| 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 |
Tie-ins MWC (1998-2003)
WAC (2004)
Air Force/Army/Navy (1989-1992) |
| Payout |
US$1,700,000 (2006) |
| 2006 Matchup |
South Carolina vs. Houston (44-36) |
| 2007 Matchup |
UCF vs. Mississippi State |
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Liberty Bowl History
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 (originally 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. 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.[1] From 1997-2004, 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.
From 1998 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.
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 Westwood One's radio network.
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