SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame’s schizophrenic football season took one last abrupt left turn Sunday. And a balmy one at that. To Honolulu.

According to a bowl source, the Irish (6-6) accepted a bid Sunday to play in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, Christmas Eve at 8 p.m. EST. ND will take on the host University of Hawaii Warriors (7-6), who concluded their regular-season Saturday night by blowing a 24-10 fourth-quarter lead to Big East champion Cincinnati in an eventual 29-24 collapse.

The game will be televised on ESPN. The Irish began practicing Saturday for their third-ever matchup with Hawaii.

Notre Dame officials declined comment, but an official announcement is expected later tonight.

Prior to ND’s 24-23 upset loss to Syracuse on Nov. 22, the Irish were on a trajectory to land in the Gator Bowl, Jan. 1 vs. Clemson. Then they appeared headed to the Sun Bowl, Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas, against Oregon State (8-4) but needed help from Louisville to get there.

The Cardinal upset of Rutgers never materialized Thursday night as the Scarlet Knights (7-5) took the last available Big East/ND bowl slot with a 63-14 rout. That pushed Pittsburgh (9-3) into the Sun and Notre Dame into a free agent kind of role.

There were five bowls, whose contracted conference tie-ins weren’t satisfied, that showed an interest in the Irish. Initially, the Texas Bowl Dec. 30 in Houston was the heavy favorite. The bowl would have paired the Irish against offensive-happy Rice (9-3).

But the Hawaii bowl gained momentum in the final 48 hours before the bids went out. In the end, the undesirable proximity of its date to ND’s exam week (Dec. 15-19) was the lesser evil compared to the Texas Bowl being televised on the NFL Network, which would have left many Notre Dame fans without a way to watch the game.

Another plus in the Hawaii Bowl’s favor is the fact that Notre Dame’s top target in this recruiting cycle, linebacker Manti Te’o, just happens to play his high school ball in Honolulu.

Still, the Irish had to wait out Saturday’s night’s Arizona-Arizona State game. Had the Sun Devils (5-7) upset their arch-rivals, the Hawaii Bowl would have been contractually obligated to take a Pac-10 team.

The game will be played in 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium, where Hawaii — even with the Cincinnati loss — are 22-4 in the last 26 home games and 27-9 in November and December games since 1999.