The Alamo Bowl is a college football bowl game played since 1993 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The bowl game matches the fourth or fifth choice from the Big Ten Conference and Big 12 Conference. Sponsorship for the bowl game has changed several times over the 15-year lifespan of the bowl. The game was originally the Builder's Square Alamo Bowl (1993-1998), and then became the Sylvania Alamo Bowl (1999-2001) and the MasterCard Alamo Bowl (2002-2005). As of May 24, 2007, the bowl game is called the Valero Alamo Bowl.
The original Alamo Bowl, hosted on January 4, 1947, was hosted at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio, Texas. The game between Hardin-Simmons University and the University of Denver drew only 3,730 fans, so the game was dropped. Although today's Alamo Bowl game bears the same name as its ancestor, the two bowls are unrelated.
The Alamo Bowl has produced eight of the top 25 most watched bowl games in ESPN broadcast history, making this bowl one of the most popular games to watch each holiday season. The Alamo Bowl has also sold out six of its 15 games, including the 2006 and 2007 seasons. In 2007, the Alamo Bowl saw a record crowd of 66,166 in attendance to watch the Penn State vs. Texas A&M game.
To read our Alamo Bowl Game previews from previous Alamo Bowl Games, please visit our Alamo Bowl Previews page.