The Kanza Bowl was an annual American

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

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 Subdivi ...

played between teams from the

Lone Star Conference The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the southwestern United States, with schools in T ...

and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association that is played the first Saturday of each December at the Hummer Sports Park on the grounds of the former

Topeka State Hospital The Topeka State Hospital (formerly the Topeka Insane Asylum) was a publicly funded institution for the care and treatment of the mentally ill in Topeka, Kansas, in operation from 1872 to 1997. Located at 2700 W 6th Street, the hospital opened in 18 ...

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central U ...

. In 2010 it was called the Lower Kanza Bowl after being sponsored by local plumbing company Lower Inc. The first game was December 5, 2009. The conferences had a commitment to play the game at least until 2012. The MIAA competes in two of the three active football bowls in NCAA Division II. The other bowl is the Mineral Water Bowl in

Excelsior Springs, Missouri Excelsior Springs is a city in Clay and Ray counties in the U.S. state of Missouri and part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. The population was 10,553 at the 2020 census. It is located approximately northeast of central Kansas City, Missouri ...

. Teams competing in the bowls were teams from the conference that had the best records that are not competing in the

NCAA Division II National Football Championship The NCAA Division II Football Championship is an American college football tournament played annually to determine a champion at the NCAA Division II level. It was first held in 1973, as a single-elimination tournament with eight teams. The tourna ...

series. In the case of the MIAA, the team with the best record has the choice to compete in the Kanza or in the Mineral Water Bowl against an opponent from the

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the western Midwestern United States. Nine of its ...

. During the run of the Kanza Bowl, the MIAA competed in two of the three bowl games that were left in Division II. The

Pioneer Bowl The Pioneer Bowl was the name of some December college football bowl games played in two different eras. Between 1971 and 1982, the game was contested 10 times in Texas as an NCAA College Division regional final, or as a playoff game for Divisio ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

closed at the end of 2007 season but played again in 2009.Kanza Bowl set at Hummer - d2football.com - July 20, 2009
/ref> The game was on the field where all Topeka high schools play. The $17.5 million facility opened in 2003 on the grounds of the former

.Hummer Sports Park History: The dream is now the reality - hummersportspark.com - Retrieved September 22, 2009
/ref> The game was first played in 2009, replacing the Utah-based Dixie Rotary Bowl, which ceased operations after the 2008 season. Due to financial difficulties and lack of finding a core sponsor, the Kanza Bowl was canceled for the 2013 season; it was replaced by the Live United Texarkana Bowl for 2013 onward.Kanza Bowl Cancelled 2013 season
Retrieved August 24, 2013

Game results

References

{{coord, 39.060068, -95.712805, display=title Defunct college football bowls Lone Star Conference football Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association football American football in Kansas Sports in Topeka, Kansas