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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) Air Force/Army/Navy (1989-1992)
Payout	US$1,700,000 (As of 2006)
Sponsors
AXA Financial (1997-2003) AutoZone (2004-present)
Former names
AXA Liberty Bowl (1997-2003)
2009 Matchup
Kentucky vs. East Carolina (UK 25-19)
2010 Matchup
East Carolina vs. Arkansas (January 2)

The Liberty Bowl is an annual U.S. American college football bowl game played in December of each year from 1959 to 2007 and in January in 2009 and 2010. 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.

A.F. “Bud” Dudley, a former Villanova University athletic-director, created the Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia in 1959. The game was played at Philadelphia's Municipal Stadium. It was the only cold-weather bowl game of its time, and was plagued by poor attendance. The 1963 game between Mississippi State and NC State drew less than 10,000 fans and absorbed a loss in excess of $40,000. The first Liberty Bowl game was the most successful of the five held in Philadelphia, as 38,000 fans watched Penn State beat Alabama 7–0 in 1959.

Atlantic City convinced Dudley to move his game from Philadelphia to Atlantic City's Convention Hall for 1964 and guaranteed Dudley $25,000. It would be the first Bowl Game played indoors. AstroTurf was still in its developmental stages and was unavailable for the game. Convention Hall was equipped with a four-inch thick grass surface with two inches of burlap underneath it (as padding) on top of cement. To keep the grass growing, artificial lighting was installed and kept on 24 hours a day. The entire process cost about $16,000. End-zones were only 8 yards long. 6,059 fans saw Utah rout West Virginia. Dudley was paid $25,000 from Atlantic City businessmen, $60,000 from the gate, and $95,000 from television revenues, for $10,000 net-profit profit.^[1]

Dudley moved the game to Memphis in 1965, where it has made its home at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium to much larger crowds and has established itself as one of the oldest non-BCS bowls. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Liberty Bowl offered an automatic invitation to the winner of the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, if that team was bowl eligible.^[2] From 1996–2004, the regular season champion of Conference USA served as the host team. Since 2005, the winner of the C-USA Championship game has received the berth.

In 1996 and 1997, the opponent for the C-USA champion was a team from the Big East Conference. In 1998, C-USA faced either the Western Athletic Conference champion or an at-large team, taking the WAC champion if the Cotton Bowl Classic had not already done so. From 1999 to 2005, the opponent for the C-USA champion was the Mountain West Conference champion. There were two exceptions:

• In 2004, Mountain West Champion Utah qualified for the BCS. In their place, the Liberty Bowl chose WAC champion Boise State.
• In 2005, Mountain West Champion TCU chose to play in the Houston Bowl instead of the Liberty Bowl. At-large WAC team Fresno State took their place.

In 1999 the Mountain West Conference did not have an outright champion, as three teams tied for the conference lead. The conference's bid for the game was given to Colorado State.

Since the 2006 football season, the game matches the Conference USA champion with a team from the SEC.

The game airs nationally on ESPN, and is carried nationwide by ESPN Radio. And international by ESPN International.

The latest installment of the Liberty Bowl was played on January 2, 2009, marking the first time in the bowl's history that it was not played in December. The next edition of the Liberty Bowl is also scheduled to be played in January, with the same January 2 date as the 2009 game.

Game results

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

MVPs

Broadcasters

• Liberty Bowl broadcasters

Appearances by team

See also

List of college bowl games

References

External links

• Official Website of the Liberty Bowl