Birmingham Bowl’s 10th year may be its most successful
The Auburn football team arrives at the Wynfrey Hotel for the 10th Birmingham Bowl. (Wade Rackley/Auburn Athletics)
Mark Meadows remembers visiting Nashville’s Music City Bowl in the early days of his managing the then-new bowl game in Birmingham. “It was about 10 years old when we started our game,” recalled Meadows, Birmingham Bowl executive director. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I can’t believe they’ve been in business that long.”’
Today, Meadows and other organizers of the Birmingham Bowl stand at the same point, just days away from hosting the 10th installment of this ESPN-owned event. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. Dec. 30, with the Memphis Tigers of the American Athletic Conference taking on Auburn University of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
The teams arrived Saturday to begin final preparations for the game and to enjoy the Southern hospitality on which this event has been based.
Launching as the PapaJohns.com Bowl, the game marked the return of postseason football to Birmingham, which previously hosted the Dixie Bowl in 1947 and 1948, the Hall of Fame Classic from 1977 to 1985 and the All-American Bowl from 1986 to 1990.
The Hall of Fame Classic relocated to Tampa and is now the Outback Bowl. The All-American Bowl ended when the SEC awarded its championship game to Birmingham.
While every year brings challenges, Meadows said a decade of experience has helped to refine the system. He cited his staff, bowl committee members and volunteers for helping to plan and put on the game.
“Our first nine years I think there’s been about $109 million in economic impact for the City of Birmingham,” he said. “I think the game itself over the last nine years has certainly grown. We certainly look forward to seeing what the next 10 years has in store.”
Memphis brings a 9-3 team to town with redshirt junior quarterback Paxton Lynch, who is creating buzz as a possible first-round NFL draft pick. He has thrown for 3,670 yards and 28 touchdowns while completing 69 percent of his attempts.
Auburn counters with a squad that began the season as a pre-season pick to win the SEC West and contend for a national championship but ended up struggling to a 6-6 record. The Tigers will try to end on a positive note under the guidance of head coach Gus Malzahn and quarterbacks Jeremy Johnson or Sean White.
“The response that we’ve had to this matchup has been unprecedented for our bowl game (with) the number of phone calls and the media attention,” Meadows said. “We feel like there’s a tremendous amount of interest, both from outside the state of Alabama and inside the state. We have the potential to have the largest attendance or the second largest attendance for our bowl game.”
| Date | Outcome | Attendance | Economic Impact | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. 23, 2006 | South Fla. 24, East Carolina 7 | 28,527 | $4.2 million | |
| Dec. 22, 2007 | Cincinnati 31, So. Miss 21 | 32,959 | $8.1 million | |
| Dec. 29, 2008 | Rutgers 29, NC State 23 | 36,387 | $10.6 million | |
| Jan. 2, 2010 | Uconn 20, South Carolina 7 | 42,610 | $18.4 million | |
| Jan. 8, 2011 | Pittsburgh 27, Kentucky 10 | 41,207 | $11.9 million | |
| Jan. 7, 2012 | SMU 28, Pittsburgh 6 | 29,138 | $5.5 million | |
| Jan. 5, 2013 | Ole Miss 38, Pittsburgh 17 | 55,099 | $21.4 million | |
| Jan. 4, 2014 | Vanderbilt 41, Houston 24 | 42,717 | $17.5 million | |
| Jan. 3, 2015 | Florida 28, East Carolina 20 | 30,083 | $10.5 million |
Source: Birmingham Bowl
