The Arizona Bowl is a postseason
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 ...
certified by the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
that began play in the
2015 season. The game is held at
Arizona Stadium
Arizona Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in the southwestern United States, located on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. It is the home field of the Arizona Wildcats of the Pac-12 Conference.
Original ...
in
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, and starting in 2020 has tie-ins with the
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...
and
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...
(MAC). The 2021 game was cancelled due to a
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
outbreak within the
Boise State team.
History
![Arizona_Stadium_Wide_Angle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Arizona_Stadium_Wide_Angle.jpg)
Alongside the
Austin Bowl
The Austin Bowl is a proposed NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game to be played in Austin, Texas at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium. The college conferences that would have tie-ins with the bowl are the ...
and
Cure Bowl
The Cure Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played in December of each year in Orlando, Florida since 2015. It was originally held at Camping World Stadium before moving to Exploria Stadium in 2022. The Cure Bow ...
, the Arizona Bowl was one of three new bowl games sanctioned by the NCAA to begin play in the 2015 season (although the Austin Bowl was delayed to 2016, before ultimately being delayed indefinitely due to a moratorium placed on new bowl games by the NCAA).
In May 2015, it was reported that the game was to be held at
Arizona Stadium
Arizona Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in the southwestern United States, located on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. It is the home field of the Arizona Wildcats of the Pac-12 Conference.
Original ...
, and feature participants from
Conference USA
Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...
and the
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...
. It marked a return of post-season college football to
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, which previously hosted the
Copper Bowl
The Guaranteed Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989.
Played as the Copper Bowl from inception through 1996, it was known as the Insight.com Bowl from 1997 through 2001, then ...
(the event now known as the
Cactus Bowl
The Guaranteed Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989.
Played as the Copper Bowl from inception through 1996, it was known as the Insight.com Bowl from 1997 through 2001, then ...
).
The Arizona Bowl was officially announced on October 1, 2015 as the ''Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl''. Founded by the Arizona Sports and Entertainment Commission (ASEC), Alan Young, Kemp Ellis, Nikki Balich, the Mountain West Conference and Campus Insiders in a joint venture,
the inaugural game was scheduled to be held on December 29, 2015. It was also announced that the
Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...
would provide a secondary tie-in in case either conference did not have a
bowl-eligible
Bowl eligibility in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level is the standard through which teams become available for selection to participate in postseason bowl games. When a team achieves this state, it is described as "bowl-eligible". ...
team to play the Arizona Bowl.
The inaugural game featured the
Nevada Wolf Pack
The Nevada Wolf Pack are the athletic teams that represent the University of Nevada, Reno. They are part of NCAA's Division I's Mountain West Conference. It was founded on October 24, 1896 with football as the Sagebrushers in Reno, Nevada.
Hi ...
against the
Colorado State Rams
The Colorado State Rams are the athletic teams that represent Colorado State University (CSU). Colorado State's athletic teams compete along with 8 other institutions in the Mountain West Conference, which is an NCAA Division I conference and sp ...
. As neither Conference USA or the Sun Belt had enough bowl-eligible teams that could be sent to the Arizona Bowl, the game was played between two Mountain West teams, marking the first time since the
1979 Orange Bowl
The 1979 Orange Bowl was the 45th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on Monday, January 1. Part of the 1978–79 bowl game season, it matched the fourth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners and #6 Neb ...
that a non-championship bowl game was played between teams from the same conference. However, the two teams had not played each other during the regular season, as they competed in different divisions.
In May 2016, it was announced that the Sun Belt had reached a four-year deal to serve as a primary tie-in for the Arizona Bowl through 2019, replacing Conference USA. It was the fifth bowl game in which the Sun Belt held a primary tie-in.
On July 26, 2019, the bowl announced tie-ins with the Mountain West and
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...
(MAC) beginning in the 2020 football season and running through the 2025 season.
On October 30, 2020, it was announced that the 2020 game would be played
behind closed doors with no spectators admitted due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Arizona in January 2020. As of June 3, 2021 Arizona public health authorities reported 322 new cases of COVID-19 and five deaths, bringing the cumulative totals since the st ...
.
The 2021 game was canceled after the
Boise State Broncos
The Boise State Broncos are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Boise State University, located in Boise, Idaho. The Broncos compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Moun ...
withdrew due to COVID-19 issues within the program. Their scheduled opponent, the
Central Michigan Chippewas
The Central Michigan Chippewas are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Central Michigan University (CMU), located in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The school fields sixteen men's and women's intercollegiate teams that compete at the ...
