Chick-fil-A Bowl

The Chick-fil-A Bowl, formerly called the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, and before that simply called the Peach Bowl, is an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta, Georgia since December 1968. The first three Peach Bowls were played at Grant Field on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta. Between 1971 and 1991, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium hosted the game. Since then, the Georgia Dome has played host. Seven of the first ten meetings (all but the 1968, 1971 and 1974 games) pitted an Atlantic Coast Conference team against an at-large opponent. Since 1993, the game has matched a Southeastern Conference team against one from the ACC. In 2005, the bowl reached a new landmark in prestige with its first-ever matchup of top 10-rated teams.

The game was originally created as a fund-raiser by the Lions Clubs of Georgia but in 1968, after years of lackluster attendance and revenue, the game was taken over by the Chamber of Commerce. Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A became the title sponsor of the event with the January 1998 game. Beginning with the December 2006 game, Chick-fil-A assumed complete naming rights to the game in a five year, $22 million, sponsorship deal, ending almost forty years of the Peach Bowl name. A new logo was unveiled April 6, 2006. The funds from the deal will be used to increase payouts for the participating teams in hopes of further enhancing the bowl's stature. In response, the ACC has given the committee the first pick of its teams after the BCS beginning in 2006. The bowl currently has the fifth overall selection from the SEC (including the BCS). However, the BCS has taken two SEC schools in every season since 2006, leaving the Chick-Fil-A with the sixth pick from the conference. The 2010 game was a sellout, the fourteenth consecutive year as such. In 2007 the Chick-fil-A Bowl became the best-attended non-BCS bowl for the last decade, and had the 3rd longest bowl sellout streak behind the Rose and Fiesta Bowls.

The 2007 game was played on December 31, 2007 featuring the second Chick-fil-A/Peach Bowl matchup between #15 Clemson and #21 Auburn. Clemson lost to Auburn 23&mdash;20 in the first ever Chick-fil-A or Peach Bowl to require overtime play. With a 5.09 share (4.92 million households), the 2007 game was the highest-rated ESPN-broadcast bowl game of the 2007-2008 season as well as the highest rated in the game's history. The rating was also higher than two New Year's Day bowls, the Cotton and the Gator. In October 2009, the bowl extended the Atlantic Coast Conference contract through 2013. According to Sports Illustrated, although the bowl generated $12.3 million in profit in 2007, only $5.9 million of that was paid out to the participating schools. On December 31, 2012 the bowl set new records for viewership. The New Year’s Eve telecast – a 25-24 Clemson victory over LSU – averaged 8,557,000 viewers (a 5.6 household coverage rating), making it ESPN's most-viewed non-BCS bowl ever.

Bowl facts
About the Game • Average margin of victory is 8.6 points in the last 20 years. • Holds record for largest attendance in the history of the Georgia Dome: 75,406 in 2006 (Georgia vs. Virginia Tech). • 16 straight sellouts (through 2012 Bowl). • Highest-attended non-BCS bowl game. • $110 million in cumulative payout. • Two of the top six bowl game broadcast ratings in ESPN history. • Average rating is 5.0 over the last three years (through 2006 Bowl).

About Charitable Contributions • Most charitable bowl game, has given over 13 million dollars as of 2011. • Pledged $180,000 annually to the National Football Foundation’s Play It Smart program. • Endows a $100,000 scholarship at each participating university annually. • Is one of three bowls to receive an NCAA grant for the Youth Football Program. • Holds annual Chick-fil-A Bowl Challenge — a golf event featuring NCAA head coaches and celebrity alumni competing for $350,000 in scholarship money.

Game results
All rankings are taken from the AP Poll.