2025 Citrus Bowl
| 2025 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80th Citrus Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | December 31, 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Camping World Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Orlando, Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Mike Roche (ACC) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC ESPN Radio | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Mark Jones (play-by-play), Roddy Jones (analyst), and Alyssa Lang (sideline) (ABC) Troy Clardy (play-by-play), Je'Rod Cherry (analyst), and Marilyn Payne (sideline) (ESPN Radio) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The 2025 Citrus Bowl is a college football bowl game that is scheduled to be played on December 31, 2025, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The 80th annual Citrus Bowl, the game will feature the No. 18 Michigan Wolverines (9–3) from the Big Ten Conference and the No. 13 Texas Longhorns (9–3) from the Southeastern Conference. The game is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. EST and will air on ABC.[1][2] The Citrus Bowl will be one of the 2025–26 bowl games concluding the 2025 FBS football season. The game is sponsored by Cheez-It crackers and is officially known as the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.
Teams
[edit]Based on conference tie-ins, the game will feature teams from the Big Ten Conference, and the Southeastern Conference. On December 7, 2025, the Citrus Bowl announced Texas and Michigan as the 2025 participants. This will be the third matchup between the teams with Texas having won the previous two games. Michigan has appeared in the Citrus Bowl six previous times, this will be Texas' first.[3]
Michigan Wolverines
[edit]Michigan finished with a 9–3 overall record (7–2 in Big Ten play) during the regular season. They faced two ranked teams during the season, No. 18 Oklahoma and No. 1 Ohio State, losing to both. They will enter the game ranked 18th in the final College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings. On December 10th Michigan announced head coach Sherrone Moore had been fired due to "credible evidence" he had been engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.[4] Following which the Wolverines announced that Biff Poggi will serve as the interim coach during the bowl game.[5]
Texas Longhorns
[edit]Texas also finished with an overall regular-season record of 9–3 (6–2 in SEC play). The Longhorns opened the season ranked No. 1 with losses to No. 3 Ohio State and unranked Florida before beating No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 9 Vanderbilt. A blowout loss to Georgia a week later fatally hurt Texas' CFP chances[6] and despite their rivalry week upset of unbeaten No. 3 Texas A&M they finished as the highest ranked SEC team outside of the bracket. The Longhorns will enter the game ranked 13th in the final CFP rankings.
Prior to the game multiple Longhorn players announced they would opt-out of the bowl game either due to their intention to enter the transfer portal or declare for the 2026 NFL draft. These players include CJ Baxter, Michael Taaffe, Anthony Hill Jr., Malik Muhammad, and Ethan Burke, among others.[7]
Game summary
[edit]| Quarter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 18 Michigan | - | - | - | - | 0 |
| No. 13 Texas | - | - | - | - | 0 |
at Camping World Stadium • Orlando, Florida
- Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2025
- Game time: 3:00 p.m. EST
- Referee: Mike Roche
- TV announcers (ABC): Mark Jones (play-by-play), Roddy Jones (analyst), and Alyssa Lang (sideline)
Statistics
[edit]| Statistics | MICH | TEX |
|---|---|---|
| First downs | ||
| Plays–yards | – | – |
| Rushes–yards | – | – |
| Passing yards | ||
| Passing: comp–att–int | –– | –– |
| Time of possession |
| Team | Category | Player | Statistics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | Passing | ||
| Rushing | |||
| Receiving | |||
| Texas | Passing | ||
| Rushing | |||
| Receiving |
References
[edit]- ^ "2025-26 College Football Playoff schedule, dates, TV channel, sites". NCAA.com. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
- ^ "College Football Bowl Schedule". FBSchedules.com. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
- ^ jmason (2025-12-07). "No. 13 Texas, No. 18 Michigan to meet in 2025 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl". Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
- ^ Thamel, Pete; Wetzel, Dan; Schefter, Adam (2025-12-10). "U-M fires Moore for inappropriate relationship". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
- ^ "With Sherrone Moore fired, Michigan turns back to Biff Poggi". mlive.com. Retrieved December 10, 2025.
- ^ "'A disaster.' How Texas flopped at finish against Georgia, harpooning CFP hopes". mlive.com. Retrieved December 12, 2025.
- ^ "Opt-Out Tracker: Texas players who are opting out of the Longhorns' Citrus Bowl matchup against Michigan". 247Sports. Retrieved December 14, 2025.