Two of the best North Texas players ever will shine before a national audience when RB Lance Dunbar and DE Brandon Akpunku will play in the Casino Del Sol College All-Star Bowl in Tucson, Arizona January 16^th with kickoff 7 PM. The game will be televised on Fox Sports affiliates. 

Dunbar became North Texas All-Time Rushing leader and was only the sixth player in NCAA history to rush for over 4,000 yards and have over 1,000 yards receiving. 

Akpunku was a major factor for the defense and blossomed in his senior season under the direction of new HC Dan McCarney and ended his career sixth in all-time sacks and fourth in tackles.

The Casino Del Sol College Bowl was established last year and played in the Sun Devil Stadium in Arizona.  The bowl was formerly known as the Blue-Gray game which was played at the Crampton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama from 1939-2001. It was not played in 2002 and in 2003 played in Troy, Alabama then discontinued. It was revived last year as the Eastham All-Star Classic and is now the Casino Del Sol Bowl. For the most part the game was played on Christmas Day for TV but was lightly attended by fans and with no major sponsor went dormant.

This year it will be played at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium which is a baseball stadium. The Arizona Diamondbacks used the stadium for spring training and most baseball fans may remember the stadium when Randy Johnson hit a bird with a pitch on March-26-2001. In 2011 it was the home of the Tucson Padres and from 1998-2010 it was used as the spring training camp of the Chicago White Sox. It is the home of the Pima College Aztecs since 2010.

The teams are divided into Stars and Stripes with Akpunku and Dunbar being featured on the Stripes team.

Former Fresno State HC Pat Hill will be coaching the Stripes team. Former University of Mississippi HC Houston Nutt will coach the stars team.

One of the bowl partners is former Texas Tech HC Mike Leach.