Gasparilla Bowl
| Gasparilla Bowl | |
|---|---|
| Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl | |
 | |
| Stadium | Raymond James Stadium |
| Location | Tampa, Florida |
| Previous stadiums |
Tropicana Field (2008––2017) |
| Previous locations |
St. Petersburg, Florida (2008–2017) |
| Operated | 2008–present |
| Conference tie-ins |
American, ACC, C-USA Alternates: MAC, Sun Belt |
| Payout | US$500,000[1] |
| Sponsors | |
| 2017 matchup | |
| Temple vs. FIU (Temple 28–3) | |
| 2018 matchup | |
| Teams TBD (December 20, 2018) | |
The Gasparilla Bowl is an annual NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game played in the Tampa Bay Area. It was first played in 2008 as the St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The game was renamed the Gasparilla Bowl in 2017 as a nod to the legend of José Gaspar, a mythical pirate who supposedly operated in the Tampa Bay area and who is the inspiration for Tampa's Gasparilla Pirate Festival. In May 2018, the owners announced the bowl would be relocated to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.[2]
Since 2017, the game has been sponsored by Bad Boy Mowers and officially known as Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.[3] Previous sponsors include Bitcoin (2014), Beef O'Brady's (2009–2013), and magicJack (2008). From 2010 to 2013 when Beef O'Brady's was the title sponsor, the game was officially known as simply the Beef O'Brady's Bowl.[4]
The bowl game features teams from the American Athletic Conference against either the Atlantic Coast Conference or Conference USA, unless one of the conferences does not have enough bowl eligible teams, in which case the Mid-American or Sun Belt Conference are eligible to send a team. The 2016 edition of the game featured an SEC team, Mississippi State.
History
The Gasparilla Bowl is the third college bowl game to be played in the Tampa Bay area; the Outback Bowl has been held in Tampa since 1986 and the Cigar Bowl was played from 1947 to 1954.
On April 30, 2008, the NCAA's Postseason Football Licensing Subcommittee approved a to-be-named bowl for Tropicana Field to be played after the 2008 college football season.[5] On November 25, 2008, ESPN Regional Television, the game's owner, announced a one-year title sponsorship agreement with magicJack.[6]
The inaugural magicJack Bowl was played on Dec 20, 2008, between the South Florida Bulls and Memphis Tigers, with the USF Bulls winning by a score of 41–14. USF Quarterback Matt Grothe was named Most Outstanding Player, after throwing for 236 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 83 yards on 15 carries.
magicJack did not renew its sponsorship, and the UCF Knights and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights met in the St. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef O'Brady's in December 2009 after the restaurant chain obtained a title sponsorship.[7] In the second St. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef O'Brady's, Rutgers defeated Central Florida 45–24.
In 2010, the bowl's name was shortened to the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl and pitted the Southern Miss Golden Eagles against the Louisville Cardinals on December 21, 2010. It was the 29th meeting between former Conference USA rivals.[8] After falling behind 14–0 and 21–7, Louisville came back to win their sixth contest in a row against Southern Miss, 31–28[9]
The 2011 game featured the first Sun Belt Conference team to play in the game, as Florida International lost 20–10 to Marshall (Conference USA). This was the first time that the Big East was unable to send a team to the game. FIU joined Marshall in C-USA in 2013, both will compete in the conference's East Division for football.
Beef 'O' Brady's stopped sponsoring the bowl after the 2013 edition.[10] On June 18, 2014, it was announced that Bitcoin payment service provider BitPay would become the new sponsor of the game under a two-year deal, renamed the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. Bitcoin, the digital currency, was accepted for ticket and concession sales at the game as part of the sponsorship, and the sponsorship itself was also paid for using bitcoin.[11][12] On April 2, 2015, after one year of sponsorship, BitPay declined to renew sponsorship of the game, and it was again called the St. Petersburg Bowl for the next two years.[13]
On August 23, 2017, Bad Boy Mowers signed a three-year deal to become the official title sponsor of the game, which was rebranded as the Bay Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl after the Tampa's Gasparilla Pirate Festival.[14] In 2018, the bowl was moved across Tampa Bay from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
Stadium
Since Tropicana Field was originally designed for baseball, the football gridiron is arranged along the right field line, from home plate to the foul pole. The game is one of three to take place in a baseball-only stadium among current post-season football contests; the others are the Cactus Bowl, played at Chase Field in Phoenix, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Pinstripe Bowl in The Bronx, New York at Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees. The Fight Hunger Bowl, was played at San Francisco's AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants but moved to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California (home of the San Francisco 49ers) in 2014. The Miami Beach Bowl, was played at Miami's Marlins Park, home of the Miami Marlins, but moved to Toyota Stadium (home to FC Dallas of Major League Soccer) in Frisco, Texas to become the Frisco Bowl in 2017.
Between 2000 and 2005, the Insight Bowl was played at the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona after being moved from Tucson, while the 2001 Seattle Bowl was played at Safeco Field while CenturyLink Field was being built on the site of the Kingdome. Original plans had the Military Bowl in Washington being played at Nationals Park, but the game was played at RFK Stadium during the years that Washington hosted it (the Military Bowl has since moved to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland).
Three other bowls, the International Bowl, the Bluebonnet Bowl, and the Chick-fil-A Bowl, were also played in baseball stadiums, but Toronto's Rogers Centre (the home of the defunct International Bowl), Houston's Astrodome (home of the Bluebonnet Bowl) and Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium (home of the then-Peach Bowl) were purposely built to house both baseball and football.
