Poinsettia Bowl

Coordinates: 32°46′59″N 117°7′10″W / 32.78306°N 117.11944°W / 32.78306; -117.11944

Poinsettia Bowl
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
Stadium	Qualcomm Stadium
Location	San Diego, California
Operated	2005–present
Conference tie-ins	Army 2013
Previous conference tie-ins	Pac-12, Navy; MW vs. BYU 2012
Payout	US$612,500 per team[1]
Sponsors
San Diego County Credit Union (2005–present)
2015 matchup
Boise State vs. NIU (Boise State 55–7)
2016 matchup
BYU vs. Wyoming (December 21, 2016)

The Poinsettia Bowl is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game, re-created and played for the first time since 1955 in 2005 by the organizers of the Holiday Bowl. The Poinsettia Bowl is played in late-December each year at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. The game is currently sponsored by the San Diego County Credit Union, and is therefore named the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. The Mountain West Conference team placing second in the conference received a reserved invitation to this bowl through the 2014 season.

History

The original incarnation of the Poinsettia Bowl was as the military services championship game, pitting the Western and Eastern Military Services champions against each other. In the inaugural Poinsettia Bowl, Bolling Air Force Base defeated the San Diego Naval Training Center by a score of 35–14 on December 20, 1952. The game was held at Balboa Stadium in San Diego in a torrential downpour, before hundreds of reluctant sailors (including Hayden Fry) who were ordered to sit in the stands so that they wouldn't appear empty in the nationally televised game. Television came to terms with the NCAA the next year, making the 1952 Poinsettia Bowl the last nationally televised game between military teams other than the annual Army-Navy game. In the 1953 Poinsettia Bowl, the Quantico Marines team led by Fry lost to the Army team, the Fort Ord Warriors, a team that featured quarterback Don Heinrich and running back Ollie Matson. Fort Ord repeated as champion in 1955, the year of the fourth and final such Poinsettia Bowl.

The bowl was resurrected in 2005. In the week leading up to the 2005 Poinsettia Bowl, the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen accepted an invitation to the 2008 (however, they played in the EagleBank Bowl instead), 2009, or 2010 Poinsettia Bowls if Navy was bowl-eligible in those seasons. The fact that there are several naval bases in and around San Diego contributed to this decision by the independent Midshipmen.

The inaugural 2005 Poinsettia Bowl game matched Navy Midshipmen against the Colorado State Rams; Navy won 51–30. It had attendance of 36,842.^[2]

The Poinsettia Bowl announced that if the Army Black Knights became bowl-eligible by the end of the 2006 regular season, they would receive an automatic berth in their bowl game; however, the Cadets wound up with a losing record, and thus were not eligible.^[3]

In July 2007, it was announced that (starting with the 2008 game) the Pac-10 would send its seventh-place team to the game, and its sixth-place team in 2009 and 2010 – replacing the at-large team.^[4]

The 2007 game matched the Utah Utes against the Navy Midshipmen; Utah won, 35–32. Navy made the Poinsettia Bowl as a result of Navy's win over North Texas, a game that set a new NCAA record for most points scored in a college football game.^[5] That year's attendance was 39,129.^[6]

It was announced, starting with the 2008 season, and continuing through 2009, if the Pac-10 does not have enough bowl-eligible teams to send one to the Poinsettia Bowl (a contractual obligation), the game's organizers reserved the right to select a WAC team to take the Pac-10 team's place.^[7]

The 2008 game matched the No. 11 TCU Horned Frogs of the Mountain West Conference against the No. 9 Boise State Broncos the Western Athletic Conference champion; TCU won, 17–16. Boise State replaced the representative from the Pac-10, since it did not have any extra bowl-eligible teams to spare for this game. The game garnered a 3.74 national television rating on ESPN, the bowl's most watched game ever and the highest rated pre-Christmas game ever on the all-sports network.^[6]

The 2009 game matched the No. 23 Utah Utes against the California Golden Bears; Utah won, 37–27.

The 2010 game matched the San Diego State Aztecs against the Navy Midshipmen. San Diego State won 35–14. That year's attendance was 48,049.

Louisiana Tech and TCU received and accepted bids to participate in the 2011 Poinsettia Bowl, which TCU won 31–24. TCU's participation was somewhat unexpected as they missed out on a third straight BCS Bowl by a single national rank position, ranked 17th in the nation. Had they been ranked No. 16 they would have automatically qualified for their third straight BCS Bowl appearance following their 21–19 victory over the Big 10 Conference champion Wisconsin Badgers in the 2011 Rose Bowl and their 17–10 loss to Boise State in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl.

Game results

U.S. Naval Academy defensive end Jeremy Chase, left, quarterback Lamar Owens, center, and head football coach Paul Johnson receive the Poinsettia Bowl trophy after defeating Colorado State 51–30 in the inaugural Poinsettia Bowl.

MVPs

Most appearances

Wins by conference

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Poinsettia Bowl.

• Official website
• Poinsettia Bowl on Twitter
• Poinsettia Bowl on Facebook