The NFLPA Collegiate Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game for

NFL draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

-eligible college players, held annually in January. The event was founded in 2012 by the

National Football League Players Association The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is a labor union representing National Football League (NFL) players. The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by president J. C. Tretter and executive director DeM ...

(NFLPA). Players predominantly, but not exclusively, are from teams within the

Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

(FBS) and the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The first six editions of the game were played in Carson, California, at the venue previously known as

Home Depot Center Dignity Health Sports Park is a multi-use sports complex located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. The complex consists of the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer stadium, the Dignit ...

and later as

StubHub Center Dignity Health Sports Park is a multi-use sports complex located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. The complex consists of the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer stadium, the Dignit ...

. Starting with the 2018 edition, the game has been held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

History

In January 2012, the

(NFLPA) founded the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl after sponsoring the

Texas vs The Nation Texas vs The Nation was an American college football all-star bowl game played from 2007 to 2013. Originally played at the Sun Bowl Stadium, the format of the game pitted 50 top-rated college seniors who played college or high school football i ...

game in previous years. The inaugural NFLPA Collegiate Bowl was open to

-eligible underclassmen players but, beginning with the second annual event, only draft-eligible seniors were allowed to participate. The event was established in part to prepare draft-eligible college football players for a career in the NFL. During the week preceding the game, the NFLPA provides an introduction to the players union and educates players on the business side of an NFL career. Current and former NFL players are invited to attend the week's events to share their NFL experiences with the draft eligible players. The NFLPA also hosts community-focused events including a youth football clinic. The 2012 and 2013 games were hosted at the

in Carson, California. The Home Depot Center was renamed the

in June 2013; the venue subsequently hosted the 2014 through 2017 games. In November 2017, bowl organizers announced the game would relocate to the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California, effective with the 2018 game. The game was sponsored by AstroTurf in 2012, Winnol in 2013, and Panini America in 2014. The game utilizes some special rules. As of the 2018 edition, a

kickoff Kickoff or kick-off may refer to * Kick-off (association football) * Kickoff (gridiron football) * ''Kick Off'' (series), a series of computer association football games * ''Kick Off'' (album), a 1985 album by Onyanko Club * ''Kick Off'' (mag ...

starts each half (per normal rules), while the second and fourth quarters begin with the team that kicked off the half starting with a first-and-ten at their 25-yard-line. Also, a team trailing by 20 or more points retains possession of the ball following a score. According to the game's official website, 112 players participated in the 2018 game, representing 84 colleges; 42 players were invited to the 2018

NFL Scouting Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foo ...

, with 19 selected in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Game results

Through the 2022 playing of the game, the National team leads the series, 9–1. Coach and score of the winning team are in bold font. Source:

MVPs

Source:

Broadcasting

In 2012, the inaugural NFLPA Collegiate Bowl was broadcast on the

NBC Sports Network NBCSN was an American sports television channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated to programming prim ...

. In December 2012, the NFLPA and

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 ...

signed a multiyear agreement to air the game on the ESPN network. The 2013 game was broadcast on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

and, as part of the agreement, some of the practices leading up to the event were aired on ESPNU. ESPN continued as the broadcaster through the 2016 game. In 2017, the game moved to

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports ...

. In 2020, it moved to the

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...

, the first game in an agreement to run through the 2024.

References

External links