Liberty Bowl

Last updated
Liberty Bowl
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
AutoZone Liberty Bowl logo.svg
Stadium Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium
Location Memphis, Tennessee
Previous stadiums Philadelphia Municipal Stadium (1959–1963)
Convention Hall (1964)
Previous locations Philadelphia (1959–1963)
Atlantic City, New Jersey (1964)
Operated1959–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$6 million (2022)
Sponsors
St. Jude (1993–1996)
AXA Financial (1997–2003)
AutoZone (2004–present)
Former names
Liberty Bowl (1959–1992)
St. Jude Liberty Bowl (1993–1996)
AXA Liberty Bowl (1997–2003)
2023 matchup
Memphis vs Iowa State (Memphis 36–26)
2024 matchup
Texas Tech vs. Arkansas (December 27, 2024)

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 Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City (New Jersey) Convention Hall in 1964. Since 1965, the game has been held at Simmons Bank Liberty 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.

Contents

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

Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, home of the Liberty Bowl since the 1965 edition Uom stadium.JPG
Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, home of the Liberty Bowl since the 1965 edition

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 first game was the most successful of the five held in Philadelphia, as 38,000 fans watched Penn State beat Alabama, 7–0, in the bowl's inaugural edition.

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. [4] 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 2 inches (51 mm) 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, rather than the regulation 10 yards. 6,059 fans saw Utah rout West Virginia, 32–6. Dudley was paid $25,000 from Atlantic City businessmen, $60,000 from the gate, and $95,000 from television revenues, and cleared $10,000 net profit. [5]

In 1965, Dudley moved the game to Memphis, Tennessee, where it made its home at Memphis Memorial Stadium to much larger crowds; the venue was renamed as Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in December 1975. [6] Having been played every college football season since 1959, the game has established itself as one of the oldest non-New Year's Six 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] Due to the limited success of service academy football during this era, the only academy to appear in the Liberty Bowl as a result of this arrangement was Air Force, which appeared in four consecutive games, 1989–1992.

Beginning in 1996, the Liberty Bowl began an affiliation with the newly launched Conference USA (C-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 to 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:

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 2011 Hawaii Bowl instead. [8] [9]

Since 2014, the matchup features a team from the SEC against the fourth pick from the Big 12 Conference. The Liberty Bowl is part of a six-bowl SEC pool arrangement that also involves the Duke's Mayo (formerly Belk) in odd-numbered years or the Las Vegas in even-numbered years, Music City, ReliaQuest, Gator, 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 24th-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 an unusual rematch of a regular season game between the Iowa State Cyclones (9th place in the Big 12) and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (C-USA champions). [10] Iowa State had defeated Tulsa, 38–23, in the season's first weekend, however Tulsa defeated Iowa State, 31–17, in the Liberty Bowl. [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]

In 2020, after a matchup of West Virginia and Tennessee was announced on December 20, the Tennessee program had to withdraw on December 21 due to positive COVID-19 testing. [12] Army, who had accepted an invitation to the Independence Bowl before it was cancelled due to a lack of available teams, was named as their replacement. [13]

In the 2022 matchup, Kansas made their first bowl game appearance in 14 years, against Arkansas. The Razorbacks took an early 38–13 lead in the game. The Jayhawks then scored 25 unanswered points to send the game into overtime. The teams traded touchdowns in the first and second overtime. In the third overtime, with teams alternating two-point conversion attempts per NCAA overtime rules, the Razorbacks scored on their attempt and stopped the Jayhawks' attempt, resulting in a 55–53 Arkansas win. Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels set a Kansas single-game record and a Liberty Bowl record for passing yards, with 544. [14]

Game results

Boise State and Louisville square off in the 2004 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee. Liberty-bowl-2004.JPG
Boise State and Louisville square off in the 2004 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee.

The first five editions (1959–1963) were played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The 1964 game was played in Atlantic City, New Jersey. All subsequent editions have been played in Memphis, Tennessee.

Rankings are based on the AP Poll prior to the game being played.

