Description
The Citrus Bowl, also known as the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl for sponsorship purposes, is an annual college football bowl game played at the Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando, Florida. It was previously known as the Tangerine Bowl (1947–1982), the Florida Citrus Bowl (1983–2002), and the Capital One Bowl(2003–2014). The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Russell Athletic Bowl and Florida Classic. Since becoming one of the premier bowls, the Citrus Bowl is typically played at 1 p.m. EST on January 1, New Year's Day, immediately before the Rose Bowl, both of which have been televised on ESPN since 2011. (In years when New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2 to avoid conflicting with the National Football League schedule.) In 2004, the Capital One Bowl bid to become the fifth BCS game, but was not chosen, primarily due to the stadium's aging condition. On July 26, 2007, the Orange County Commissioners voted 5–2 in favor of spending $1.1 billion to build a new arena for the Orlando Magic, a performing arts center, and to upgrade the Citrus Bowl.
Currently, the bowl has tie-ins with the SEC and the Big Ten, holding the first selection after the CFP selection process for both conferences. As of 2015 at $4.25 million per team, it has the largest payout of all the non-CFP bowls. In nearly every year since 1985, the game has featured both teams ranked in the Top 25. After the 2014 formation of the College Football Playoff, the Citrus Bowl has a chance to occasionally host an ACC team, replacing the Big Ten representative. This will happen the years in which the Orange Bowl is not a semi-final game and selects a Big Ten team to match against their ACC team. Capital One ceased its sponsorship of the game following the 2014 game, and moved its sponsorship to the Orange Bowl. Buffalo Wild Wings was announced as the new title sponsor of the bowl game in 2014. Buffalo Wild Wings had previously been the title sponsor of what is now the Cactus Bowl.
