The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City Convention Hall in 1964. Since 1965, the game has been held at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. Because of the scheduling of the bowl game near the end of the calendar year, no game was played during calendar years 2008 or 2015, while two games were played in calendar years 2010 and 2016.
Since 2004, the game has been sponsored by Memphis-based auto parts retailer AutoZone and officially known as the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. Previous sponsors include St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (1993–1996) and AXA Financial (1997–2003).
History
A. F. "Bud" Dudley, a former Villanova 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 first game was the most successful of the five held in Philadelphia, as 38,000 fans watched Penn State beat Alabama, 7–0, in the bowl's inaugural edition.
A group of Atlantic City businessmen 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 major (University Division, now Division I) bowl game played indoors. AstroTurf was still in its developmental stages and was unavailable for the game. Convention Hall was equipped with a grass surface with of burlap underneath it (as padding) on top of concrete. 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, rather than the regulation 10 yards. 6,059 fans saw Utah rout West Virginia, 32–6. Dudley was paid $25,000 from Atlantic City businessmen, $60,000 from the gate, and $95,000 from television revenues, and cleared $10,000 net profit.
In 1965, Dudley moved the game to Memphis, Tennessee, where it made its home at Memphis Memorial Stadium to much larger crowds; the venue was renamed as Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in December 1975. Having been played every college football season since 1959, the game has established itself as one of the oldest non-New Year's Six bowls.
Matchup 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. Due to the limited success of service academy football during this era, the only academy to appear in the Liberty Bowl as a result of this arrangement was Air Force, which appeared in four consecutive games, 1989–1992.
Beginning in 1996, the Liberty Bowl began an affiliation with the newly launched Conference USA (C-USA), offering its champion an automatic bid. Beginning in 2005, the winner of C-USA was determined by the newly created C-USA championship game. The winner of that game was customarily offered the bowl berth from 2005 to 2013.
In 1996 and 1997, the opponent for the C-USA champion was a team from the Big East. In 1998, the Liberty Bowl replaced the Holiday Bowl in a shared contract with the Cotton Bowl and had second choice between the WAC champion and a team from the SEC. From 1999 to 2005, the opponent for the C-USA champion was the Mountain West champion. There were two exceptions: 2004: Mountain West champion Utah qualified for the BCS. In their place, the Liberty Bowl chose WAC champion Boise State. 2005: Mountain West champion TCU chose to play in the 2005 Houston 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.
The bowl's contract from 2006 until 2013 pitted the winner of the C-USA championship game against the eighth pick from the SEC. The American was to provide its fifth-place team as an alternate if the SEC could not provide a team. The SEC was also given veto power for the bowl, and elected to use it in 2011 to block C-USA champion Southern Miss from playing Vanderbilt; instead, Cincinnati got the spot and Southern Miss accepted an invitation to the 2011 Hawaii Bowl instead.UCF Knights news, scores & more for the University of Central Florida - Orlando Sentinel
Since 2014, the matchup features a team from the SEC against the fourth pick from the Big 12 Conference. The Liberty Bowl is part of a six-bowl SEC pool arrangement that also involves the Duke's Mayo (formerly Belk) in odd-numbered years or the Las Vegas in even-numbered years, Music City, ReliaQuest, Gator, and Texas bowls; these bowls will choose one representative from the conference each, while the College Football Playoff receiving first choice (usually the Sugar Bowl in years it does not serve as a national semifinal) and the Citrus Bowl second choice.
The game is televised nationally on ESPN, and is carried nationwide by ESPN Radio, and internationally by ESPN International.
Recent matchups of note The 2010 win by UCF was the program's first-ever bowl victory.
The 2011 game matched Coaches' Poll 24th-ranked Cincinnati against upstart Vanderbilt, and unlike most lower tier bowls, it aired on the broadcast network ABC rather than its cable brother network ESPN. Cincinnati defeated Vanderbilt in a second-half comeback.
The 2012 Liberty Bowl featured an unusual rematch of a regular season game between the Iowa State Cyclones (9th place in the Big 12) and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (C-USA champions). Iowa State had defeated Tulsa, 38–23, in the season's first weekend, however Tulsa defeated Iowa State, 31–17, in the Liberty Bowl. Though the bowl normally selects a team from the SEC, it invited Iowa State because the SEC did not have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all of its contracted bowl games.
In 2020, after a matchup of West Virginia and Tennessee was announced on December 20, the Tennessee program had to withdraw on December 21 due to positive COVID-19 testing. Army, who had accepted an invitation to the Independence Bowl before it was cancelled due to a lack of available teams, was named as their replacement.
In the 2022 matchup, Kansas made their first bowl game appearance in 14 years, against Arkansas. The Razorbacks took an early 38–13 lead in the game. The Jayhawks then scored 25 unanswered points to send the game into overtime. The teams traded touchdowns in the first and second overtime. In the third overtime, with teams alternating two-point conversion attempts per NCAA overtime rules, the Razorbacks scored on their attempt and stopped the Jayhawks' attempt, resulting in a 55–53 Arkansas win. Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels set a Kansas single-game record and a Liberty Bowl record for passing yards, with 544.
Game results
The first five editions (1959–1963) were played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The 1964 game was played in Atlantic City, New Jersey. All subsequent editions have been played in Memphis, Tennessee.
Rankings are based on the AP poll prior to the game being played.
