The 2012 Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl was a post-season American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

held on December 31, 2012, at

LP Field Nissan Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Owned by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, it is primarily used for football and is the home field of the Tennessee Titans of the Natio ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. The fifteenth edition of the Music City Bowl began at 11:05 a.m. CST and aired on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. It featured the

NC State Wolfpack The NC State Wolfpack is the nickname of the athletic teams representing North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for college footb ...

from the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) against the

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's team ...

from the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) and was the final game of the

2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The regular season began on August 30, 2012 and ended on Dec ...

for both teams. The Wolfpack accepted their invitation to the game after attaining a 7–5 regular-season record, while the hometown Commodores accepted theirs after attaining an 8–4 record.

Teams

NC State

The Wolfpack finished in third place in the Atlantic Division with a 4–4 record, resulting in the firing of head coach Tom O'Brien after the season; assistant coach Dana Bible coached the Wolfpack in the bowl game. This was the Wolfpack's first Music City Bowl.

Vanderbilt

The Commodores' season, on the other hand, was one of their more successful in recent history; finishing in fourth place in the SEC's Eastern Division with a 5–3 record, the Commodores accepted the bid to their hometown Music City Bowl. This was the Commodores' second Music City Bowl; previously,

they In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms: * ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''them'': the accusat ...

had played in the 2008 game, defeating the

Boston College Eagles The Boston College Eagles are the athletic teams that represent Boston College, located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivisio ...

by a score of 16–14. It was also the first time the Commodores have ever been to a bowl game in consecutive seasons; the previous season saw them reach the

2011 Liberty Bowl The 2011 Liberty Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game played on December 31, 2011, at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. With sponsorship from AutoZone, the 53rd edition of the Liberty Bowl was officially the AutoZone ...

, losing to the

Cincinnati Bearcats The Cincinnati Bearcats are the athletic teams that represent the University of Cincinnati. Though they will move to the Big 12 Conference (XII) the teams are currently a part of the American Athletic Conference (The American), which from 1979 ...

by a score of 31–24.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

References

{{Vanderbilt Commodores bowl game navbox Music City Bowl

Music City Bowl The Music City Bowl is a post-season American college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that has been played in Nashville, Tennessee, since 1998. Since 2020, it has been sponsored by TransPerfect and is officially known as the ''TransPerf ...

NC State Wolfpack football bowl games Vanderbilt Commodores football bowl games December 2012 sports events in the United States