The San Francisco Bowl was an annual 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 certified by the
NCAA and played in the
San Francisco Bay Area. Originally named the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl during its first two editions from 2002 to 2003, it was the Emerald Bowl from 2004 to 2009, the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl from 2010 to 2013, the Foster Farms Bowl from 2014 to 2017, and the Redbox Bowl from 2018 to 2020. San Francisco Bowl naming returned during planning for a 2021 game.
The game had four sellouts -- 2006 (UCLA vs. Florida State), 2008 (Cal vs. Miami), 2009 (USC vs. Boston College) and 2011 (Nevada vs. Boston College)-- and three of the highest rated bowls ever televised on ESPN. It also gained a national reputation for the quality of hospitality provided to the participating teams.
The game was most recently played in December 2019. From 2002 to 2013, it was played at
Pacific Bell Park, home of the
San Francisco Giants, in
San Francisco, California. From 2014 through 2019, it was played at
Levi's Stadium, home of the
San Francisco 49ers, in
Santa Clara, California.
At the end of July 2020, organizers cancelled the 2020 edition of the bowl due to concerns around the
COVID-19 pandemic; at the same time, the 49ers released a statement noting that "the decision has been made to not renew the current agreement to host the game moving forward". On September 10, 2021, it was announced that the game was again canceled for the
2021–22 bowl season, putting its future in jeopardy.
History
The game was founded by John Marks, president of the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, San Francisco Giants executive Pat Gallagher and sports industry veteran Gary Cavalli, former Associate Athletic Director at Stanford University and president of the pioneering American Basketball League, for the purpose of utilizing the Giants new ballpark, bringing visitors to San Francisco during a traditionally slow time of the year, and rewarding two successful teams with a week in San Francisco.
Plans for the inaugural
2002 San Francisco Bowl
The 2002 San Francisco Bowl was the inaugural edition of the post-season college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Air Force Falcons at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco on December 31, 2002. The game was the final conte ...
were established on Dec. 2, 2002, when the
Air Force Falcons football
The Air Force Falcons football program represents the United States Air Force Academy in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level. Air Force has been a member of the Mountain West Conference s ...
program accepted a bid to play against an undetermined team from the
Big East Conference. Their initial sponsor was
Diamond Foods, a producer of
walnuts and other nuts under the Emerald brand name, resulting in the name Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl, and later the Emerald Bowl.
In 2010,
Kraft Foods became the sponsor of the bowl and announced the new name, which the corporation launched as part of a broader hunger relief program.
Mondelēz International continued to support the game and the program related with Feeding America in 2013.
In August 2014, the bowl's official website listed the game's name as the San Francisco Bowl once again. However, on November 11, 2014, it was announced that the San Francisco Bowl Game Association had reached a multi-year naming rights deal with
Northern California
Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
-based poultry company
Foster Farms
Foster Farms is an American poultry company. The company has been privately owned since 1939. It was operated by the Foster family since 1939 until recently, now operated and owned by Atlas Holdings, after their purchase of the company in 2022. ...
, resulting in the game being named the Foster Farms Bowl.
On July 12, 2016, the
San Francisco 49ers NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
team announced that it had taken over management of the Foster Farms Bowl from the San Francisco Bowl Game Association, and also announced a new, four-year broadcast rights deal with
Fox Sports, replacing ESPN.
In September 2018,
Redbox (a chain of video rental kiosks) announced it had become the new title sponsor.
Conference tie-ins
The game had a contract to host the
Pac-12
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
's sixth-place team during the 2010 through 2013 seasons. There were multiple contracts that determined the opponent. In 2011, the Pac-12 team's opponent was
Illinois, replacing
Army, which did not achieve
bowl eligibility; in 2012, it was
Navy; and in 2013, it was
BYU. Had these teams not qualified for bowl eligibility, they would have been replaced by teams 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) or the
Mid-American Conference (MAC).
Beginning with the 2014 season, teams come from the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences. With
Oregon's appearance in the 2018 edition,
Colorado and
Washington State are the only Pac-12 members who have not appeared in the game.
Field configuration
Because
Pacific Bell Park (as it was named when it first hosted the bowl) is a
baseball park
A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...
and not normally used for football, arrangement of the field required both teams to be on the same sideline (southeast), separated by a barrier at the 50-yard line (in shallow right-center field). The opposite sideline (northwest) ran along the third base line, with an end zone near the first base
dugout, and the other near the left field wall. Primary seating was in the third base grandstand, with temporary bleacher seating in right-center field.
Results
Rankings are based on the
AP Poll prior to the game being played.
Source:
MVPs
Most appearances
Updated through the December 2019 edition (18 games, 36 total appearances).
;Teams with multiple appearances
;Teams with a single appearance
Won (11):
Arizona State,
Florida State,
Nebraska,
Nevada,
Oregon,
Oregon State,
Purdue
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
,
Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
,
USC
USC most often refers to:
* University of South Carolina, a public research university
** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses
**South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program
* University of ...
,
Virginia Tech,
Washington
Lost (9):
Air Force,
Arizona,
BYU,
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 Tech,
Indiana,
Miami (FL),
Michigan State
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...
,
New Mexico
Appearances by conference
Updated through the December 2019 edition (18 games, 36 total appearances).
* Games marked with an asterisk (*) were played in January of the following calendar year.
* The Pac-12's record includes appearances when the conference was the Pac-10 (3–1).
* Virginia Tech (2002) and Boston College (2003) appeared as members of the Big East; the
American Athletic Conference (The American) retains the Big East's conference charter following the 2013
split of the original Big East along football lines.
* Independent appearances: Navy (2004, 2012) and BYU (2013).
* The WAC no longer sponsors FBS-level football.
Game records
Media coverage
From 2002 through 2015, the bowl was televised by
ESPN or
ESPN2; from 2016 to 2019, it was carried by
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
.
References
ref cite web https://www.insidetrackgarycavalliblog.com/single-post/the-bowl-games-you-should-watch-r-i-p-san-francisco-bowl-game
{{Redbox Bowl
College football bowls
Sports competitions in San Francisco
Sports in Santa Clara, California
American football in the San Francisco Bay Area
Defunct college football bowls