Alamo Bowl

This article is about the NCAA Alamo Bowl college football game that began in 1993. For the 1947 college football game that had the same name, see Alamo Bowl (1947).

Alamo Bowl
Valero Alamo Bowl
File:ValeroAlamoBowlColorRS.png Alamo Bowl logo
Stadium	Alamodome
Location	San Antonio, Texas
Operated	1993-present
Conference tie-ins	Big Ten, Big 12
Payout	US$2,200,000 (As of 2006)
Sponsors
Builders Square (1993-1998) Sylvania (1999-2001) MasterCard (2002-2005) Valero Energy Corporation (2007-present)
Former names
Builders Square Alamo Bowl (1993-1998) Sylvania Alamo Bowl (1999-2001) MasterCard Alamo Bowl (2002-2005) Alamo Bowl (2006)
2007 matchup
Penn State vs. Texas A&M (PSU 24, TAMU 17)
2008 matchup
Northwestern vs. Missouri (December 29)

The Alamo Bowl is a major American college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the 65,000-seat Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. It matches the fourth or fifth choice (not necessarily fourth or fifth place) teams from the Big Ten Conference and the Big 12 Conference.

History

The game was previously known as the Builders Square Alamo Bowl (1993–1998), the Sylvania Alamo Bowl (1999–2001) and the MasterCard Alamo Bowl (2002–2005). The logo of the event has evolved to reflect the changes in sponsorship. On May 24, 2007 the Alamo Bowl announced a partnership with Valero Energy Corporation, and thus the bowl's full name was changed to the Valero Alamo Bowl.

During the 1996 Alamo Bowl, the Iowa Hawkeyes wore plain black helmets (removing their tigerhawk logo and gold stripe) in honor of linebacker Mark Mitchell's mother, who died in a car accident while traveling to San Antonio for the game.

The 2002 Alamo Bowl played between Colorado and Wisconsin is the only game to have gone into overtime, with the unranked Badgers defeating the No. 14 ranked Buffaloes after kicking a field goal to win 31-28.

The 2005 Alamo Bowl ended on one of the most controversial plays in bowl game history, a multi-lateral play in which almost the entire Nebraska team and coaching staff (as well as a few Michigan players, Michigan coaches and media) entered onto the field, and Nebraska gave their coach the Gatorade Dunk before the play was blown dead, bringing up memories of 1982's "The Play", 2000's "Music City Miracle", and 2002's "Bluegrass Miracle."

The 2007 Alamo Bowl between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Texas A&M Aggies was attended by 66,166, which set an Alamodome facility-record crowd for a sporting event, breaking the previous year's game between Iowa and Texas. Penn State won the game 24-17.

The Alamo Bowl has sold out six of its fifteen games (1995, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2007).

Media coverage

The Alamo Bowl has produced eight of the top 20 most-watched bowl games in ESPN history. In 2006, the Alamo Bowl featured the Texas Longhorns and the Iowa Hawkeyes in a game that earned a 6.0 rating, making it the most-watched college football game in ESPN history as more than 8.83 million viewers saw the telecast.

Previous results

Date Played	Winning Team		Losing Team		Attendance	Notes
December 31, 1993	California	37	Iowa	3	45,716	notes
December 31, 1994	(24) Washington State	10	Baylor	3	44,106	notes
December 28, 1995	(14) Michigan	20	(19) Texas A&M	22	64,597	notes
December 29, 1996	Texas Tech	0	(21) Iowa	27	55,677	notes
December 30, 1997	(16) Purdue	33	(24) Oklahoma State	20	55,552	notes
December 29, 1998	(4) Kansas State	34	Purdue	37	60,780	notes
December 28, 1999	(13) Penn State	24	(18) Texas A&M	0	65,380	notes
December 30, 2000	(8) Nebraska	66	(19) Northwestern	17	60,028	notes
December 29, 2001	Iowa	19	Texas Tech	16	65,232	notes
December 28, 2002	(14) Colorado	28	Wisconsin	31	50,690	notes
December 29, 2003	Michigan State	3	(22) Nebraska	17	56,229	notes
December 29, 2004	Oklahoma State	7	(24) Ohio State	33	65,265	notes
December 28, 2005	(20) Michigan	28	Nebraska	32	62,016	notes
December 30, 2006	(18) Texas	26	Iowa	24	65,875	notes
December 29, 2007	Penn State	24	Texas A&M	17	66,166	notes
December 29, 2008	(25) Missouri	0	(22) Northwestern	0	TBA	notes

^†Rankings reflect rank at time of bowl game and taken from AP Top 25 poll

MVPs

Date played	MVPs	Team	Position
December 31, 1993	Dave Barr	California	QB
	Jerrot Willard	California	LB
December 31, 1994	Chad Davis	Washington State	QB
	Ron Childs	Washington State	LB
December 28, 1995	Kyle Bryant	Texas A&M	K
	Keith Mitchell	Texas A&M	LB
December 29, 1996	Sedrick Shaw	Iowa	RB
	Jared DeVries	Iowa	DL
December 30, 1997	Billy Dicken	Purdue	QB
	Adrian Beasley	Purdue	S
December 29, 1998	Drew Brees	Purdue	QB
	Rosevelt Colvin	Purdue	DE
December 28, 1999	Rashard Casey	Penn State	QB
	LaVar Arrington	Penn State	LB
December 30, 2000	Dan Alexander	Nebraska	RB
	Kyle Vanden Bosch	Nebraska	DL
December 29, 2001	Aaron Greving	Iowa	RB
	Derrick Pickens	Iowa	DL
December 29, 2002	Brooks Bollinger	Wisconsin	QB
	Jeff Mack	Wisconsin	LB
December 29, 2003	Jammal Lord	Nebraska	QB
	Trevor Johnson	Nebraska	DL
December 29, 2004	Ted Ginn Jr.	Ohio State	WR/PR/KR
	Simon Fraser	Ohio State	DE
December 28, 2005	Cory Ross	Nebraska	RB
	Leon Hall	Michigan	CB
December 30, 2006	Colt McCoy	Texas	QB
	Aaron Ross	Texas	CB
December 29, 2007	Rodney Kinlaw	Penn State	RB
	Sean Lee	Penn State	LB

Most Appearances

Rank	Team	Appearances	Record
1	Iowa	4	2-2
T2	Nebraska	3	3-0
T2	Texas A&M	3	1-2
T4	Michigan	2	0-2
T4	Penn State	2	2-0
T4	Oklahoma State	2	0-2
T4	Purdue	2	2-0
T4	Texas Tech	2	0-2
T4	Northwestern	2	0-1*
T9	Baylor	1	0-1
T9	California	1	1-0
T9	Colorado	1	0-1
T9	Kansas State	1	0-1
T9	Michigan State	1	0-1
T9	Texas	1	1-0
T9	Ohio State	1	1-0
T9	Washington State	1	1-0
T9	Wisconsin	1	1-0
T9	Missouri	1	0-0*

^*Pending results of 2008 Alamo Bowl

See also

• List of college bowl games

External links

• Official website of the Alamo Bowl
  • 2006 Alamo Bowl Media Guide, pp. 1–22, (PDF), The San Antonio Bowl Association.
  • 2006 Alamo Bowl Media Guide, pp. 23–41, (PDF), The San Antonio Bowl Association.
  • 2006 Alamo Bowl Media Guide, pp. 42–59, (PDF), The San Antonio Bowl Association.