Birmingham Bowl

Birmingham Bowl
Stadium Legion Field
Location Birmingham, Alabama
Operated 2006-present
Conference tie-ins The American, SEC
Alternates: C-USA, MAC
Payout US$1,950,000 (As of 2013)[1]
Sponsors
Papa John's (2006–2010)
BBVA Compass (2011–2014)
Former names
Birmingham Bowl (2006, working title)
PapaJohns.com Bowl (2006–2010)
BBVA Compass Bowl (2011–2014)
2017 matchup
USF vs. Texas Tech (USF 38–34)
2018 matchup
Teams TBD (December 22, 2018)

The Birmingham Bowl is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game played annually since 2006 at the 71,594-seat Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. ESPN Regional Television (doing business as ESPN Plus, a subsidiary of ESPN) owns and manages the bowl's operations, sponsorships and marketing, including broadcast of the game on ESPN.[2] The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) also provides marketing, management and game-day operations support. The game was previously known as the PapaJohns.com Bowl (2006–2010) and the BBVA Compass Bowl (2011–2014).

History

The PapaJohns.com Bowl marked the return of post-season football to the city of Birmingham, which previously hosted the Dixie Bowl from 1947 to 1948, the Hall of Fame Classic from 1977 to 1985 (relocated to Tampa and became the Outback Bowl), and the All-American Bowl from 1986 to 1990 (canceled when the SEC awarded their championship game to the city).

In the inaugural game, played on December 23, 2006, the South Florida Bulls, the Big East's representative, beat Conference USA's East Carolina Pirates, 24-7 in front of a crowd of 32,023.[3] Benjamin Williams scored the game's first points just over ninety seconds into the game as one of his two touchdowns on the day, and earned the game's MVP honors. Notably, South Florida had previously been a member of C-USA. The 2007 matchup featured the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and the Cincinnati Bearcats.[4] As with the previous year's game, the participants were a former C-USA member (Cincinnati) and a current C-USA member (Southern Miss).

After being held in December for its first three years, the PapaJohns.com Bowl was played on January 2, 2010. As a result, there was no game during the 2009 calendar year. It was one of five bowl games to take place that day, joining the Cotton Bowl Classic, International, Alamo, and Liberty bowls. Connecticut faced South Carolina in the 2010 edition of the bowl.[5]

Conference tie-ins

The bowl originally had a four-year agreement with Conference USA to match a representative of that conference against an opponent from the Big East Conference, but the bowl's officials later appealed to the NCAA for a recertification which was granted in late April 2008. In 2008 and 2009, the bowl featured the Southeastern Conference's ninth bowl-eligible team and a team from the Big East Conference.[6]

The game currently features teams from the SEC and the American Athletic Conference. Should either of these conferences not fulfill their bowl commitments, a team from C-USA or the Mid-American Conference will take their place, provided it is bowl eligible.[7] Otherwise, the game will choose an at-large team. This happened in 2008, when the SEC was unable to send a team; the bowl selected ACC team North Carolina State to face Rutgers from the Big East despite the fact that the bowl had an arrangement with the Sun Belt Conference at the time and it had at least one bowl-eligible team it could send.

Sponsorship

From 2006 through 2010, the game was the PapaJohns.com Bowl, named after Papa John's Pizza, who became the title sponsor signing a multi-year agreement in November 2006.[8] On August 6, 2010, Papa John's announced it would not renew its sponsorship, after having secured a sponsorship deal with the National Football League.[9] Following the announcement, the game was temporarily renamed the Birmingham Bowl until BBVA Compass was announced as its title sponsor on November 4, 2010, officially changing its name to the BBVA Compass Bowl.[9][10] The bowl was sponsored by BBVA through the January 2014 game, following which BBVA Compass declined to renew its sponsorship,[11] and the game was subsequently renamed the Birmingham Bowl.

