Plot Synopsis

The Poinsettia Bowl was licensed as a new bowl game in April 2005, initially set to match a team from the Mountain West Conference against an at-large team in San Diego, CA. The game earned its name partly because Poinsettia Bowl was the second choice in a 1978 naming poll for San Diego's other bowl -- the Holiday Bowl -- which also featured a poinsettia as its official symbol. In 2017, the San Diego Bowl Game Association announced that it was discontinuing the Poinsettia Bowl, following its 12th edition, where BYU defeated Wyoming 24-21 on Wednesday, December 21, 2016.

A different and unrelated version of the Poinsettia Bowl originated in 1952 as a military services championship game with the Eastern Military Services Champion against the Western Military Services Champion. Four editions of the game were played before the bowl was removed from the schedule after the 1955 game:

1952: Bolling AFB (USAF) 35, San Diego Training Center (USN) 16
1953: Fort Ord (Army) 55, Quantico (USMC) 19
1954: Fort Sill (Army) 27, Bolling AFB (USAF) 6
1955: Fort Ord (Army) 35, Pensacola Naval Air Station (USN) 13