SAN DIEGO — In an age when bowl games have been somewhat diminished because of player opt outs and decisions to enter the transfer portal or begin preparations for a run at the NFL, Oregon and North Carolina’s matchup at the Holiday Bowl will feature two of the top quarterbacks who will be returning to school in the fall.

Bo Nix and UNC’s Drake Maye could have opted to leave their schools behind this winter. Nix could have entered his name into the NFL draft while Maye could have looked for other options to play out his third season at a different school before his expected move to the NFL.

In the case of Nix, he could have also decided to skip the bowl game to make sure he is fully healthy for spring ball after battling injury late in the season.

Instead, both quarterbacks are set to take the field at Petco Park Wednesday evening making it an intriguing matchup in San Diego.

“In modern day college football when you have a quarterback, you have a chance, and these are two of the best quarterbacks in the country,” Tar Heels coach Mack Brown said during a pre-Holiday Bowl press conference. “ ... The Holiday Bowl has been so blessed to have great quarterbacks through the years, and you go back and look at some of the games. And Major Applewhite's 27-point comeback in the fourth quarter here. Just so many times where quarterbacks have made play after play. The defenses have their hands full tomorrow with those two quarterbacks.”