The Pinstripe Bowl (titled via sponsorship as the New Era Pinstripe Bowl) is a college footballbowl game that is held at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York, New York.[1][2] The bowl pairs the fourth-place team from the Big East Conference against the seventh-place team from the Big 12 Conference, with each conference agreeing to a four-year contract that runs through the 2013 season.[1][2] In the event the Big 12 lacks an eligible team, Notre Dame will receive its invitation.[1][3] The inaugural game was played on December 30, 2010.[4]ESPN has television and radio rights for the game through 2015.[5]
The newly-created bowl was announced by the New York Yankees' then-minority owner Hal Steinbrenner, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, Big East commissioner John Marinatto, and Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe at a Yankee Stadium press conference on September 30, 2009.
When the game was announced, Bronx Borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. joked, “If you’re looking for suggestions, maybe we should call it the Jeter Bowl.” It was unofficially referred to in the press as the Yankee Bowl, with some advocating the return of the name Gotham Bowl. Finally, on March 9, 2010, the game received its official designation as the Pinstripe Bowl, with the New Era Cap Company signing on as the title sponsor. This also includes the New York Yankees as the first MLB team to sponsor a NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Bowl game. The logo for the Pinstripe Bowl invokes the frieze that surrounds Yankee Stadium, but does not contain pinstripes.