DateWinning TeamLosing TeamAttnd.Notes
December 19, 195912 Penn State 710 Alabama 036,211 notes
December 20, 196016 Penn State 41 Oregon 1216,624 notes
December 16, 196114 Syracuse 15 Miami (Florida) 1415,712 notes
December 15, 1962 Oregon State 6 Villanova 017,048 notes
December 21, 1963 Mississippi State 16 NC State 128,309 notes
December 19, 1964 Utah 32 West Virginia 66,059 notes
December 18, 1965 Ole Miss 13 Auburn 738,607 notes
December 10, 19669 Miami (Florida) 14 Virginia Tech 739,101 notes
December 16, 1967 NC State 14 Georgia 735,045 notes
December 14, 1968 Ole Miss 34 Virginia Tech 1746,206 notes
December 13, 1969 Colorado 47 Alabama 3350,042 notes
December 12, 1970 Tulane 17 Colorado 344,640 notes
December 20, 19719 Tennessee 1418 Arkansas 1351,410 notes
December 18, 1972 Georgia Tech 31 Iowa State 3050,021 notes
December 17, 197316 NC State 3119 Kansas 1850,011 notes
December 16, 1974 Tennessee 710 Maryland 351,284 notes
December 22, 1975 USC 202 Texas A&M 052,129 notes
December 20, 197616 Alabama 367 UCLA 652,736 notes
December 19, 197712 Nebraska 2114 North Carolina 1749,456 notes
December 23, 197818 Missouri 20 LSU 1553,064 notes
December 22, 1979 Penn State 915 Tulane 650,021 notes
December 27, 198016 Purdue 28 Missouri 2535,667 notes
December 30, 198115 Ohio State 31 Navy 2843,216 notes
December 29, 1982 Alabama 21 Illinois 1554,123 notes
December 29, 1983 Notre Dame 1913 Boston College 1847,071 notes
December 27, 198416 Auburn 21 Arkansas 1550,180 notes
December 27, 1985 Baylor 2112 LSU 740,186 notes
December 29, 1986 Tennessee 21 Minnesota 1451,327 notes
December 29, 198715 Georgia 20 Arkansas 1753,249 notes
December 28, 1988 Indiana 34 South Carolina 1039,210 notes
December 29, 1989 Ole Miss 42 Air Force 2960,128 notes
December 27, 1990 Air Force 2324 Ohio State 1139,262 notes
December 29, 1991 Air Force 38 Mississippi State 1561,497 notes
December 31, 199220 Ole Miss 13 Air Force 032,107 notes
December 28, 199325 Louisville 18 Michigan State 734,216 notes
December 31, 1994 Illinois 30 East Carolina 033,280 notes
December 30, 1995 East Carolina 19 Stanford 1347,398 notes
December 27, 199623 Syracuse 30 Houston 1749,163 notes
December 31, 1997 Southern Miss 41 Pittsburgh 750,209 notes
December 31, 199810 Tulane 41 BYU 2752,192 notes
December 31, 199916 Southern Miss 23 Colorado State 1754,866 notes
December 29, 200023 Colorado State 2222 Louisville 1758,302 notes
December 31, 200123 Louisville 2819 BYU 1058,968 notes
December 31, 2002 TCU 1723 Colorado State 355,207 notes
December 31, 200325 Utah 17 Southern Miss 055,989 notes
December 31, 20047 Louisville 4410 Boise State 4058,355 notes
December 31, 2005 Tulsa 31 Fresno State 2454,894 notes
December 29, 2006 South Carolina 44 Houston 3656,103 notes
December 29, 2007 Mississippi State 10 UCF 363,816 notes
January 2, 2009 Kentucky 25 East Carolina 1956,125 notes
January 2, 2010 Arkansas 20 East Carolina 17 (OT)62,742 notes
December 31, 2010 UCF 10 Georgia 651,231 notes
December 31, 2011 Cincinnati 31 Vanderbilt 2457,103 notes
December 31, 2012 Tulsa 31 Iowa State 1753,687 notes
December 31, 2013 Mississippi State 44 Rice 757,846 notes
December 29, 2014 Texas A&M 45 West Virginia 3751,282 notes
January 2, 2016 Arkansas 45 Kansas State 2361,136 notes
December 30, 2016 Georgia 31 TCU 2351,087 notes
December 30, 2017 Iowa State 2118 Memphis 2057,266 notes
December 31, 2018 Oklahoma State 3824 Missouri 3351,587 notes
December 31, 201921 Navy 20 Kansas State 1750,515 notes
December 31, 2020 West Virginia 24 Army 21  8,187 notes
December 28, 2021 Texas Tech 34 Mississippi State 748,615 notes
December 28, 2022 Arkansas 55 Kansas 53 (3OT)52,847 notes
December 29, 2023 Memphis 36 Iowa State 2648,789 notes
December 27, 2024 Texas Tech vs. Arkansas notes

Source: [15] [16] :69,72

MVPs

The bowl has named a single MVP for each game, since inception. In nine instances, the MVP has played on the losing team, including four instances in a seven-game span during 1977–1983. The most recent MVP to play on the losing team was Kwame Ellis of Stanford in 1995. Quarterback Rob Perez of Air Force was named MVP twice, in 1990 and 1991.