In May of 2018, the owners announced the bowl would be moving to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.[2]
Game results
| Date | Winning Team | Losing Team | Attendance | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 20, 2008 | South Florida | 41 | Memphis | 14 | 25,205 | Notes |
| December 19, 2009 | Rutgers | 45 | UCF | 24 | 28,793 | Notes |
| December 21, 2010 | Louisville | 31 | Southern Miss | 28 | 20,017 | Notes |
| December 20, 2011 | Marshall | 20 | FIU | 10 | 20,072 | Notes |
| December 21, 2012 | UCF | 38 | Ball State | 17 | 21,759 | Notes |
| December 23, 2013 | East Carolina | 37 | Ohio | 20 | 20,053 | Notes |
| December 26, 2014 | NC State | 34 | UCF | 27 | 26,675 | Notes |
| December 26, 2015 | Marshall | 16 | Connecticut | 10 | 14,652 | Notes |
| December 26, 2016 | Mississippi State | 17 | Miami (OH) | 16 | 15,717 | Notes |
| December 21, 2017 | Temple | 28 | FIU | 3 | 16,363 | Notes |
MVPs
| Year | MVP(s) | Team | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Matt Grothe | South Florida | QB |
| 2009 | Mohamed Sanu | Rutgers | WR |
| 2010 | Jeremy Wright | Louisville | RB |
| 2011 | Aaron Dobson | Marshall | WR |
| 2012 | Blake Bortles | UCF | QB |
| 2013 | Vintavious Cooper | East Carolina | RB |
| 2014 | Jacoby Brissett | NC State | QB |
| 2015 | Deandre Reaves | Marshall | WR |
| 2016 | Nick Fitzgerald | Mississippi State | QB |
| 2017 | Frank Nutile | Temple | QB |
Most appearances
- Teams with multiple appearances
| Rank | Team | Appearances | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UCF | 3 | 1–2 |
| T2 | Marshall | 2 | 2–0 |
| T2 | FIU | 2 | 0–2 |
- Teams with a single appearance
Won: East Carolina, Louisville, Mississippi State, NC State, Rutgers, South Florida, Temple
Lost: Ball State, Connecticut, Memphis, Miami (OH), Ohio, Southern Miss
Appearances by conference
| Rank | Conference | Appearances | Wins | Losses | Pct. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C-USA | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0.500 |
| T2 | Big East[n 1] | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1.000 |
| T2 | The American[n 2] | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0.333 |
| 4 | MAC | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0.000 |
| T5 | ACC | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| T5 | SEC | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| T5 | Sun Belt | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
- ↑ USF (2008), Rutgers (2009), and Louisville (2010) participated as members of the original Big East Conference, which split in 2013.
- ↑ UCF participated as a member of Conference USA (2009 and 2012) and the American Athletic Conference (2014).
Game records
| Team | Performance vs. Opponent | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Most points scored | 45, Rutgers vs. UCF | 2009 |
| Fewest points allowed | 3, Temple vs. FIU | 2017 |
| Margin of victory | 27, South Florida vs. Memphis | 2008 |
| First downs | 30, East Carolina vs. Ohio | 2013 |
| Rushing yards | 281, East Carolina vs. Ohio | 2013 |
| Passing yards | 401, South Florida vs. Memphis | 2008 |
| Total yards | 568, East Carolina vs. Ohio | 2013 |
| Individual | Player, Team | Year |
| Points scored | 12, many times (Last: Rakeem Cato, Marshall) | 2010 |
| Passing touchdowns | 3, Matt Grothe, South Florida | 2008 |
| Rushing yards | 198, Vintavious Cooper, East Carolina | 2013 |
| Passing yards | 294, Tom Savage, Rutgers | 2009 |
| Receiving Yards | 99, Tim Brown, Rutgers | 2009 |
See also
References
- ↑ "College Football Poll.com". www.collegefootballpoll.com.
- 1 2 "Gasparilla Bowl leaving St. Petersburg after 10 years". 10NEWS. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
- ↑ "Bad Boy Mowers Signs on as New Bowl Game Title Sponsor Bowl Game Changes Name to Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl". Retrieved August 23, 2017.
- ↑ "'O' No! Beef 'O' Brady's to drop sponsorship of local bowl game". Tampa Bay Business Journal.
- ↑ NCAA committee approves 34 football bowl games The Associated Press, ESPN.com. April 30, 2008. Accessed April 30, 2008.
- ↑ "No longer St. Pete Bowl" Archived 2012-09-14 at Archive.is from Tampa Tribune, 2008-11-25, retrieved 2008-12-02
- ↑
- ↑ "Golden Eagles to Face Louisville in Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl" 2010-12-05, retrieved 2010-12-05
- ↑ "Louisville holds on for 31-28 win over Southern Miss in Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl". Tampa Bay Times.
- ↑ "'O' No! Beef 'O' Brady's to drop sponsorship of local bowl game". Tampa Bay Business Journal.
- ↑ Wilkerson, Chris (August 22, 2014). "BitPay exec: We paid ESPN for our sponsorship in bitcoin". Tampa Bay Business Journal.
- ↑ "BitPay to Sponsor St. Petersburg Bowl in First Major Bitcoin Sports Deal". Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ↑ "Bitcoin backer BitPay dumps St. Pete Bowl sponsorship". Retrieved 2 April 2015.
- ↑ "Bad Boy Mowers Signs on as New Bowl Game Title Sponsor Bowl Game Changes Name to Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl". Retrieved August 23, 2017.