Bowl Challenge Cup

Bowl Challenge Cup

Awarded for	Best college football bowl record among Division I Football Bowl Subdivision conferences.
Country	United States
Presented by	ESPN
History
First award	2002–03
Most wins	Mountain West (4)
Most recent	Big 12 (2020–21)

The Bowl Challenge Cup is a competition among NCAA college football conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly called Division I-A, based on win-loss records in the bowl games that take place annually during December and January. The winner is the conference that has the highest winning percentage, among conferences with a minimum of three teams appearing in bowl games.

The Challenge was created in 2002 by ESPN, who also occasionally refers to it as the "Bowl Cup Challenge" when promoting it. Originally sponsored by Cooper Tire, ESPN went several years without a sponsor; since the 2015–16 bowl season, Progressive has been the sponsor.

Participants

The ten Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) conferences that compete in the Bowl Challenge Cup are:

Power Five

• Atlantic Coast Conference
• Big Ten Conference
• Big 12 Conference
• Pac-12 Conference
• Southeastern Conference

Group of Five

• American Athletic Conference
• Conference USA
• Mid-American Conference
• Mountain West Conference
• Sun Belt Conference

Former conferences that competed in the Bowl Challenge Cup were:

• Big East Conference, which reorganized as the American Athletic Conference
• Western Athletic Conference, until it discontinued sponsoring football following the 2012 season

Results

Bowl Challenge Cup champions
Bowl season	Conference	Record	Win %
2002–03	Big Ten	5–2	.714
2003–04	ACC	5–1	.833
2004–05	Mountain West	2–1	.667
2005–06	ACC and Big 12 (tied)	5–3	.625
2006–07	Big East	5–0	1.000
2007–08	Mountain West	4–1	.800
2008–09	Pac-10	5–0	1.000
2009–10	Mountain West	4–1	.800
2010–11	Mountain West	4–1	.800
2011–12	C-USA and MAC (tied)	4–1	.800
2012–13	Conference USA	4–1	.800
2013–14	SEC	7–3	.700
2014–15	Conference USA	4–1	.800
2015–16	SEC	9–2	.818
2016–17	ACC	9–3	.750
2017–18	Big Ten	7–1	.875
2018–19	Conference USA	4–2	.667
2019–20	SEC	8–2	.800
2020–21	Big 12	5-0	1.000

Number of Bowl Challenge Cup championships
Conference	Times	Championships
Mountain West	4	2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11
Conference USA (C-USA)	31⁄2	2011–12(2), 2012–13, 2014–15, 2018–19
Southeastern (SEC)	3	2013–14, 2015–16, 2019–20
Atlantic Coast (ACC)	21⁄2	2003–04, 2005–06(1), 2016–17
Big Ten	2	2002–03, 2017–18
American (Big East to 2013)	1	2006–07
Pac-12 (Pacific-10 to 2010)	1	2008–09
Mid-American (MAC)	1⁄2	2011–12(2)
Big 12	11⁄2	2005–06(1), 2020–21
Sun Belt	0
^(1) Tied for 2005–06 championship ^(2) Tied for 2011–12 championship

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