Alamo Bowl

The game was previously known as the Builders Square Alamo Bowl (1993–1998), the Sylvania Alamo Bowl (1999–2001), and the MasterCard Alamo Bowl (2002–2005). The logo of the event has evolved to reflect the changes in sponsorship. On May 24, 2007, the Alamo Bowl announced a partnership with San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corporation, and thus the bowl's full name was changed. The partnership with Valero remained place through the 2025 edition.^[2]

The game originally gave an automatic invite to a team from the now-defunct Southwest Conference (SWC). However, in 1993, only two of the eight SWC teams finished with the necessary 6 wins against Division I-A teams to become bowl-eligible, and those two teams were already committed to other bowls, so the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten were invited instead. The SWC was able to provide teams for the next two seasons (Baylor Bears in 1994 and Texas A&M Aggies in 1995) before the conference disbanded.

During the 1996 Alamo Bowl, the Iowa Hawkeyes wore plain black helmets (removing their tigerhawk logo and gold stripe) in honor of linebacker Mark Mitchell's mother, who died in a car accident while traveling to San Antonio for the game.

The 2002 Alamo Bowl played between the Colorado Buffaloes and Wisconsin Badgers was the first Alamo Bowl to go into overtime, with the unranked Badgers defeating the No. 14 ranked Buffaloes after kicking a field goal to win 31–28, completing a perfect non-conference schedule at 6-0 (the Badgers finished with a 2-6 record in the Big Ten).

The 2005 Alamo Bowl ended with one of the most controversial plays in bowl game history. During the multi-lateral play, almost the entire Nebraska Cornhuskers team and coaching staff as well as half of the Michigan Wolverines sideline came onto the field, and the Cornhuskers gave their coach a Gatorade shower before the play was blown dead. It drew parallels to 1982's "The Play", 2000's "Music City Miracle", and 2002's "Bluegrass Miracle". Nebraska won the game, 32−28, after Michigan was not able to reach the endzone.

The 2007 Alamo Bowl between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Texas A&M Aggies was attended by 66,166, an Alamodome facility-record crowd for a sporting event, breaking the previous record set in the 2006 Alamo Bowl. The Nittany Lions won the game, 24–17.^[3]

The Alamo Bowl has sold out at least seven editions: 1995, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2011.^[4]

On August 28, 2009, the Alamo Bowl organizers announced they had reached an agreement with the then Pac-10 Conference to replace the Big Ten in the Alamo Bowl. Under the terms of the agreement, the Pac-10's second-choice team would earn a bid to the Alamo Bowl. The agreement took effect beginning with the 2010 college football season.^[5] The Pac-10's second-choice team was previously contracted to play in the Holiday Bowl against the third choice from the Big 12 Conference. The Big 12's third-choice also moved to the Alamo Bowl, with the Holiday Bowl receiving third choice of team from the Pac-10 and the fourth choice from the Big Ten. The 2009 agreement persisted through the expansion of the Pac-10 when it became the Pac-12 Conference in 2011.

In the 2011 Alamo Bowl, the Baylor Bears and Washington Huskies combined to score 123 points, breaking the record for the most points scored in a bowl game in college football history. Baylor won the game, 67–56. The 2011 game was also the first Alamo Bowl to feature a season's Heisman Trophy winner, Baylor's Robert Griffin III.

For bowls following the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Pac-12 "legacy schools" (former Pac-12 schools who left the conference in 2024) continued to fulfill their prior conference's tie-in role. In the first year of this arrangement, the 2024 Alamo Bowl became an uncommon non-playoff bowl matchup of two teams from the same conference, featuring Big 12 members BYU and Colorado—the latter being it its first Big 12 season, having previously been a member of the Pac-12. Such an occurrence was avoided in the 2025 Alamo Bowl, as Pac-12 legacy member USC, then in the Big Ten, faced TCU of the Big 12.

All rankings are taken from the AP poll prior to the game being played.

Source:^[6]

Two MVPs are selected for each game; one offensive player and one defensive player.

Source:^[7][8][9]

Updated through the December 2025 edition (33 games, 66 total appearances).

Teams with multiple appearances

Teams with a single appearance

Won (6): BYU, California, Missouri, Ohio State, UCLA, Wisconsin
Lost (5): Iowa State, Oregon State, Stanford, USC, Utah

Arizona State, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas, UCF and West Virginia are the only current or former Big 12 members that have not appeared in the bowl. With the December 2025 appearance of USC, Arizona State is the only Pac-12 legacy member that has not appeared. Colorado has appeared as both a member of the Big 12 and Pac-12.

Updated through the December 2025 edition (33 games, 66 total appearances).

• Games marked with an asterisk (*) were played in January of the following calendar year.
• The record of the Pac-12 includes appearances when the conference was known as the Pac-10 (before 2011).
• The Southwest Conference (SWC) dissolved after the 1995 season.
• The December 2024 game featured two teams from the Big 12

Source:^[7]

The bowl has been televised on ESPN since its inception. It has produced eight of the top 20 most-watched bowl games in ESPN history. In 2006, the Alamo Bowl featured the Texas Longhorns and the Iowa Hawkeyes in a game that earned a 6.0 rating, making it the most-watched college football game in ESPN history as more than 8.83 million viewers saw the telecast.^[12]