The Wheat Bowl was the only

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

endorsed pre-season

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 ...

that operated from 1995 until 2006. The Wheat Bowl Football Classic was headquartered in the Central

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

town of Ellinwood and was played in nearby

Great Bend Great Bend is a city in and the county seat of Barton County, Kansas, United States. It is named for its location at the point where the course of the Arkansas River bends east then southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...

annually as the kickoff for the NAIA season. In 1995 and 1996, the game was played as a "post-season" game. Beginning in 1997, the Wheat Bowl Football Classic was successfully switched to a pre-season contest to eliminate several potential obstacles: the possibility of inclement weather, conflicts with

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

and

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

home games as well as conflicts with high school playoffs. Due to facilities not being available, no game was played in 2007. The next game was scheduled for August 23, 2008 at the newly renovated Great Bend Memorial Stadium. According to the bowl website, it appears that the game was not played as originally scheduled and the bowl is now considered defunct. The College Fanz First Down Classic preseason bowl began in 2007 and was considered the kick-off of the NAIA season until its final game in 2011.

Game results

Community College

There was a game called the "Wheat Bowl" played between

Community Colleges A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior sec ...

from 1948 to 1950. Although the name is the same, the organization was completely different. This particular bowl is now defunct.

References

{{College football kickoff games Defunct college football bowls American football in Kansas