The Gator Bowl has signed a three-year...

The Gator Bowl has signed a three-year agreement with ESPN and moved the date of the game at Jacksonville, Fla., to New Year’s Day in 1989, which falls on a Sunday.

Gator Bowl President Don Davis also announced that Mazda Motors of America extended its sponsorship of the game, which guarantees each team $1 million, for the next three years.

The contract allows ESPN to carry the game at 5 p.m., PDT, on Jan. 1. It will be the only bowl game played on New Year’s Day, as other major bowl games that traditionally are played on New Year’s Day have been moved to Jan. 2 next year by NBC and CBS. Those networks instead plan to carry NFL playoff games that Sunday.