Mississippi State will spend New Year’s Day in the Outback.

The Bulldogs on Sunday were selected to play against Iowa in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida, on Jan. 1. It’s Mississippi State’s first trip to the Outback Bowl, and the sixth time in nine seasons that it will play a bowl game in Florida.

MSU played in the St. Petersburg Bowl in 2016 and the TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville last season.

“I am thrilled for our team and our tremendous group of seniors who have earned the opportunity to go out with a New Year’s Day bowl in the state of Florida,” Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead said in a statement. “The Outback Bowl is the perfect destination for our team. I have always had tremendous respect for Coach (Kirk) Ferentz and his Iowa teams.”

Mississippi State finished 8-4 overall, and 4-4 in the Southeastern Conference. At No. 18, it was the sixth-highest ranked team in the SEC in the final College Football Playoff rankings.

All four of MSU’s losses occurred to teams in the final top 15, including three on the road. All eight of the Bulldogs’ victories were by double-digits. Mississippi State held seven of its FBS opponents to their lowest point total of the year, including current No. 1 Alabama. It fnished with the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense, allowing only 12.0 points per game.

Iowa enters the matchup with an 8-4 record and a 5-4 mark in Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes finished in a tie for second in the Big Ten West and boast the nation’s No. 7 total defense, allowing only 289.6 yards per game.

It will be the first time the two schools have met in football. This will be Iowa’s sixth trip to the Outback Bowl since 2004.

“There’s a lot of good teams in the Big Ten. There’s a lot of quality programs and coaches. This team just made the most sense for us this year,” Outback Bowl CEO Jim McVay said of picking Iowa. “And they’ve expressed that they want to come and the players want to be here. And they want to play a big-time SEC team. We’re getting everything we want.”

Mississippi State is the only one of Mississippi’s three Football Bowl Subdivision teams to receive a bowl bid. Ole Miss was ineligible due to NCAA sanctions — and did not qualify for a bowl anyway with a 5-7 record — while Southern Miss was snubbed despite achieving bowl-eligibility with a 6-5 record.