, were named as a replacement team for the
Sun Bowl
The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...
.
Sponsorship
The first five editions of the bowl were sponsored by NOVA Home Loans and were officially known as the ''NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl''. The company declined to renew its sponsorship in 2020. On December 23, 2020, it was announced that real estate agency Offerpad had signed on as the title sponsor of the game, making it the ''Offerpad Arizona Bowl''.
On July 27, 2021,
Barstool Sports
Barstool Sports is an American blog website and digital media company headquartered in New York City that produces content on sports and pop culture. Founded by David Portnoy in 2003 in Milton, Massachusetts, the company's two primary owners are ...
was announced as the title sponsor of the game beginning in 2021.
On August 10, the
Pima County
Pima County ( ) is a county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,043,433, making it Arizona's second-most populous county. The county seat is Tucson, where most of the population ...
Board of Supervisors voted to pull its nearly $40,000 in funding for the game, citing objections to "inflammatory statements" that had been made in the past by its founder
David Portnoy
David Portnoy (born March 22, 1977) is an American internet celebrity, blogger, and founder of the sports and pop culture blog Barstool Sports.
Early life
Portnoy grew up in Swampscott, Massachusetts. He is Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah. ...
.
Game results
Rankings are taken from the
AP Poll
The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...
prior to the game being played.
Source:
MVPs
Most appearances
Updated through the December 2022 edition (7 games, 14 total appearances).
;Teams with multiple appearances
;Teams with a single appearance
Won (4):
Air Force
An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...
,
Ball State,
New Mexico State
New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's tw ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
Lost (6):
Arkansas State
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage l ...
,
Colorado State
Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...
,
Georgia State Georgia state or ''variation'', may refer to:
Primarily
* Georgia State University ("State", "Georgia State"), a state university
* Georgia (U.S. state) ("Georgia state"), a state of the United States of America
Sports
* sports teams of Georgia St ...
,
San Jose State
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...
,
South Alabama
South Alabama is the various parts of southern Alabama. Although it is not a strictly defined geographic region, it generally includes all Alabama counties south of the Black Belt. In that view, ''South Alabama'' consists of just the two counties ...
,
Utah State
Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...
Appearances by conference
Updated through the December 2022 edition (7 games, 14 total appearances).
* The 2015 game was contested between two Mountain West teams.
Game records
Media coverage
Organizers stated that the Arizona Bowl would have a "digitally-focused" broadcasting strategy, first announcing that the website
Campus Insiders Campus Insiders was a college sports website and internet television service. It was owned by a joint venture between IMG College and Silver Chalice.
The service was oriented towards live streaming of U.S. college sports, streaming live and replay ...
(a joint venture of
IMG College
LEARFIELD, formerly Learfield IMG College, is a large collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and ...
and Silver Chalice) would hold online streaming rights to the game as its "primary digital media partner". Campus Insiders, in turn, partnered with 120 Sports (a digital sports network that is a joint venture of Silver Chalice,
MLB Advanced Media
MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) is a limited partnership of the club owners of Major League Baseball (MLB) based in New York City and is the Internet and interactive branch of the league.
Robert Bowman, former president and CEO of MLBAM, indicated in ...
, and
Time Inc.
Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...
)
to provide interactive in-game content, as well as pre-game, halftime, and post-game shows for the webcast.
Pressure built for the bowl to be traditionally televised, however, and soon, the bowl organizers capitulated and found a television partner. Rights to the 2015 and 2016 games were held by
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
's
American Sports Network
American Sports Network (ASN) was a sports brand owned by the U.S. television station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group through its Sinclair Networks subsidiary. Formed in July 2014, the multicast network component of ASN produced broadcasts of sp ...
; the telecasts were
syndicated to local broadcast television stations and
regional sports network
In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region.
...
s.
On April 18, 2017, it was announced that
CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known as ...
had acquired rights to the Arizona Bowl under a "multi-year" deal; Campus Insiders (which merged with ASN to form the new
Stadium
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
network) is no longer involved in the broadcast.
For its 2020 edition, the game was promoted to the main CBS network, as the
Sun Bowl
The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...
(which is typically aired by the network) was cancelled due to COVID-19-related complications.
The 2021 game was to have been streamed by Barstool, with the company citing that its sponsorship "would have an implication on where the Arizona Bowl could be broadcast".
Television
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Bowl game broadcasters navbox
College football bowls
Sports in Tucson, Arizona
Sports competitions in Arizona
2015 establishments in Arizona
Recurring sporting events established in 2015