Here is all you need to know to watch the Alamo Bowl on Thursday.

This year’s Alamo Bowl features two teams that are very good, but not quite good enough to make it into the College Football Playoff in the Stanford Cardinal and TCU Horned Frogs. They’ll meet on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN (live streaming via WatchESPN).

Both teams are also coming off a loss in their conference championship games. TCU had no answers for No. 3 Oklahoma, which dominated them, 41-17, in the Big 12 championship game. Stanford fought hard and was much closer in its game but ultimately fell to No. 10 USC in the Pac-12 title game.

To make matters worse, Stanford lost to the Trojans earlier in the season as well, while TCU also fell to Oklahoma in the regular season. As a result, the Horned Frogs are playing in their second Alamo Bowl in three seasons. In 2015, TCU beat Oregon in a triple-overtime Alamo Bowl, so there is some recent success there.

Both teams are adamant that they’re just as excited for this bowl game as they would have been something bigger, though.

Kenny Hill is the quarterback for TCU, and he’ll be playing his final collegiate game after a long career that also included backing up Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M. He’s thrown for 2,838 yards, 21 touchdowns and six interceptions this season. K.J. Costello is the starter for Stanford, having thrown for 1,386 yards, 11 touchdowns and two interceptions in considerably less action than Hill.

Below is all you need to know to watch the game.

Time, TV channel, and streaming info

• Time: 9 p.m. ET
• Location: Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas
• TV: ESPN
• Streaming: WatchESPN
• Odds: TCU opened as a 2-point favorite.

Stanford vs. TCU news:

• TCU blog Frogs O’ War bypassed the usual question-and-answer session with the opposing blog and instead spoke with the opposition of their opposition. That means they spoke with Notre Dame’s One Foot Down and Oregon’s Addicted to Quack.
• Some have suggested the TCU defense is “receding.” Frogs O’ War is very, very adamant that this is not the case, and it has the stats to back it up.
• Bryce Love is definitely someone to watch out for, obviously, and Frogs O’ War took a deep dive on what to expect from him in Thursday’s game.
• TCU is pretty familiar with this bowl ... there is some history there, for sure.

Stanford vs. TCU prediction:

Stanford has the better team, but not by much. It should be able to handle its business on defense, and if it gets a boost with turnovers or on special teams, the Cardinal could lock it down.

Be sure to check out all our bowl predictions here.

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College football's first bowl game was almost its last