Game results

a 2017 Birmingham Bowl ticket
NameDateWinning teamLosing teamAttendance
2006 PapaJohns.com BowlDecember 23, 2006South Florida24East Carolina732,023
2007 PapaJohns.com BowlDecember 22, 2007Cincinnati31Southern Miss2135,258
2008 PapaJohns.com BowlDecember 29, 2008Rutgers29NC State2338,582
2010 PapaJohns.com BowlJanuary 2, 2010Connecticut20South Carolina745,254
2011 BBVA Compass BowlJanuary 8, 2011Pittsburgh27Kentucky1041,207
2012 BBVA Compass BowlJanuary 7, 2012SMU28Pittsburgh629,726
2013 BBVA Compass BowlJanuary 5, 2013Ole Miss38Pittsburgh1759,135
2014 BBVA Compass BowlJanuary 4, 2014Vanderbilt41Houston2442,717
2015 Birmingham Bowl (January)January 3, 2015Florida28East Carolina2030,083
2015 Birmingham Bowl (December)December 30, 2015Auburn31Memphis1059,430
2016 Birmingham BowlDecember 29, 2016South Florida46South Carolina39 (OT)31,229
2017 Birmingham BowlDecember 23, 2017No. 25 South Florida38Texas Tech3428,623[12]

MVPs

Date Name School Position
December 23, 2006Benjamin WilliamsSouth FloridaRB
December 22, 2007Ben MaukCincinnatiQB
December 29, 2008Mike TeelRutgersQB
January 2, 2010Andre DixonConnecticutRB
January 8, 2011Dion LewisPittsburghRB
January 7, 2012Darius JohnsonSMUWR
January 5, 2013Bo WallaceOle MissQB
January 4, 2014Jordan MatthewsVanderbiltWR
January 3, 2015Adam LaneFloridaRB
December 30, 2015Jovon RobinsonAuburnRB
December 29, 2016Quinton FlowersSouth FloridaQB
December 23, 2017Quinton FlowersSouth FloridaQB

Most appearances

Teams with multiple appearances
Rank Team Appearances Record
T1South Florida33–0
T1Pittsburgh31–2
T3South Carolina20–2
T3East Carolina20–2
Teams with a single appearance

Won: Auburn, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Florida, Ole Miss, Rutgers, SMU, Vanderbilt
Lost: Houston, Kentucky, Memphis, N.C. State, Southern Miss, Texas Tech

Appearances by conference

Through the December 2017 playing, there have been 12 games (24 total appearances).

Rank Conference Appearances Wins Losses Pct.
1The American[n 1]1275.583
2SEC743.571
3C-USA312.333
T4ACC101.000
T4Big 12101.000
  1. ↑ Following the 2013 split of the original Big East along football lines, the FBS schools reorganized as the American Athletic Conference, which retains the charter of the original Big East. Teams in the original Big East compiled a record of 5–2 from 2006 through 2013.

Media coverage

Except for the inaugural game, which was televised on ESPN2, the bowl has been televised on ESPN.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "BBVA Compass Bowl — About Us: Past Results". BBVA Compass Bowl. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  2. ↑ "ESPN Regional Television to Own and Operate New PapaJohns.com Bowl Game". 2006-05-09. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  3. ↑ Solomon, Jon (2006-12-24). "Cheers for Papajohns.com Bowl". The Birmingham News. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  4. ↑ "It's official: Cincinnati is Southern Mississippi's opponent in Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham " (November 28, 2007) Birmingham News
  5. ↑ Boyer, Zac (2009-12-06). "UConn accepts bid to Papajohns.com Bowl". UConnReport.com. Retrieved 2006-12-06.
  6. ↑ "PapaJohns.com Bowl receives two-year tie-in with SEC". CNNSI.com. Associated Press. May 1, 2008. Archived from the original on May 5, 2008.
  7. ↑ http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/11/sec_wont_be_in_birminghams_bbv.html
  8. ↑ "PapaJohns.com Signs on as Title Sponsor of Inaugural PapaJohns.com Bowl Game". 2006-11-16. Archived from the original on 2007-03-27. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  9. 1 2 Solomon, Jon (2010-08-07). "Papa John's: New NFL strategy, higher ESPN financial demand mean cutting bowl ties". The Birmingham News. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
  10. ↑ Russell, Hubbard (2010-11-04). "BBVA Compass to take over sponsorship of Birmingham bowl game". The Birmingham News. Archived from the original on 7 November 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
  11. ↑ "BBVA Compass to end sponsorship of bowl game in Birmingham" The Biz Journals. 2013-04-03
  12. ↑ "2017 Bowl Game Attendance". sportshoop.la. December 25, 2017. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
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