Liberty Bowl
| Liberty Bowl | |
|---|---|
| AutoZone Liberty Bowl | |
 | |
| Stadium | Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium |
| Location | Memphis, Tennessee |
| Previous stadiums |
John F. Kennedy Stadium (1959–1963) Convention Hall (1964) |
| Previous locations |
Philadelphia (1959–1963) Atlantic City, New Jersey (1964) |
| Operated | 1959–present |
| Conference tie-ins |
Big 12 #4 Pick[1] vs SEC Pool Pick[2] The American (alternate)[3] |
| Previous conference tie-ins |
C-USA (1996–2013) MWC (1998–2005) winner of the Commander in Chief's Trophy (1989–1992) |
| Payout | US$2,400,000[4] (As of 2014) |
| Sponsors | |
| Former names | |
|
Liberty Bowl (1959–1992) St. Jude Liberty Bowl (1993–1996) AXA Liberty Bowl (1997–2003) | |
| 2017 matchup | |
| Memphis vs. Iowa State (Iowa State 21–20) | |
| 2018 matchup | |
| Teams TBD (December 31, 2018) | |
The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City (New Jersey) Convention Hall in 1964. Since 1965, the game has been held at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. Because of the scheduling of the bowl game near the end of the calendar year, no game was played during calendar years 2008 or 2015, while two games were played in calendar years 2010 and 2016.
Since 2004, the game has been sponsored by Memphis-based auto parts retailer AutoZone and officially known as the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. Previous sponsors include St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (1993–1996) and AXA Financial (1997–2003).
History
A. F. "Bud" Dudley, a former Villanova athletic-director, created the Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia in 1959. The game was played at Philadelphia's Municipal Stadium. It was the only cold-weather bowl game of its time, and was plagued by poor attendance. The inaugural game was the most successful of the five held in Philadelphia, as 38,000 fans watched Penn State beat Alabama 7–0 in 1959.
A group of Atlantic City businessmen convinced Dudley to move his game from Philadelphia to Atlantic City's Convention Hall for 1964 and guaranteed Dudley $25,000.[5] It would be the first major (University Division, now Division I) bowl game played indoors. AstroTurf was still in its developmental stages and was unavailable for the game. Convention Hall was equipped with a 4-inch-thick (100 mm) grass surface with two inches of burlap underneath it (as padding) on top of concrete. To keep the grass growing, artificial lighting was installed and kept on 24 hours a day. The entire process cost about $16,000. End-zones were only 8 yards long. 6,059 fans saw Utah rout West Virginia. Dudley was paid $25,000 from Atlantic City businessmen, $60,000 from the gate, and $95,000 from television revenues, for $10,000 net profit.[6]
Dudley moved the game to Memphis in 1965, where it has made its home at what became Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium to much larger crowds and has established itself as one of the oldest non-BCS bowls.
Matchup
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Liberty Bowl offered an automatic invitation to the winner of the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, if that team was bowl eligible.[7]
Beginning in 1996, the Liberty Bowl began an affiliation with the newly launched Conference USA, offering its champion an automatic bid. Beginning in 2005, the winner of C-USA was determined by the newly created C-USA championship game. The winner of that game was customarily offered the bowl berth from 2005–2013.
In 1996 and 1997, the opponent for the C-USA champion was a team from the Big East. In 1998, the Liberty Bowl replaced the Holiday Bowl in a shared contract with the Cotton Bowl and had second choice between the WAC champion and a team from the SEC. From 1999 to 2005, the opponent for the C-USA champion was the Mountain West champion. There were two exceptions:
- 2004: Mountain West champion Utah qualified for the BCS. In their place, the Liberty Bowl chose WAC champion Boise State.
- 2005: Mountain West champion TCU chose to play in the Houston Bowl. At-large WAC team Fresno State took their place.
In 1999, the Mountain West Conference did not have an outright champion, as three teams tied for the conference lead. The conference's bid for the game was given to Colorado State.
