Music City Bowl

The Music City Bowl is a college football post-season bowl game contested by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams, which has been played in Nashville, Tennessee, since 1998. Since 2025, it has been sponsored by Liberty Mutual and is officially known as the Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl. The bowl has had tie-ins with several different athletic conferences, most recently the Big Ten Conference and Southeastern Conference (SEC).

The first Music City Bowl was played at Vanderbilt Stadium in 1998. Beginning in 1999, the game was moved to the recently completed Adelphia Coliseum (now known as Nissan Stadium) in Nashville, Tennessee, the home stadium of the newly-renamed Tennessee Titans. American General Life & Accident (now a subsidiary of AIG) sponsored the inaugural 1998 game, and the now-defunct "homepoint.com" sponsored the 1999 game. There was no sponsor in 2000 or 2001. In 2002, with title sponsorship from Nashville-based Gaylord Hotels, the game became known as the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl. In 2003, Bridgestone became the presenting sponsor of the game, and its full title became the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl presented by Bridgestone. Bridgestone dropped its presenting sponsorship following the 2007 game. Beginning with the 2010 game, Franklin American Mortgage served as title sponsor, with Gaylord continuing as a major sponsor of the event. In December 2019, it was announced that TransPerfect, a New York City-based translation services company, would take over title sponsorship of the bowl for the 2020 through 2025 playings.

The 2020 edition, slated for December 30 between Missouri and Iowa, was cancelled on December 27 due to COVID-19 issues within Missouri's program.

The game initially featured a matchup between representatives of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Big East Conference. The Big East was replaced by the Big Ten Conference in 2002. Beginning with the 2006 game, the Big Ten was replaced by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The ACC also took part in the 2005 game, when Virginia appeared because the SEC did not have enough bowl-eligible teams. For six seasons beginning in 2014, the Music City Bowl shared its tie in with the Gator Bowl (also known as the TaxSlayer Bowl for several playings), to match an SEC team with either an ACC or Big Ten team. In June 2019, the Music City Bowl announced an extension to their agreement with the SEC, and an agreement for the Big Ten to provide teams for the 2020 through 2025 seasons.

The Music City Bowl has a history of upsets. The biggest underdog win was when Kentucky (+10) defeated Clemson 28–20 in 2006. Other big upsets include Minnesota (+7) defeating Arkansas 29–14 in 2002, and Virginia (+6) defeating Minnesota 34–31 in 2005. Boston College was a four-point underdog when they defeated Georgia 20–16 in 2001, West Virginia was a three-point underdog when they beat Ole Miss in 2000, Syracuse was a three-point underdog when they defeated Kentucky in 1999, and Minnesota was a one-point underdog when they beat Alabama in 2004. In 2008, four-point underdog Vanderbilt, making their first bowl appearance since 1982, upset Boston College, 24th in the BCS rankings, 16–14.

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

Source:

Updated through the December 2025 edition (27 games, 54 total appearances).