Liberty Bowl

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Liberty Bowl
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
AutoZone Liberty Bowl logo
Stadium	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
Location	Memphis, Tennessee
Previous Stadiums	John F. Kennedy Stadium (1959 — 1963) Convention Hall (1964)
Previous Locations	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1959 — 1963) Atlantic City, New Jersey (1964)
Operated	1959 — present
Conference Tie-ins	C-USA, SEC
Previous Conference Tie-ins	MWC (1998 — 2003) WAC (2004)
Payout	US$1,700,000 (2006)
Sponsors
AXA Financial (1997 — 2003) AutoZone (2004 — present)
Former names
AXA Liberty Bowl (1997 — 2003)
2006 Matchup
Houston vs. South Carolina

The Liberty Bowl is an annual U.S. American college football bowl game played in December of each year since 1959. The Liberty Bowl was sponsored by AXA Financial and was known as the AXA Liberty Bowl from 1997 to 2003. Since 2004, the game has been sponsored by Memphis-based auto parts retailer AutoZone, and is now called the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

The bowl game was first played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at John F. Kennedy Stadium (nee Municipal Stadium) until 1963. Initially, the game, the only cold-weather bowl game of its time, was plagued by poor attendance (the 1963 game drew only 8,309 spectators), so the 1964 game was the first bowl game ever played indoors in Atlantic City, New Jersey at Convention Hall before 6,059 fans.

Since 1965, the game has made its home in Memphis, Tennessee in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium to much larger crowds and has established itself as one of the oldest non-BCS bowls. Since 1997, the regular season champion of Conference USA has served as the host team. From 1998 to 2003, the opponent for the C-USA champion was the Mountain West Conference champion. However, in 2004 one of the berths went to WAC winner, Boise State (Utah, which had won the Mountain West, actually qualified for a BCS berth and was unavailable) and in 2005, an at-large team-in this case, the WAC's Fresno State- was chosen (TCU, who had won the Mountain West, instead chose to play in the Houston Bowl). Beginning with the 2006 football season, the game will match teams from Conference USA and the Southeastern Conference.

The game airs nationally on ESPN, and is carried nationwide by Westwood One's radio network.

[edit] Previous results

Boise State and Louisville square off in the 2004 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee.

1. ^ Mountain West Conference champion Utah was released from their contractual obligation to the Liberty Bowl after earning a BCS berth in 2004. Western Athletic Conference champion Boise State took Utah's place.

[edit] MVPs

[edit] See also

List of college bowl games

[edit] External links

• Official Website of the Liberty Bowl