St. Petersburg Bowl

Collegebowl
name = St. Petersburg Bowl
full name = St. Petersburg Bowl
nickname =
defunct =


image size = 150px
caption = St. Petersburg Bowl logo.
stadium = Tropicana Field
previous_stadiums =
location = St. Petersburg, Florida
previous_locations =
years = 2008-present
previous_tie-ins = none
conference_tie-ins = Big East; C-USA Sun Belt (alternate)
payout = 1 million
sponsors = TBA
former_names =
prev_matchup_year =
prev_matchup_season =
prev_matchup_teams =
next_matchup_year = 2008
next_matchup_season = 2008
next_matchup_teams = C-USA vs. Big East
next_matchup_date = December 20The St. Petersburg Bowl is a NCAA Division I FBS college football bowl game that will make its debut in 2008 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, the home of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays, and will pit teams from the Big East Conference and Conference USA. Should one of the conferences not have enough teams bowl eligible, the Sun Belt Conference, provided they have enough teams eligible, will send a team in 2008 and 2009. The NCAA's Postseason Football Licensing Subcommittee approved the bowl on April 30, 2008, along with the Washington, DC-based EagleBank Bowl, allowing the committee that had proposed the game to host it after the 2008 college football season, [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=ncf&id=3375759 NCAA committee approves 34 football bowl games] The Associated Press, ESPN.com. April 30, 2008. Accessed April 30, 2008.] and will be played on December 20th of that year with a telecast on ESPN2, of which a division of ESPN, ESPN Plus (a/k/a "ESPN Regional Television") is the game's owner with kickoff scheduled to be at 6:30 PM US EST.

Since "The Trop" was originally designed for baseball, the football gridiron will be arranged along the right field line, from home plate to the foul pole. If the new Rays Ballpark is approved and built on the site of Progress Energy Park (nee Al Lang Stadium), the game will move there as well. [ [http://www.tampabay.com/sports/college/article481562.ece "NCAA approves St. Petersburg Bowl"] from "St. Petersburg Times", 2008-05-01, retrieved 2008-05-12] The game will be the second to take place in a baseball-only stadium among current post-season football contests; the other is the Emerald Bowl at San Francisco's AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants. Between 2000 and 2005, the Insight Bowl was played at the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chase Field (nee Bank One Ballpark) in Phoenix, Arizona after being moved from Tuscon, while the 2001 Seattle Bowl was played at Safeco Field while Qwest Field was being built on the site of the Kingdome. Original plans had the EagleBank Bowl in Washington being played at Nationals Park, but the game will be played at RFK Stadium instead.

References

External Websites

[http://www.stpetersburgbowl.com Official website]