The bowl's contract from 2006 until 2013 pitted the winner of the C-USA championship game against the eighth pick from the SEC. The American was to provide its fifth-place team as an alternate if the SEC could not provide a team. The SEC was also given veto power for the bowl, and elected to use it in 2011 to block C-USA champion Southern Miss from playing Vanderbilt; instead Cincinnati got the spot and Southern Miss accepted an invitation to the Hawaii Bowl instead.[8][9]
Since 2014, the matchup features a team from the SEC against the #4 pick from the Big 12 Conference. The Liberty Bowl is part of a six-bowl SEC pool arrangement that also involves the Belk, Music City, Outback, TaxSlayer, and Texas bowls; these bowls will choose one representative from the conference each, while the College Football Playoff receiving first choice (usually the Sugar Bowl in years it does not serve as a national semifinal) and the Citrus Bowl second choice.
The game is televised nationally on ESPN, and is carried nationwide by ESPN Radio, and internationally by ESPN International.
Recent matchups of note
The 2010 win by UCF was the program's first-ever bowl victory.
The 2011 game matched Coaches' Poll #24 ranked Cincinnati against upstart Vanderbilt, and unlike most lower tier bowls, it aired on the broadcast network ABC rather than its cable brethren ESPN. Cincinnati defeated Vanderbilt in a second-half comeback.
The 2012 Liberty Bowl featured a matchup between the Iowa State Cyclones (9th place in the Big 12) and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (Conference USA champions).[10] Iowa State defeated Tulsa 38–23 in the season's first weekend, however Tulsa defeated Iowa State 31–17 in the rematch of the regular season game.[10] Though the bowl normally selects a team from the SEC, it invited Iowa State because the SEC did not have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all of its contracted bowl games.[11]
Game results
- ↑ Mountain West Conference champion Utah was released from their contractual obligation to the Liberty Bowl after earning a BCS berth in 2004. Western Athletic Conference champion Boise State took Utah's place.
MVPs
Broadcasters
The inaugural Liberty Bowl in 1959 was televised by NBC, followed by ABC for 11 years. Between 1981 and 1988, the game was broadcast by several different networks. Since 1990, the game has been broadcast annually by ABC or ESPN.
Appearances by team
Through the December 2017 playing, there have been 59 games (118 total appearances).
- Teams with multiple appearances
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- Teams with a single appearance
Won: Baylor, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Purdue, USC
Lost: Boise State, Boston College, Fresno State, Kansas, Kansas State, Maryland, Memphis, Michigan State, Minnesota, Navy, North Carolina, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Rice, Stanford, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Villanova
See also
References
- ↑ "Liberty Bowl teams with Big 12". ESPN.com. Associated Press. August 23, 2013.
- ↑ libertydev. "AutoZone Liberty Bowl". www.libertybowl.org. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
- ↑ "American Athletic Conference - American Athletic Conference Announces 2014-19 Bowl Lineup". theamerican.org. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
- ↑ "AutoZone Liberty Bowl doubling payout in new deal with SEC". Retrieved 31 December 2017.
- ↑ Mazda, Jason (Dec 31, 2014). "50 years ago, indoor college football debuted in Atlantic City". Press of Atlantic City.
- ↑ Antonick, John (2005-06-22). "Unique Game". West Virginia Mountaineers. MSNsportsNET.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-26. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ↑ Cavanaugh, Jack (1989-11-12). "COLLEGE FOOTBALL; Boston College Surprises Army". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
- ↑ UCF Knights news, scores & more for the University of Central Florida - Orlando Sentinel Archived 2011-12-07 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ John (27 April 2010). "JSilver's UConn blog: Big East Bowl lineup complete". Retrieved 31 December 2017.
- 1 2 Chatmon, Brandon (2012-12-02). "AutoZone Liberty Bowl". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
- ↑ Higgins, Ron (2012-12-02). "Tulsa, Iowa State land in Liberty Bowl; Rebels to Birmingham". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
- ↑ AutoZoneLibertyBowl (30 December 2017). "Congratulations to game MVP @AllenLazard #AZLB59 !pic.twitter.com/SItOouRn6O". Retrieved 31 December 2017.