The Arizona Bowl is a postseason 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 ...

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. Orig ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

(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 identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

outbreak within the Boise State team.

History

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

, and feature participants from Conference USA and the

. 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 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 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 s ...

. 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 # ...

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

(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 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.

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 a ...

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 populati ...

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.

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 broad ...

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 ...

, 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 ...

, Colorado State, Georgia State,

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 (region of Alabama), Black Belt. In that view, ''South Alabama'' co ...

, Utah State

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 ...

, 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, ...

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 a ...

had acquired rights to the Arizona Bowl under a "multi-year" deal; Campus Insiders (which merged with ASN to form the new Stadium 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 (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