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NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game
College football bowl game
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, one of several new bowl games played in Major League Baseball venues. 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. The bowl relocated to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa in 2018.
Since 2020, the game has been sponsored by Union Home Mortgage and has been officially known as the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl. Previous sponsors include magicJack (2008), Beef O'Brady's (2009–2013), BitPay (2014), and Bad Boy Mowers (2017–2019).[2]
The Gasparilla Bowl is the third college bowl game to be played in the Tampa Bay area. The first was the Cigar Bowl, which was played in Tampa from 1947 to 1954, and the second was the ReliaQuest Bowl, which has been held in Tampa since 1986 and was known as the Outback Bowl for over 20 years.
In 2008, the NCAA's Postseason Football Licensing Subcommittee approved a yet-to-be-named bowl game to be owned by ESPN and played at Tropicana Field after the 2008 college football season.[3] Telecom company magicJack signed on as the title sponsor, and the inaugural magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl was played on December 20, 2008, between South Florida and Memphis, with the Bulls winning 41–14 behind Most Outstanding Player quarterback Matt Grothe.[4]
For the 2009 game, restaurant chain Beef O'Brady's took over as presenting sponsor. The game became known as St. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef O'Brady's in December 2009 after the restaurant chain obtained a title sponsorship.[5] Rutgers defeated UCF 45–24.
In 2010, the bowl's name was shortened to the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl. Southern Miss faced Louisville; it was the 29th meeting between former Conference USA rivals.[6] Louisville rallied from a 14-point deficit to win their sixth contest in a row against Southern Miss.[7]
Beef 'O' Brady's stopped sponsoring the bowl after the 2013 edition.[2] 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.[8][9] 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.[10]
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 Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, after Tampa's Gasparilla Pirate Festival.[11] The sponsorship ended after the 2019 game.[12]
On October 20, 2020, Union Home Mortgage signed on as title sponsor of the bowl, making it the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl.[13] The 2020 edition of the bowl was set to matchup South Carolina and UAB. However, on December 22, South Carolina had to withdraw from the bowl due to COVID-19 issues within their program.[14] As no replacement team was available, the bowl was subsequently canceled.[14]
Conference tie-ins[edit]The first three editions of the bowl featured teams from C-USA and the Big East. The American Athletic Conference (AAC) succeeded the Big East after 2013. The bowl entered a six-year agreement with the ACC for the 2014 to 2019 seasons; the ACC would provide a team in 2014 and 2016, and would be an alternate for the other seasons.[15] Ultimately, the only ACC team to play in the bowl during this period was NC State in 2014. Four of the five games from 2015 through 2019 featured a matchup between AAC and C-USA teams. The exception was 2016, when an overall lack of bowl-eligible teams yielded some "odd matchups";[16] the bowl's 2016 edition featured teams from the MAC and SEC.
As of the 2020 football season, the bowl has a large set of tie-ins, such that it could feature teams from eight different conferences as well as two independent programs:[17]
Note: since 2020, both Army and BYU have joined conferences.
Tropicana Field (left) and Raymond James Stadium
The bowl has been played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa since the 2018 edition. The first ten games were played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.[18]
"The Trop" is the home ballpark of the Tampa Bay Rays of MLB, and when it was first established, the then-St. Pete Bowl was one of several new college bowl games to be played in baseball venues.[19] At Tropicana Field, the football gridiron was situated down the right field line from near home plate to the outfield wall with just enough room for the endzones.[20]
Date Bowl name Winning Team Losing Team Venue Attendance December 20, 2008 St. Petersburg Bowl South Florida 41 Memphis 14 Tropicana Field 25,205 December 19, 2009 St. Petersburg Bowl Rutgers 45 UCF 24 28,793 December 21, 2010 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl Louisville 31 Southern Miss 28 20,017 December 20, 2011 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl Marshall 20 FIU 10 20,072 December 21, 2012 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl UCF 38 Ball State 17 21,759 December 23, 2013 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl East Carolina 37 Ohio 20 20,053 December 26, 2014 St. Petersburg Bowl NC State 34 UCF 27 26,675 December 26, 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl Marshall 16 Connecticut 10 14,652 December 26, 2016 St. Petersburg Bowl Mississippi State 17 Miami (OH) 16 15,717 December 21, 2017 Gasparilla Bowl Temple 28 FIU 3 16,363 December 20, 2018 Gasparilla Bowl Marshall 38 South Florida 20 Raymond James Stadium 14,135 December 23, 2019 Gasparilla Bowl UCF 48 Marshall 25 28,987[a] December 26, 2020 Gasparilla Bowl Canceled due to COVID-19 issues[23][b] — December 23, 2021 Gasparilla Bowl UCF 29 Florida 17 63,669 December 23, 2022 Gasparilla Bowl Wake Forest 27 Missouri 17 34,370 December 22, 2023 Gasparilla Bowl Georgia Tech 30 UCF 17 30,281 December 20, 2024 Gasparilla Bowl Florida 33 Tulane 8 41,472Source:[24]
From 2008 through 2016, an MVP was selected from each team; since 2017, a single game MVP is named.
UCF in the red zone during the 2021 gameUpdated through the December 2024 edition (16 games, 32 total appearances).
Won (8): East Carolina, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Mississippi State, NC State, Rutgers, Temple, Wake Forest
Lost (8): Ball State, Connecticut, Memphis, Miami (OH), Missouri, Ohio, Southern Miss, Tulane
Updated through the December 2024 edition (16 games, 32 total appearances).
Conference Record Appearances by season Games W L Win pct. Won Lost The American 10 6 4 .600 2008, 2009, 2010, 2017, 2019, 2021 2014, 2015, 2018, 2024 C-USA 10 5 5 .500 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018 2008, 2009, 2010, 2017, 2019 SEC 4 2 2 .500 2016, 2024 2021, 2022 ACC 3 3 0 1.000 2014, 2022, 2023 MAC 3 0 3 .000 2012, 2013, 2016 Sun Belt 1 0 1 .000 2011 Big 12 1 0 1 .000 2023The bowl has been televised on ESPN since its inception, and broadcast on ESPN Radio and later Gameday Radio.
With South Carolina unable to play in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl on Saturday against UAB because of COVID-19 issues, the bowl game has been canceled.
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