What is the Las Vegas Bowl in college football? Date, venue, history and more explored

The Las Vegas Bowl is one of the 43 bowl games set to take place in college football. After its inception, it was held at the Sam Boyd Stadium up until 2021. After that, the bowl game moved to Allegiant Stadium where it opened up more seating capacity for the bowl game.

Which teams will participate in this year's Las Vegas Bowl is yet to be announced. The announcement of all the matchups for this year's bowl games will be made on Sunday, December 3. Until then, let us dive into the history of this bowl game.

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What is the Las Vegas Bowl in college football?

The Las Vegas Bowl is an annual bowl game played in the post-season of college football. It was founded in 1992 as a replacement for the California Bowl, which was played in Fresno.

It was founded after Fresno State moved from the Big West to the Western Athletic Conference. This led the BWC and the MAC to leave Fresno for a new home in Las Vegas. Organizers were looking for strategies to increase hotel revenue during the holiday season and this bowl game provided an opportunity.

Over the years, there have been several sponsors for the bowl game. It was initially sponsored by the now-ceased Reno Air in 1997. In 2021, SRS Distribution signed a five-year contract to become the title sponsor and is now affiliated with the bowl game. Given below is the complete list of sponsorships for the bowl game.

• Reno Air (1997)
• EA Sports (1999)
• SEGA Sports (2001-02)
• Pioneer Corporation (2004-08)
• MAACO (2009-12)
• Royal Purple (2013-15)
• GEICO (2016)
• Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (2018-19)
• SRS Distribution (2021-present)

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Who plays in the Las Vegas Bowl?

Initially, since it replaced the California Bowl, it took over the tie-ins with the champions of the BWC and the MAC. After the 1996 season, the BWC Champion earned a place in the Humanitarian Bowl and the MAC Champion moved to the now-defunct Motor City Bowl. The MWC then took over BWC's place in 1999 and 2000, after which the MWC and Pac-12 teams faced off in 2001.

This arrangement stayed in place for years. After the Mountain West Conference's tie-up with the Liberty Bowl expired, it started sending its champion to face a Pac-12 team rather than their second-placed team.

After the game moved to Allegiant Stadium, organizers strategized ways to increase its popularity. Thus, they founded a new five-year alternating plan between the SEC and the Big Ten in 2020.

An SEC team will play a Pac-12 team in the Las Vegas Bowl in even years and a team from the Big Ten will play in the odd years. The conference that is not participating will instead play in the Duke's Mayo Bowl.

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When is the Las Vegas Bowl in 2023?

This year's bowl game will feature a showdown between teams from the Pac-12 and the Big Ten conferences. It is scheduled to be played on December 23 at 7:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the ABC network.