Las Vegas Bowl

Las Vegas Bowl
Stadium	Sam Boyd Stadium
Location	Whitney, Nevada
Operated	1992–present
Conference tie-ins	MWC, Pac-12
Previous conference tie-ins	Big West, MAC (1992–96); WAC (1997–1998)
Payout	US$1,350,000
Sponsors
	Las Vegas Convention & Visitor's Authority (1998, 2000, 2003); EA Sports (1999); Sega/Sega Sports (2001–2002); Pioneer (2004–2008); Maaco (2009–2012); Royal Purple (2013–2015); GEICO (2016)
Former names
	Las Vegas Bowl (1992–1998); EA Sports Las Vegas Bowl (1999); Las Vegas Bowl (2000); Sega Sports Las Vegas Bowl (2001–2002); Las Vegas Bowl (2003); Pioneer Purevision Las Vegas Bowl (2004–2006); Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl (2007–2008); Maaco Bowl Las Vegas (2009–2012); Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl (2013–2015); Las Vegas Bowl presented by GEICO (2016)
2016 matchup
	San Diego State vs. Houston (SDSU 34–10)
2017 matchup
	TBD (December 16, 2017)

The Las Vegas Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS post-season college football bowl game. It has been played annually at the 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, every December since 1992. The bowl is owned by ESPN Events.

Conference tie-ins[edit]

As the Las Vegas Bowl was initially the replacement for the California Bowl, it inherited that bowl's tie-ins with the champions of the Big West Conference and the Mid-American Conference. These remained intact until 1996, after which the Big West's champion earned a berth in the Humanitarian Bowl while the MAC's champion was given a berth in the Motor City Bowl. 1997 through 1999 saw a team from the Western Athletic Conference face an at-large team, and the Mountain West Conference took over for the WAC for the 1999 and 2000 games (the 1999 game featured both WAC and Mountain West teams). Since 2001, the Mountain West and Pac-12 Conferences (originally known as the Pacific-10 Conference) have matched up in Las Vegas.

From 2001 until 2005, the second place team in the Mountain West was chosen to face the Pac-12. Beginning in 2006, after its contract with the Liberty Bowl expired, the Mountain West agreed to send its champion to the Las Vegas Bowl to face the Pac-12's 5th or 6th place team. From 2006 until 2013, the Mountain West would send a secondary team if the champion qualified for the Bowl Championship Series or, as per the rules of the Hawai'i Bowl, was Hawai'i. The 2016 game would have pitted the Pac-12's #6 team against the winner of the Mountain West Conference Football Championship Game, provided that the winner of the game does not automatically qualify for one of the College Football Playoff's six bowls as the highest-ranking member of the "Group of Five" (champions of the Mountain West, Sun Belt, American, or Mid-American Conferences, as well as the Conference USAchampion comprise this group). However, since the Pac-12 only had six bowl eligible teams and two of them qualified for New Years Six bowls, the bowl elected to invite Houston Cougars of the American Athletic Conference instead of a Pac-12 team.

Following the expiration of Royal Purple's sponsorship of the title from 2013 to 2015, the game is officially known as the Las Vegas Bowl.

History[edit]

The game originated from the California Raisin Bowl, which was played in Fresno from 1981 to 1991. In 1992, the game reorganized and relocated to Las Vegas and was renamed the Las Vegas Bowl.

The NCAA adopted an overtime rule for the 1995 post-season and all games thereafter. In 1995, Toledo defeated Nevada, 40–37, in the first ever overtime game in Division I-A college football. The following season the policy of overtime was adopted for regular season games to break ties.

The previous logo of the game when Maaco was the sponsor

25th Anniversary logo

ESPN Regional Television in 2001 purchased the Las Vagas Bowl from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.^[1]

On December 25, 2002, UCLA interim coach Ed Kezirian was victorious in his only game as the UCLA head coach as UCLA won 27–13 over the New Mexico. In that game, New Mexico sent Katie Hnida in to kick an extra point which was the first time a woman played in a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (née Division I-A) college football game. The kick was blocked.

The 2007 Las Vegas Bowl featured a rematch between Mountain West Champion BYU and UCLA who defeated BYU during the regular season. UCLA scored first on a field goal after a fumble by BYU quarterback Max Hall. BYU answered with a touchdown reception by Austin Collie. BYU went up 17–6 with Michael Reed catch for a touchdown. A fumble by BYU with 19 seconds left in the first half allowed UCLA to score and cut the lead to 17-13. UCLA cut the deficit to 17-16 on a 50-yard field goal. With two minutes left UCLA took over at their own two-yard line. They were able to drive down to the BYU 13-yard line with 3 seconds left. The 28-yard field goal attempt was partially blocked by BYU defensive tackle Eathyn Manumaleuna and fell short giving BYU their second Vegas Bowl victory in three tries, also making the Cougars the first school to win back-to-back Las Vegas Bowls. The following year, though, the Arizona Wildcats denied BYU their third consecutive Las Vegas Bowl win by winning 31–21.

