Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl

The Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl (formerly the St. Petersburg Bowl) is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, since 2008. It was first played known as the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl, after corporate sponsor magicJack. When Beef O'Brady's became the sponsor in 2009, the official name was changed to the St. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef 'O' Brady's. The bowl game features teams from the Big East Conference and Conference USA, unless one of the conferences does not have enough bowl eligible teams, in which case the MAC or Sun Belt Conference are eligible to send a team.

History
The Beef O' Brady's Bowl is the third college bowl game to be played in the Tampa Bay area; both the long-defunct Cigar Bowl and the ongoing Outback Bowl have been held across the bay in Tampa.

On April 30, 2008, the NCAA's Postseason Football Licensing Subcommittee approved a to-be-named bowl for Tropicana Field to be played after the 2008 college football season. On November 25, 2008, ESPN Regional Television, the game's owner, announced a one-year title sponsorship agreement with magicJack.

The inaugural game was played on Dec 20, 2008, between the South Florida Bulls and Memphis Tigers, with the USF Bulls winning by a score of 41–14. USF Quarterback Matt Grothe was named Most Outstanding Player, after throwing for 236 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 83 yards on 15 carries.

Both the UCF Knights and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights accepted bids to play in the 2009 St. Petersburg Bowl on December 19, 2009. On December 9, 2009, the bowl's name was changed to the St. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef O'Brady's after the restaurant chain obtained a title sponsorship. In the second St. Petersburg Bowl, Rutgers defeated Central Florida 45-24.

The 2010 Beef 'O' Brady's bowl pitted the Southern Miss Golden Eagles against the Louisville Cardinals on December 21, 2010. It was the 29th meeting between former Conference USA rivals. After falling behind 14–0 and 21–7, Louisville came back to win their sixth contest in a row against Southern Miss, 31–28

The 2011 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl featured the first Sun Belt conference team to play in the game, as Florida International lost 20-10 to Marshall (Conference USA). This was the first time that the Big East was unable to send a team to the game.

Stadium
Since Tropicana Field was originally designed for baseball, the football gridiron is arranged along the right field line, from home plate to the foul pole. The game is one of three to take place in a baseball-only stadium among current post-season football contests; the others are the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (see the Emerald Bowl), played at San Francisco's AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants, and Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees, hosting the Pinstripe Bowl. Between 2000 and 2005, the Insight Bowl was played at the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chase Field (see Bank One Ballpark) in Phoenix, Arizona after being moved from Tucson, while the 2001 Seattle Bowl was played at Safeco Field while CenturyLink Field was being built on the site of the Kingdome. Original plans had the Military Bowl (see Eaglebank Bowl) in Washington being played at Nationals Park, but the game has been played at RFK Stadium instead.