The Gasparilla Bowl, officially the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl for sponsorship purposes, is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, since 2008. It was first known as the St. Petersburg Bowl, officially the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl for sponsorship purposes, then the St. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef O'Brady's in 2009, with corporate sponsor Beef O'Brady's dropping the inclusion of "St. Petersburg" to rebrand it the Beef O'Brady's Bowl from 2010 until 2013, with the "St. Petersburg" returning in 2017 for the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl, then the sponsorless St. Petersburg Bowl in 2015 and 2016, and finally the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl beginning in 2017. The current name is 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 game features teams from the American Athletic Conference against either the Atlantic Coast Conference or Conference USA, unless one of the conferences does not have enough bowl eligible teams, in which case the Mid-American or Sun Belt Conference are eligible to send a team. The 2016 edition of the game featured an SEC team, Mississippi State. In May 2018, the owners announced the bowl would be relocated to Raymond James Stadium.
Video Gasparilla Bowl
History
The St. Petersburg Bowl is the third college bowl game to be played in the Tampa Bay area; both the long-defunct Cigar Bowl and the ongoing Outback Bowl have been held across the bay in Tampa.
On April 30, 2008, the NCAA's Postseason Football Licensing Subcommittee approved a to-be-named bowl for Tropicana Field to be played after the 2008 college football season. On November 25, 2008, ESPN Regional Television, the game's owner, announced a one-year title sponsorship agreement with magicJack.
The inaugural game was played on Dec 20, 2008, between the South Florida Bulls and Memphis Tigers, with the USF Bulls winning by a score of 41-14. USF Quarterback Matt Grothe was named Most Outstanding Player, after throwing for 236 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 83 yards on 15 carries.
Both the UCF Knights and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights accepted bids to play in the 2009 St. Petersburg Bowl on December 19, 2009. On December 9, 2009, the bowl's name was changed to the St. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef O'Brady's after the restaurant chain obtained a title sponsorship. In the second St. Petersburg Bowl, Rutgers defeated Central Florida 45-24.
In 2010, the bowl's name was shortened to the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl and pitted the Southern Miss Golden Eagles against the Louisville Cardinals on December 21, 2010. It was the 29th meeting between former Conference USA rivals. After falling behind 14-0 and 21-7, Louisville came back to win their sixth contest in a row against Southern Miss, 31-28
The 2011 game featured the first Sun Belt Conference team to play in the game, as Florida International lost 20-10 to Marshall (Conference USA). This was the first time that the Big East was unable to send a team to the game. FIU joined Marshall in C-USA in 2013, both will compete in the conference's East Division for football.
Beef 'O' Brady's stopped sponsoring the bowl after the 2013 edition. 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. On April 2, 2015, after one year of sponsorship, BitPay declined to renew sponsorship of the game.
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 Bay Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.
Maps Gasparilla Bowl
Stadium
Since Tropicana Field was originally designed for baseball, the football gridiron is arranged along the right field line, from home plate to the foul pole. The game is one of three to take place in a baseball-only stadium among current post-season football contests; the others are the Cactus Bowl, played at Chase Field in Phoenix, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Pinstripe Bowl in The Bronx, New York at Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees. The Fight Hunger Bowl, was played at San Francisco's AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants but moved to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California (home of the San Francisco 49ers) in 2014. The Miami Beach Bowl, was played at Miami's Marlins Park, home of the Miami Marlins, but moved to Toyota Stadium (home to FC Dallas of Major League Soccer) in Frisco, Texas to become the Frisco Bowl in 2017.
Between 2000 and 2005, the Insight Bowl was played at the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona after being moved from Tucson, while the 2001 Seattle Bowl was played at Safeco Field while CenturyLink Field was being built on the site of the Kingdome. Original plans had the Military Bowl in Washington being played at Nationals Park, but the game was played at RFK Stadium during the years that Washington hosted it (the Military Bowl has since moved to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland).
Three other bowls, the International Bowl, the Bluebonnet Bowl, and the Chick-fil-A Bowl, were also played in baseball stadiums, but Toronto's Rogers Centre (the home of the defunct International Bowl), Houston's Astrodome (home of the Bluebonnet Bowl) and Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium (home of the then-Peach Bowl) were purposely built to house both baseball and football.
In May of 2018, the owners announced the bowl would be moving to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
Game results
MVPs
Most appearances
- Teams with multiple appearances
- Teams with a single appearance
Won: East Carolina, Louisville, Mississippi State, NC State, Rutgers, South Florida, Temple
Lost: Ball State, Connecticut, Memphis, Miami (OH), Ohio, Southern Miss
Appearances by conference
Game records
See also
- List of college bowl games
- List of Gasparilla Bowl broadcasters
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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