Every four years, there’s a presidential election, a leap year and Colorado football playing in the Alamo Bowl.

On Sunday, it was officially announced the Buffaloes (9-3, 7-2 Big 12), ranked 20th in the Associated Press Top 25 and 23rd in the College Football Playoff rankings, have been invited to play in the 32nd Valero Alamo Bowl.

CU, led by second-year head coach Deion Sanders, will take on No. 17 BYU (10-2, 7-2) at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Dec. 28 (5:30 p.m., ABC).

“I’m excited about playing BYU,” CU athletic director Rick George told BuffZone. “I think it’s gonna be a great football game. We haven’t had the opportunity to play them.

“It’s always an honor to go to a bowl game, and the Alamo Bowl does a tremendous job there. We’re just excited and look forward to the challenge.”

This will be just the third bowl appearance for CU in the past 17 seasons, with all of them coming at the Alamo Bowl. The Buffs lost to Oklahoma State, 38-8, in the 2016 Alamo Bowl, and to Texas, 55-23, in the 2020 Alamo Bowl.

While CU and BYU are now both members of the Big 12, CU and the other current and former Pac-12 teams are still contractually tied to Pac-12 bowls for this year and 2025. The Alamo has annually been a Pac-12 vs. Big 12 matchup.

CU is technically the “Pac-12” representative for this year’s game and will be the home team.

Although the Buffs and Cougars are now Big 12 rivals, they haven’t met in football since the Freedom Bowl, on Dec. 29, 1988.

“I was there,” said George, who was the Buffs’ recruiting coordinator at the time. “Yeah, look, I am excited about it. I think it’ll be a good challenge for our football team. I know Coach Prime will have them ready to go, and I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be a great matchup.”

CU leads the all-time series with BYU, 8-3-1, but they’ve met just twice since 1947. Now that they’re in the Big 12 together, they do have two upcoming matchups scheduled. BYU will play in Boulder next season and CU will visit Provo, Utah, in 2027.

For CU, this will be the fourth overall trip to the Alamo Bowl, and the Buffs are 0-3 in this game. BYU will be making its first appearance.

Given CU’s two most recent bowls were in San Antonio, many fans in Buff Nation were hoping for a different location. However, Texas has been a recruiting hotbed for CU under Coach Prime, who not only lives in Texas, but starred there with the Dallas Cowboys in his playing days.

“The advantage of being in Texas is I think it’ll be a home crowd for us,” George said. “I think our alumni will come out, but there’s also a lot of Cowboy fans that love Deion and they’re gonna wanna come out and see him and this team. Like I said, I think it’s gonna be a great game and a great matchup.”