The newly renamed Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl will take place December 21 at 8 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Bad Boy Mowers is the fourth title sponsor of the game in nine years, and will have naming rights to the game through the 2019 season.
From the press release announcing the name change:
“The whole Bad Boy Mowers team is excited to take the field as title sponsor of the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl,” said Lennie Foree, Director of Marketing for Bad Boy Mowers. “We’ve been so impressed by the entire organization and their mission to deliver what we believe will be an exciting bowl for college football fans across the country. This is a great opportunity for us to introduce so many more folks to our mowers and Bad Boy Country.”
The bowl will feature one team each from the American Athletic Conference and Conference USA. The 2016 edition had Mississippi State from the SEC and Miami (OH) of the MAC in the game. The quirk was due to the AAC and C-USA not fielding enough teams that qualified for a bowl game with at least a 6-6 record during the regular season.
The bowl game has been in existence since 2008 when USF Football defeated the Memphis Tigers 41-14 in the inaugural and then-named magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl. The game has undergone many sponsor names in the nine years, including the St. Petersburg Bowl Presented By Beef O' Brady's in 2009 before making it the Beef O' Brady's Bowl between 2010-2013. Following the 2013 season, the game became the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl for the 2014 edition. The bowl game went without a sponsor for the 2015 and 2016 season.
ESPN Events owns the bowl game along with 13 other games during bowl season. The name change to the Gasparilla Bowl is reflective of the history of Jose Gaspar, and to give a nod to the parade held in Tampa every January.
The teams will be announced after conference championship weekend on December 2. Tickets start at $40 and can be purchased by clicking below!
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