St. Petersburg Bowl

One of the newer annual post-season college football bowl games, the inaugural St. Petersburg Bowl was played in 2008. Teams from the Big East and the Conference USA play at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.http://www.stpetersburgbowl.com/faqs.php The St. Petersburg Bowl is one of six bowl games owned by ESPN with the television network also operating the BBVA Compass Bowl, Armed Forces Bowl, Hawaii Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl and New Mexico Bowl.http://www.stpetersburgbowl.com/about_the_bowl.php

In the 2010 St. Petersburg Bowl, the Louisville Cardinals defeated the Southern Miss Golden Eagles 31-28. The game took place on December 21, 2010, at 8:00 p.m. EST.http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=303550097 Southern Miss entered with an 8-4 overall record and 5-3 record in games against Conference-USA opponents. Louisville brought an even 6-6 regular season record with a 3-4 record within the Big East.http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/preview?gameId=303550097

In 2009, the bowl game featured the Central Florida falling to Rutgers 45-24 on December 19, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. EST.http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=293530164 For the Scarlet Knights, Mohamed Sanu was named an MVP of the game. For the Chiefs, Kamar Aiken was honored as an MVP.http://www.stpetersburgbowl.com/bowl_history.php

The inaugural St. Petersburg Bowl saw the South Florida Bulls defeat the Memphis Tigers, 41-14. The game was played on December 20, 2008.http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=283550058&confId=80 For the Bulls, quarterback Matt Grothe was selected as an MVP as was the Tigers wide receiver Duke Calhoun.http://www.stpetersburgbowl.com/bowl_history.php