On September 25, 2013, Royal Purple was announced as the new title sponsor for the next three years.^[2]

With the relocation of the Oakland Raiders approved by the National Football League the tentatively named Las Vegas stadium will be constructed to replace Sam Boyd Stadium. It is expected that the Las Vegas Bowl along with the other events currently held at Sam Boyd Stadium will move to the new stadium upon completion.

Sponsors[edit]

The bowl was known as the SEGA Sports Las Vegas Bowl from 2001 to 2002. From 2003 to 2008, the title sponsor was the Pioneer Corporation. From 2009 to 2012, the game was known as the Maaco Bowl Las Vegas, as the sponsor was MAACO. From 2013 to 2015, the game was known as the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl as the sponsor was Royal Purple. For the 2016 edition, the game was known as the Las Vegas Bowl presented by GEICO as GEICO was the presenting sponsor.

Game results[edit]

UCLA vs. Wyoming in 2004

Date	Winning team		Losing team		Notes
December 18, 1992	Bowling Green	35	Nevada	34	notes
December 17, 1993	Utah State	42	Ball State	33	notes
December 15, 1994	UNLV	52	Central Michigan	24	notes
December 14, 1995	Toledo	40	Nevada	37 (OT)	notes
December 18, 1996	Nevada	18	Ball State	15	notes
December 20, 1997	Oregon	41	Air Force	13	notes
December 19, 1998	North Carolina	20	San Diego State	13	notes
December 18, 1999	Utah	17	Fresno State	16	notes
December 21, 2000	UNLV	31	Arkansas	14	notes
December 25, 2001	Utah	10	USC	6	notes
December 25, 2002	UCLA	27	New Mexico	13	notes
December 24, 2003	Oregon State	55	New Mexico	14	notes
December 23, 2004	Wyoming	24	UCLA	21	notes
December 22, 2005	California	35	BYU	28	notes
December 21, 2006	BYU	38	Oregon	8	notes
December 22, 2007	BYU	17	UCLA	16	notes
December 20, 2008	Arizona	31	BYU	21	notes
December 22, 2009	BYU	44	Oregon State	20	notes
December 22, 2010	Boise State	26	Utah	3	notes
December 22, 2011	Boise State	56	Arizona State	24	notes
December 22, 2012	Boise State	28	Washington	26	notes
December 21, 2013	USC	45	Fresno State	20	notes
December 20, 2014	Utah	45	Colorado State	10	notes
December 19, 2015	Utah	35	BYU	28	notes
December 17, 2016	San Diego State	34	Houston	10	notes

MVPs[edit]

Game MVP Marshawn Lynch at the 2005 Las Vegas Bowl.

Date	MVP	Team	Position
December 18, 1992	Erik White	Bowling Green	QB
December 17, 1993	Anthony Calvillo	Utah State	QB
December 15, 1994	Henry Bailey	UNLV	WR
December 14, 1995	Wasean Tait	Toledo	RB
December 18, 1996	Mike Crawford	Nevada	LB
December 20, 1997	Pat Johnson	Oregon	WR
December 19, 1998	Ronald Curry	North Carolina	QB
December 18, 1999	Mike Anderson	Utah	RB
December 21, 2000	Jason Thomas	UNLV	QB
December 25, 2001	Dameon Hunter	Utah	RB
December 25, 2002	Craig Bragg	UCLA	WR
December 24, 2003	Steven Jackson	Oregon State	RB
December 23, 2004	Corey Bramlet	Wyoming	QB
December 22, 2005	Marshawn Lynch	California	RB
December 21, 2006	Jonny Harline	BYU	TE
December 22, 2007	Austin Collie	BYU	WR
December 20, 2008	Willie Tuitama	Arizona	QB
December 22, 2009	Max Hall	BYU	QB
December 22, 2010	Kellen Moore	Boise State	QB
December 22, 2011	Doug Martin	Boise State	RB
December 22, 2012	Bishop Sankey	Washington	RB
December 21, 2013	Cody Kessler	USC	QB
December 20, 2014	Travis Wilson	Utah	QB
December 19, 2015	Tevin Carter	Utah	CB
December 17, 2016	Donnel Pumphrey	San Diego State	RB

Most appearances[edit]

Rank	Team	Appearances	Record
1	BYU	6	3–3
2	Utah	5	4–1
T3	Boise State	3	3–0
T3	Nevada	3	1–2
T3	UCLA	3	1–2
T6	UNLV	2	2–0
T6	Oregon	2	1–1
T6	Oregon State	2	1–1
T6	San Diego State	2	1–1
T6	USC	2	1–1
T6	Ball State	2	0–2
T6	Fresno State	2	0–2
T6	New Mexico	2	0–2
T14	Arizona	1	1–0
T14	Bowling Green	1	1–0
T14	California	1	1–0
T14	Colorado State	1	0–1
T14	North Carolina	1	1–0
T14	Toledo	1	1–0
T14	Utah State	1	1–0
T14	Wyoming	1	1–0
T14	Air Force	1	0–1
T14	Arizona State	1	0–1
T14	Arkansas	1	0–1
T14	Central Michigan	1	0–1
T14	Houston	1	0–1
T14	Washington	1	0–1