Source: [16] :70
indicates the MVP played on the losing team

Most appearances

Updated for the December 2024 edition (66 games, 132 total appearances).

Teams with multiple appearances
Teams with a single appearance

Won (11): Baylor, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Purdue, USC
Lost (15): Army, Boise State, Boston College, Fresno State, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Rice, Stanford, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Villanova

Source: [16] :71

Appearances by conference

Updated for the December 2024 edition (66 games, 132 total appearances).

ConferenceRecordAppearances by season
GamesWLWin pct.WonLost
SEC 332111.6561963, 1965, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1992, 2006, 2007, 2008*, 2009*, 2013, 2014, 2015*, 2016, 20221959, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1978, 1985, 1991, 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021
Independents 221111.5001959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1983, 1993, 19951960, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1968, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1994, 2020
C-USA 1798.5291997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2010, 20121996, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008*, 2009*, 2013
Big 12 1247.3642017, 2018, 2020, 20212012, 2014, 2015*, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2023
Big Ten 844.5001980, 1981, 1988, 19941982, 1986, 1990, 1993
WAC 835.3751964, 1990, 19911989, 1992, 1998, 2004, 2005
Big Eight 734.4291969, 1977, 19781970, 1972, 1973, 1980
The American 642.6671996, 2011, 2019, 20231997, 2017
ACC 523.4001967, 19731963, 1974, 1977
Mountain West 523.4002000, 20031999, 2001, 2002
SWC 514.20019851971, 1975, 1984, 1987
Pac-10 312.33319751976, 1995
SoCon 101.000 1964

December 2024 participant

As of 2023, every SEC member except Florida has played in the game. Every current, former or future Big 12 member except Oklahoma and Texas have played in the game. A majority of teams that are members of the Power Five conferences have appeared in the game.

Game records

TeamRecord, Team vs. OpponentGame
Most points scored (one team)55, Arkansas vs. Kansas2022
Most points scored (losing team)53, Kansas vs. Arkansas2022
Most points scored (both teams)108, Arkansas vs. Kansas2022
Fewest points allowed0, most recent:
Utah vs. Southern Miss

2003
Largest margin of victory37, Mississippi State vs. Rice2013
Total yards681, Arkansas vs. Kansas2022
Rushing yards473, Colorado vs. Alabama1969
Passing yards544, Kansas vs. Arkansas2022
First downs30, shared by:
Ole Miss vs. Air Force
Arkansas vs. Kansas State
Kansas vs. Arkansas

1989
2015
2022
Fewest yards allowed
Fewest rushing yards allowed–8, Penn State vs. Tulane1979
Fewest passing yards allowed2, Ole Miss vs. Virginia Tech1968
IndividualRecord, Player, TeamGame
All-purpose yards279, Vincent Marshall (Houston)2006
Touchdowns (all-purpose)
Rushing yards254, Bob Anderson (Colorado)1969
Rushing touchdowns3, most recent:
Tyhier Tyler, [17] (Army)

2020
Passing yards544, Jalon Daniels (Kansas)2022
Passing touchdowns5, Jalon Daniels (Kansas)2022
Receiving yards220, Jameon Lewis (Mississippi State)2013
Receiving touchdowns3, Sherrod Gideon (Southern Miss)1997
Tackles, total19, shared by:
George Andrews (Nebraska)
A. J. Klein (Iowa State)

1977
2012
Tackles, solo12, Randy White (Maryland)1974
Sacks3, Trenton Thompson (Georgia)2016 (Dec)
Interceptions3, shared by:
Louis Campbell (Arkansas)
Jeremiah Castille (Alabama)

1971
1982
Long PlaysRecord, Player, Team vs. OpponentGame
Touchdown run99 yds., Terry Baker (Oregon State)1962
Touchdown pass89 yds., Pete Gonzalez to Jake Hoffart (Pittsburgh)1997
Kickoff return99 yds., David Jones (Kentucky)2008
Punt return79 yds., Norman Jefferson (LSU)1985
Interception return92 yds., Andy Avalos (Boise State)2004
Fumble return74 yds., Morgan Scalley (Utah)2003
Punt73 yds., Joey Huber (Colorado State)2000
Field goal49 yds., Tanner Gillis (Memphis)2023

Source: [16] :73–87

Media coverage

The earliest editions of the bowl were broadcast by NBC (1959–1963) and ABC (1964–1980). Several different networks carried the 1981 through 1989 games, including USA Network, Katz Broadcasting, [18] and Raycom. [19] Since 1990, the game has been broadcast predominantly by ESPN, with some editions on ABC. [20]

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