Texas Bowl

Collegebowl
name = Texas Bowl
full_name =
nickname =
defunct =


image_size =
caption = Texas Bowl logo
stadium = Reliant Stadium
previous_stadiums =
location = Houston, Texas
previous_locations =
years = 2006-present
previous_tie-ins =
conference_tie-ins = Big 12, Big East/C-USA/MWC (alternating years)
payout = 500,000 (C-USA) (2006)
US$750,000 (Big 12) (2006)
sponsors =
former_names =
prev_matchup_year = 2007
prev_matchup_season= 2007
prev_matchup_teams = TCU vs. Houston
prev_matchup_score = TCU 20, Houston 13
next_matchup_year = 2008
next_matchup_season= 2008
next_matchup_teams = Big 12 #8 vs. C-USA
next_matchup_date = December 30

The Texas Bowl is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game that has been held for the first time in 2006 in Houston, Texas. The bowl replaces the now-defunct Houston Bowl, which was played annually from 2000 to 2005. The first bowl game in Houston was the Bluebonnet Bowl, played from 1959 through 1987. The defending Texas Bowl champions are the TCU Horned Frogs, who defeated the Houston Cougars last year.

Replacing the Houston Bowl

Recently, speculation had surfaced questioning the long-term survival of the former Houston Bowl. The three-year contract with EV1.net expired on December 31, 2005, leaving the bowl game without a title sponsor. A college football official told the "Houston Chronicle" that the bowl was in danger of ceasing operations, as a result of the game losing its title sponsor and because the Houston Bowl still owed roughly $600,000 to the Big 12 and Mountain West conferences following the 2005 game. [ [http://blogs.chron.com/big12/archives/2006/04/houston_bowl_in_jeopardy.html Big12: Houston Bowl in jeopardy ] ] However, the NCAA approved Lone Star Sports and Entertainment, a division of the NFL's Houston Texans, who also play in Reliant Stadium, to take over game management. Then on July 20, the NFL Network acquired both TV rights and naming rights to the bowl, which was played on December 28. [http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/9563385]

The Texas Bowl name and logo were officially unveiled on August 10, 2006 at a press conference along with the conference affiliations for the bowl spots. The Big 12, Big East and Conference USA will be affiliated with the game, as well as Texas Christian University of the Mountain West. The 2006 matchup featured teams from the Big 12 and Big East Conferences. [http://www.houstontexans.com/news/detail.php?PRKey=2736]

On December 3, 2006, Rutgers accepted an invitation to play Kansas State on December 28 at Reliant Stadium. “We’re ecstatic about having Rutgers,” Texas Bowl director David Brady said. “This is a top-15 team that was three yards away from a BCS game. We couldn’t be happier to have them here.” [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/4375895.html]

On May 17, 2007, Conference USA announced that it would have a team in the 2007 Texas Bowl. The Texas Bowl has a rotating commitment with the Big East Conference and Conference USA for 2006-2009 while the Big 12 Conference will have a team in all four of those games. In 2007, TCU took the place of the Big 12 team when Kansas and Oklahoma were put into the BCS, and Houston, a "home team", represented C-USA. The conferences would receive $612,500 each as per the rules of the agreements as usually, the Big East (or Big 12) would have received $750,000 for playing and C-USA would have received a $500,000 stipend for their team playing.

2007 game note

*TCU beat Houston 20-13.
*It was TCU's third bowl victory in as many years, the first time since 1936-39 the Horned Frogs have achieved the feat. They started their bowl winning streak with a win over Iowa State in this bowl in 2005 when it was known as the Houston Bowl.
*The Cougars had an interim head coach for this game, Chris Thurmond, as Art Briles has accepted the head coaching job at Baylor. [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3131738]
*Fort Worth-based retailer Radio Shack was the presenting sponsor of the Texas Bowl telecast on NFL Network.

2006 game notes

*On December 19, it was confirmed that Time Warner Cable will carry the NFL Network free for at least the duration of the game. [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2701896] On December 22, Cablevision agreed to carry the game. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/23/sports/ncaafootball/23rutgers.html?ref=sports] Neither cable company normally carries NFL Network. The announcements allayed fears that Rutgers fans living in New York and New Jersey would not be able to watch the game.

*New Jersey native Spero Dedes handled the play-by-play for the game on the NFL Network. However, his geographic knowledge of his home state was called into question, when he identified Rutgers being in "South Jersey" at least four times during the broadcast. He also referred to the main campus' location as "South Brunswick" instead of "New Brunswick". Although the Rutgers University system has a small South Jersey campus in Camden, it is a separate school and not associated with the main school's athletic program. (An equivalent would be comparing Penn State with Penn State Beaver.) The home stadium and the Scarlet Knights are headquartered on the flagship New Brunswick-Piscataway campus, which is in central New Jersey. Other gaffes included calling running back Ray Rice as "Way Wice" and tight end Clark Harris "Cliff" Harris (Harris was a safety for the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s). [ [http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/11673720775920.xml&coll=1 Story not found - NJ.com ] ]

*The telecast had other missteps: the "1st & Ten" electronic yardage system malfunctioned several times and Marshall Faulk, who was scheduled to be the sideline reporter, did not show up; therefore, the game had no reports from field level, unlike most other college football telecasts.

*Texas Bowl officials referred to the game as "inaugural" and the official website makes no mention of the game it replaced.

Previous results

MVPs

References

ee also

List of college bowl games

External links

* [http://www.TexasBowl.org Official Website of the Texas Bowl]