances: Iowa, 4

Teams with the most all-time wins: Nebraska, 3

Oregon isn’t the team that played in the College Football Playoff’s inaugural championship game in January. But that’s okay: The Ducks have rebounded from early season struggles to resemble that team, at least on offense.

The rebound has plenty to do with the improved health of quarterback Vernon Adams, who suffered through injuries for much of the first half of Oregon’s season. Since his return to nearly full health prior to the Ducks’ game with Washington, Oregon is 6-0, with wins over Cal, Stanford and USC.

Oregon’s also topped 500 points for the sixth straight year, but the Ducks struggle mightily on defense. Utah hung 62 on them, Arizona State got 55 points with the aid of overtime and even lowly Oregon State mustered 42 points against the Ducks.

Last bowl game: 2014 season’s College Football Playoff championship game (42-20 loss to Ohio State)

All-time bowl record: 12-16

Head coach’s bowl record: Mark Helfrich is 2-1 in bowl games, including Oregon’s two College Football Playoff games in the 2014 season.

TCU was projected to be a national championship contender before the season, as the Horned Frogs just missed the College Football Playoff last year and returned with the bulk of their starters. However, after being decimated by injuries on both sides of the ball, expectations had to be tempered. But considering the attrition, TCU has to be pretty happy with 10-2.

The defense has seen the bulk of the injury issues this year, and early on, it was a disaster. However, as the backups settled in, the defense got a lot better and a lot more consistent. The defense played well in the second half against Oklahoma, and with the help of the rain, it stopped Baylor in an impressive end-of-season win.

The offense has endured injuries to its two biggest stars, as well. Star receiver Josh Doctson is out for the year, while former Heisman candidate quarterback Trevone Boykin was injured for much of the end of the season. However, the good news for the Horned Frogs is that Boykin should be healthy for the bowl game, and they will have the healthiest squad they’ve had in a long time.

Last bowl game: 2014 Holiday Bowl (42-3 win over TCU)

All-time bowl record: 14-15-1

Head coach’s bowl record: Gary Patterson is 8-5 in bowl games. He has wins in both the Peach and Rose bowls since 2010.