STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State football team will try to cap the program’s most successful regular season with another piece of history.

MSU (10-2) will try to accomplish that feat in its first bowl game in Miami in more than seven decades.

On Sunday afternoon, MSU — ranked No. 7 in the College Football Playoff Selection Committee’s rankings — was invited to the Capital One Orange Bowl to play against Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division champion Georgia Tech at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 31 (ESPN).

“We are going to party like it’s 1941,” said MSU coach Dan Mullen, referring to the last time the program played in the Orange Bowl. “It is a tremendous honor for our school, our program, and this team to be invited to what I think is one of the best, if not the very best, bowl in the country. A bowl game is a reward for a special season, and this bowl makes our season very, very special.”

The Orange Bowl is one of the “New Year’s Six,” a group of bowls also referred to as the Access Bowls. The Orange, Sugar, Rose, Fiesta, Cotton, and Peach bowls will serve as destinations for the College Football Playoff, and are the most prestigious bowl destinations in the new playoff system.

MSU, ranked in the top 10 of the committee’s weekly list for the sixth-straight week, earned the Orange Bowl nod by finishing as the highest-ranked non-champion from the Big Ten Conference or the Southeastern Conference, a distinction MSU grabbed when it jumped Michigan State (10-2) on Sunday for the No. 7 ranking. As the highest-ranked non-champion from the Southeastern Conference or Big Ten Conference, MSU qualified to play the ACC’s highest-rated team. Georgia Tech lost to reigning national champion Florida State 37-35 in the ACC Championship Game on Saturday night.

“Everybody knows about Dak Prescott and what he’s done,” Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said Sunday afternoon on an Orange Bowl teleconference. “I know they were ranked No. 1 in the country for about three or four weeks. Tremendous team, some outstanding individual players and a lot of respect for what they’ve done there.”

MSU and Georgia Tech met in a home-and-home series in 2008 and 2009, with Georgia Tech earning a 42-31 win in Starkville in Mullen’s first season.

Specializing in Johnson’s triple-option offense, the Yellow Jackets routinely rank among the nation’s leaders in rushing yards and time of possession. This season, Georgia Tech is second in the country with 333.6 rushing yards per game. Senior quarterback Justin Thomas has rushed for a team-best 985 yards.

“It’s a very unique challenge,” Mullen said of facing the Yellow Jackets. “Paul Johnson is a master of the triple option, and it’s one of the toughest challenges in all of football trying to prepare for that. They are a great team, and he is a great coach.”

The voters’ choice

For MSU, the chance to play against Georgia Tech is secondary to the opportunity of playing in the Orange Bowl. Already 3-1 in the postseason as MSU’s coach, Mullen will make his third trip to Miami for the annual showcase. He went as a graduate assistant at Syracuse and as the offensive coordinator at Florida. This time, Mullen, who led MSU to a second-place finish in the SEC’s Western Division, has the Bulldogs primed to play in their most prestigious bowl in decades.

“It has been a few years, 74 of them to be exact,” MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin said. “We are excited to be heading back to South Florida to let a new generation of MSU fans enjoy one of the premier bowl experiences in college football.”

Mullen, who has wins in the Music City, Liberty, and Gator bowls, agreed.

“I think if you had put it to a vote within our team, this is the bowl our players wanted to go to,” Mullen said. “They are extremely excited, and they should be. This is a great opportunity for Mississippi State football.”

Mullen said MSU will take a week off for finals before returning to work Friday. That will lead to eight days of bowl practice, the first five of which will be open to the public, before MSU departs Dec. 26 for the Orange Bowl.

“Bowl practices are huge,” Mullen said. “We look at it as building for the future. The first few practices, we look at it like we have 40 practices before next year’s season opener at Southern Mississippi. After a few days, we will begin focusing on Georgia Tech and getting ready for that game.”

Tickets going fast

MSU fans who want to watch the team in the Orange Bowl should act fast. Stricklin said MSU was allotted 15,000 tickets for the game. As of 5 p.m. Sunday, only 3,000 remained.

Of that total, Bulldog Club members have until midnight Tuesday to purchase tickets. At that point, the tickets will be offered to the general public.

“In recent years, Bulldog fans have taken over Nashville, Jacksonville. … Last year, we covered up Beale Street in Memphis,” Stricklin said. “I know we will do the same thing in Miami.”

Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat