Alamo Bowl

The Alamo Bowl is a NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The current champions are the UCLA Bruins. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and the third choice team from the Big 12 Conference.

Traditionally, the Alamo Bowl has been played in December. The game following the 2009 season marked the first time the game was played in January, making it be played in 2010. The game following the 2010 season returned to December.

History

The game was previously known as the Builders Square Alamo Bowl (1993–1998), the Sylvania Alamo Bowl (1999–2001) and the MasterCard Alamo Bowl (2002–2005). The logo of the event has evolved to reflect the changes in sponsorship. On May 24, 2007 the Alamo Bowl announced a partnership with San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corporation, and thus the bowl's full name was changed to the Valero Alamo Bowl.

The game originally gave an automatic invite to a team from the now-defunct Southwest Conference (SWC). However, in 1993, only two of the eight SWC teams finished with the necessary 6 wins against Division I-A teams to become bowl-eligible (and those two teams were already committed to other bowls). The Alamo Bowl invited the Iowa Hawkeyes instead. The SWC was able to provide teams for the next two seasons (Baylor Bears in 1994 and Texas A&M Aggies in 1995) before the conference disbanded.

2007 Alamo Bowl

The 2007 Valero Alamo Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 29, 2007 in the 65,000-seat Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, and nationally televised by ESPN. The game was one of the 2007–08 NCAA football bowl games that concluded the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season. It was the 15th Alamo Bowl and the first Alamo Bowl sponsored by the Valero Energy Corporation.

The game featured the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Texas A&M Aggies, who were both unranked in the national polls. The two teams had met once in the Alamo Bowl in 1999, when Penn State shutout Texas A&M 24–0. The Aggies were coached by interim head coach Gary Darnell, who had taken over after Dennis Franchione resigned, and the Nittany Lions were coached by Hall of Famer Joe Paterno, who marked the 2007 Alamo Bowl as the 500th game of his head coaching career.

Leading into the game

This was the Aggies' 30th bowl appearance, and their third in the Alamo Bowl. In their first Alamo Bowl game in 1995, the 19th-ranked Aggies defeated the 14th-ranked Michigan Wolverines 22–20. In their second appearance in 1999, 13th-ranked Penn State defeated the 18th-ranked Aggies 24–0. Both the 1995 and 1999 games are two of the five in Alamo Bowl history that attracted sellout crowds, with the 1999 game having the second largest crowd.

2013 Alamo Bowl

The 2013 Alamo Bowl was an American college football bowl game that was played on December 30, 2013, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The 21st edition of the Alamo Bowl, it featured the Texas Longhorns from the Big 12 Conference and the Oregon Ducks from the Pac-12 Conference. It was telecast at 5:45 p.m. CST on ESPN. It was one of the 2013–14 bowl games that concluded the 2013 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by the Valero Energy Corporation and was officially known as the Valero Alamo Bowl. Oregon defeated Texas by a score of 30–7.

Texas finished the regular season with a record of 8–4 (7–2 Big 12), tied for second place in the Big 12. Oregon, ranked #10 in the BCS, finished the regular season with a record of 10–2 (7–2 Pac-12), co-champions of the Pac-12 North Division.

Teams

Texas

Texas was selected to represent the Big 12 after an 8–4 season, finishing third overall in the conference. Starting the season ranked 15th in both major polls, Texas would start the season disappointingly by going 1–2 against non-conference opponents with a win over New Mexico State and losses to BYU and Ole Miss. They would eventually contend for the Big-12 Championship by starting their conference schedule at 6–0 with wins over Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, TCU, Kansas and West Virginia. They would finish their remaining conference slate with a home loss to Oklahoma State, rebound to beat Texas Tech after a bye week and finish the season with a road loss to Baylor, finishing the season unranked in the polls.

2015 Alamo Bowl

The 2015 Alamo Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on January 2, 2015, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The 22nd edition of the Alamo Bowl featured the Kansas State Wildcats from the Big 12 Conference and the UCLA Bruins from the Pac-12 Conference. It was televised at 5:45 p.m. CST on ESPN and heard on the ESPN Radio. It was one of the 2014–15 bowl games that conclude the 2014 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by the Valero Energy Corporation and was officially known as the Valero Alamo Bowl. The Bruins defeated the Wildcats, 40–35, and ended the season with 10 wins.

Teams

This was the third overall meeting between these two teams, with the series standing tied, 1–1 before the game. The last time these two teams met was in 2010.

Kansas State

Kansas State entered the season ranked #20 in the preseason polls, and were predicted as one of the teams that could win the Big 12 Conference. After winning their first two games, the Wildcats lost to then 5th-ranked Auburn 20-14 to fall to 2-1. The Wildcats then won 5-straight games to improve to 7-1, including a 31-30 win over Oklahoma, and rose to #7 in the rankings. They would then lose 41-20 to TCU for their first loss of Conference play. After beating West Virginia and Kansas, Kansas State lost their season finale to Baylor 38-27 to finish 9-3, with a 7-2 conference record