The 2012 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl, the fifth edition of the game formerly known as the St. Petersburg Bowl, was a post-season American college football

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 ...

, held on December 21,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

Tropicana Field Tropicana Field (commonly known as the Trop) is a multi-purpose domed stadium located in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The stadium has been the home of the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball (MLB) since the team's inaugural sea ...

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

, as part of the 2012–13 NCAA Bowl season. The game, broadcast at 7:30 p.m. ET 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%). Th ...

, featured the

UCF Knights The UCF Knights are the athletic teams that represent the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. The Knights participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I ( FBS for football) as a member of the Am ...

from Conference USA and

Ball State Cardinals The Ball State Cardinals are the athletic teams that represent Ball State University, located in Muncie, Indiana. The Cardinals are part of the NCAA Division I Mid-American Conference. Charlie Cardinal is the team mascot. The Ball State Uni ...

from the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

. It was the final game of the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season for both teams. The Knights advanced to the game after losing to the

Tulsa Golden Hurricane The Golden Hurricane are the athletic teams that represent the University of Tulsa. These teams are referred to as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (or variously as TU or Tulsa). Before adopting the name Golden Hurricane in 1922, the University of T ...

in the Conference USA Championship Game.

Teams

Since the game's inception in 2008, the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl has had its current setup with a team from Conference USA playing a team from the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

. Ball State was chosen as a replacement for the potential Big East team, because the conference did not have enough bowl-eligible teams to send a representative to St. Petersburg. This was the fourth meeting between these two teams. The all-time record is tied 2-2. The last time they played was in 2004, when UCF was with Ball State in the MAC (UCF was a football-only member of the MAC).

UCF

Initially, the Knights were ineligible for the postseason because of recruiting violations in both football and basketball under previous athletic director Keith Tribble. Almost immediately afterwards, the university appealed; because its hearing was delayed until 2013, the Knights were bowl-eligible for 2012. Finishing as C-USA East Division Champions with a 7–1 conference record, the Knights would go on to the Conference USA Championship Game for the fourth time in eight years. After losing to Tulsa 33–27 in overtime, the Knights advanced to the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl per the C-USA's bowl contingency plan. This was the Knights' second Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl,

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 previously played in the 2009 game, losing to the

Rutgers Scarlet Knights The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In sports, Rutgers is famously known for being the "Birthplace of College Football", hosting the first ever intercollegiate football ...

by a score of 45–24. It was also the Knights' final game as a member of Conference USA before they move to the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

in 2013.

Ball State

Ball State entered the game with 9–3 record, losing only to Clemson, Kent State and BCS-buster

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by t ...

. It was the Cardinals first bowl game since the 2009 GMAC Bowl.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

Source:

References

External links

Box score
at

{{UCF Knights bowl game navbox Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl Gasparilla Bowl Ball State Cardinals football bowl games UCF Knights football bowl games Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl 21st century in St. Petersburg, Florida