ACADEMY SPORTS + OUTDOORS TEXAS BOWL TO CONTINUE FEATURING SEC & BIG 12 TEAMS THROUGH 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
HOUSTON – The Southeastern Conference and the Big 12 Conference announced on Tuesday a six-year agreement to continue its association with the Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl through 2025. The 2019 Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl will be played on Friday, Dec. 27, at 5:45 p.m. CT at NRG Stadium in Houston.
The SEC will maintain its current bowl selection process in which the Citrus Bowl has the first selection of available SEC teams after any conference schools have qualified for the College Football Playoff, the Allstate Sugar Bowl or the Capital One Orange Bowl, after which the SEC assigns teams to a Pool of Six bowls. The SEC Pool of Six consists of the Outback Bowl, Gator Bowl, Music City Bowl, Texas Bowl and Liberty Bowl, as well as the Las Vegas Bowl in 2020, 2022 and 2024, and the Belk Bowl in 2021, 2023 and 2025.
The Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl will make the third selection after the College Football Playoff selection in the Big 12 Conference. The Allstate Sugar Bowl will continue to host the Big 12 champion against the SEC champion as part of the CFP New Year’s bowl alignment. In years in which the Sugar Bowl is designated to host a CFP semifinal game, the Big 12 champion would play in another New Year’s game if it is not selected for a semifinal appearance. If the Big 12 champion is slotted to play in a CFP semifinal in years in which the Sugar Bowl is not hosting a semifinal, the Big 12 Championship game runner-up would advance to the Sugar Bowl. The Texas Bowl has been affiliated with the Big 12 since the bowl’s inception in 2006.
The Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl is the fifth-most attended Bowl game in the country and most attended non-New Year’s Six game since 2014, trailing only the Rose, Peach, Cotton and Sugar Bowls. The Texas Bowl and its sister event, the AdvoCare Texas Kickoff, have grown to become two of the most popular annual college football games in the country, combining to create an economic impact of close to $100 million annually for the city of Houston while raising nearly $1.6 million in financial support and millions more in promotional support to DePelchin Children’s Center, Houston’s oldest children’s charity and the bowl’s official charitable beneficiary.
The Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl is one of 15 bowl games owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, and managed locally by Lone Star Sports & Entertainment. For more on the event, including ticket information, visit http://www.academytexasbowl.com/.
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ESPN Events
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, owns and operates a large portfolio of 34 collegiate sporting events worldwide. The roster includes three Labor Day weekend college football games, the FCS opening-weekend game, 15 college bowl games, 11 college basketball events, a college softball event, an esports event and two college award shows, which accounts for approximately 375-plus hours of live programming, reaches almost 64 million viewers and attracts over 800,000 attendees each year. With satellite offices in Albuquerque, Birmingham, Boca Raton, Boise, Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Montgomery and St. Petersburg, ESPN Events builds relationships with conferences, schools and local communities, as well as providing unique experiences for teams and fans.
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