Date Winning Team Losing TeamAttnd.Notes December 19, 1959 12 Penn State 7 10 Alabama 0 36,211 notes December 20, 1960 16 Penn State 41 Oregon 12 16,624 notes December 16, 1961 14 Syracuse 15 Miami (FL) 14 15,712 notes December 15, 1962 Oregon State 6 Villanova 0 17,048 notes December 21, 1963 Mississippi State 16 NC State 12 8,309 notes December 19, 1964 Utah 32 West Virginia 6 6,059 notes December 18, 1965 Ole Miss 13 Auburn 7 38,607 notes December 10, 1966 9 Miami (FL) 14 Virginia Tech 7 39,101 notes December 16, 1967 NC State 14 Georgia 7 35,045 notes December 14, 1968 Ole Miss 34 17 46,206 notes December 13, 1969 Colorado 47 Alabama 33 50,042 notes December 12, 1970 Tulane 17 Colorado 3 44,640 notes December 20, 1971 9 Tennessee 14 18 Arkansas 13 51,410 notes December 18, 1972 Georgia Tech 31 Iowa State 30 50,021 notes December 17, 1973 16 NC State 31 19 Kansas 18 50,011 notes December 16, 1974 Tennessee 7 10 Maryland 3 51,284 notes December 22, 1975 USC 20 2 Texas A&M 0 52,129 notes December 20, 1976 16 Alabama 36 7 UCLA 6 52,736 notes December 19, 1977 12 Nebraska 21 14 North Carolina 17 49,456 notes December 23, 1978 18 Missouri 20 LSU 15 53,064 notes December 22, 1979 Penn State 9 15 Tulane 6 50,021 notes December 27, 1980 16 Purdue 28 Missouri 25 35,667 notes December 30, 1981 15 Ohio State 31 Navy 28 43,216 notes December 29, 1982 Alabama 21 Illinois 15 54,123 notes December 29, 1983 Notre Dame 19 13 Boston College 18 47,071 notes December 27, 1984 16 Auburn 21 Arkansas 15 50,180 notes December 27, 1985 Baylor 21 12 LSU 7 40,186 notes December 29, 1986 Tennessee 21 Minnesota 14 51,327 notes December 29, 1987 15 Georgia 20 Arkansas 17 53,249 notes December 28, 1988 Indiana 34 South Carolina 10 39,210 notes December 29, 1989 Ole Miss 42 Air Force 29 60,128 notes December 27, 1990 Air Force 23 24 Ohio State 11 39,262 notes December 29, 1991 Air Force 38 Mississippi State 15 61,497 notes December 31, 1992 20 Ole Miss 13 Air Force 0 32,107 notes December 28, 1993 25 Louisville 18 Michigan State 7 34,216 notes December 31, 1994 Illinois 30 East Carolina 0 33,280 notes December 30, 1995 East Carolina 19 Stanford 13 47,398 notes December 27, 1996 23 Syracuse 30 Houston 17 49,163 notes December 31, 1997 Southern Miss 41 Pittsburgh 7 50,209 notes December 31, 1998 10 Tulane 41 BYU 27 52,192 notes December 31, 1999 16 Southern Miss 23 Colorado State 17 54,866 notes December 29, 2000 23 Colorado State 22 22 Louisville 17 58,302 notes December 31, 2001 23 Louisville 28 19 BYU 10 58,968 notes December 31, 2002 TCU 17 23 Colorado State 3 55,207 notes December 31, 2003 25 Utah 17 Southern Miss 0 55,989 notes December 31, 2004 7 Louisville 44 10 Boise State 40 58,355 notes December 31, 2005 Tulsa 31 Fresno State 24 54,894 notes December 29, 2006 South Carolina 44 Houston 36 56,103 notes December 29, 2007 Mississippi State 10 UCF3 63,816 notesJanuary 2, 2009 Kentucky 25 East Carolina19 56,125 notesJanuary 2, 2010 Arkansas 20 East Carolina 17 62,742 notes December 31, 2010 UCF 10 Georgia 6 51,231 notes December 31, 2011 Cincinnati 31 Vanderbilt 24 57,103 notes December 31, 2012 Tulsa 31 Iowa State 17 53,687 notes December 31, 2013 Mississippi State 44 Rice 7 57,846 notesDecember 29, 2014 Texas A&M 45 West Virginia 37 51,282 notesJanuary 2, 2016 Arkansas 45 Kansas State 23 61,136 notesDecember 30, 2016 Georgia 31 TCU 23 51,087 notesDecember 30, 2017 Iowa State 21 18 Memphis 20 57,266 notesDecember 31, 2018 Oklahoma State 38 24 Missouri 33 51,587 notesDecember 31, 2019 21 Navy 20 Kansas State 17 50,515 notesDecember 31, 2020 West Virginia 24 Army 21 8,187 notesDecember 28, 2021 Texas Tech 34 Mississippi State 7 48,615 notesDecember 28, 2022 Arkansas 55 Kansas 53 52,847 notesDecember 29, 2023 Memphis 36 Iowa State 26 48,789 notesDecember 27, 2024 Arkansas 39 Texas Tech 26 37,764 notesJanuary 2, 2026 22 Navy 35 Cincinnati 13 21,908 notes Source:
MVPs The bowl has named a single MVP for each game, since inception. In nine instances, the MVP has played on the losing team, including four instances in a seven-game span during 1977–1983. The most recent MVP to play on the losing team was Kwame Ellis of Stanford in 1995. Quarterback Rob Perez of Air Force was named MVP twice, in 1990 and 1991.