The Hawaii Bowl turns Christmas Eve into a true island gameday, with college football unfolding under the palm trees of Honolulu. The 22nd edition of the Hawaii Bowl is part of the 2025-26 FBS postseason and again pairs a Mountain West program with an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent. Fans looking for Hawaii Bowl tickets can treat this as both a bowl trip and a Honolulu getaway. Be sure to secure your seats through Event Tickets Center and plan a holiday built around the kickoff.
The 2025 Hawaii Bowl game brings together California Golden Bears football and Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football in a matchup that blends mainland momentum with island familiarity. Cal enters at 7-5 after earning a third straight bowl berth, the program’s longest postseason streak since the mid-2000s. Hawai‘i arrives at 8-4 and makes its 11th all-time appearance in its home bowl. The schools meet for the sixth time overall, with the Golden Bears holding a narrow 3-2 edge in the series, so there is just enough history to add spice.
The Hawaii Bowl schedule sticks to its Christmas Eve tradition, giving fans a rare standalone window on the postseason calendar. The 2025 game is set for Wednesday, Dec. 24, with kickoff at 3:00 p.m. HST. For travelers, the mid-afternoon start leaves space for a slow morning, pregame beach time, or a celebratory dinner afterward, while locals can weave the matchup into long-standing Christmas Eve routines with family and friends in the islands.
The Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, situated on the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa campus, is a compact, on-campus stadium that has become the full-time home of the Rainbow Warriors. Expanded in recent seasons, the venue now seats just over 15,000 for football. Grandstands line the sidelines with added end zone seating, and upgrades like the relocated Aloha Stadium video board give fans big-game visuals in a setting that still feels distinctly local, framed by campus buildings and the surrounding Manoa valley.
A Christmas Eve kickoff, ACC-Mountain West showdown, and on-campus setting in Honolulu make the Sheraton Hawai‘i Bowl a unique entry on the postseason slate. Fans of Cal, Hawai‘i, or college football in general can build a full trip around the game, pairing island sightseeing with a matchup that carries genuine program storylines on both sidelines. Lock in your Hawaii Bowl tickets through Event Tickets Center today and turn this year’s bowl season into a holiday memory in the Islands.