Music City Bowl
Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl
Stadium	Nissan Stadium
Location	Nashville, Tennessee
Previous stadiums	Vanderbilt Stadium (1998)
Operated	1998–present
Conference tie-ins	Big Ten,SEC
Previous conference tie-ins	ACC (2006–2019) Big East (1998–2001) Big Ten (2002–2005)
Payout	US$5.7 million (2019)[1]
Website	musiccitybowl.com
Sponsors
American General Life & Accident (1998) HomePoint.com (1999) Gaylord Entertainment (2002–2009) Bridgestone (2003–2007) Franklin American Mortgage (2010–2019) TransPerfect (2020–2024) Liberty Mutual (2025–present)
Former names
Music City Bowl (1998, 2000–2001) HomePoint.com Music City Bowl (1999) Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl (2002–2009)   presented by Bridgestone (2003–2007) Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl (2010–2019)
2023 matchup
Auburn vs.Maryland (Maryland 31–13)
2024 matchup
Iowa vsMissouri (Missouri 27–24)

TheMusic City Bowl is a post-season Americancollege footballbowl game certified by theNCAA that has been played inNashville, Tennessee, since1998. Since 2025, it has been sponsored byLiberty Mutual and is officially known as theLiberty Mutual Music City Bowl. Previous title sponsors includeTransPerfect (2020–2024),American General Life & Accident (1998), HomePoint.com (1999),Gaylord Entertainment (2002–2003), both Gaylord Entertainment andBridgestone (2004–2009), and Franklin American Mortgage Company (2010–2019). From 2014 through 2019, the bowl had tie-ins with theAtlantic Coast Conference (ACC),Big Ten Conference, andSoutheastern Conference (SEC); for 2020 through 2025, the bowl has tie-ins with the Big Ten and SEC.

The 2020 edition, slated for December 30 betweenMissouri andIowa, was cancelled on December 27 due toCOVID-19 issues within Missouri's program.^[2]

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The first Music City Bowl was played atVanderbilt Stadium in1998. Beginning in1999, the game was moved to the recently completedAdelphia Coliseum (now known as Nissan Stadium) inNashville, Tennessee, the home stadium of the newly-renamedTennessee Titans.American General Life & Accident (now a subsidiary ofAIG) sponsored the inaugural 1998 game, and the now-defunct "homepoint.com" sponsored the 1999 game. There was no sponsor in2000 or2001. In2002, with title sponsorship from Nashville-basedGaylord Hotels, the game became known as theGaylord Hotels Music City Bowl. In2003,Bridgestone became the presenting sponsor of the game, and its full title became theGaylord Hotels Music City Bowl presented by Bridgestone. Bridgestone dropped its presenting sponsorship following the2007 game. Beginning with the2010 game,Franklin American Mortgage served as title sponsor, with Gaylord continuing as a major sponsor of the event.^[3] In December 2019, it was announced thatTransPerfect, aNew York City-based translation services company, would take over title sponsorship of the bowl for the2020 through 2025 playings.^[4]

The game initially featured a matchup between representatives of theSoutheastern Conference (SEC) and theBig East Conference. The Big East was replaced by theBig Ten Conference in 2002. Beginning with the 2006 game, the Big Ten was replaced by theAtlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The ACC also took part in the 2005 game, whenVirginia 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 theGator Bowl (also known as the TaxSlayer Bowl for several playings), to match an SEC team with either an ACC or Big Ten team.^[5] 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.^[6]

The Music City Bowl has a history of upsets. The biggest underdog win was whenKentucky (+10) defeatedClemson 28–20 in2006. Other big upsets includeMinnesota (+7) defeatingArkansas 29–14 in2002, andVirginia (+6) defeatingMinnesota 34–31 in2005.Boston College was a four-point underdog when they defeatedGeorgia 20–16 in2001,West Virginia was a three-point underdog when they beatOle Miss in2000,Syracuse was a three-point underdog when they defeatedKentucky in1999, andMinnesota was a one-point underdog when they beatAlabama in2004. In2008, four-point underdogVanderbilt, making their first bowl appearance since1982, upsetBoston College, 24th in theBCS rankings, 16–14.

All rankings are taken from theAP Poll prior to the game being played.

Source:^[9]

Updated through the December 2024 edition (26 games, 52 total appearances).

Teams with multiple appearances

Teams with a single appearance

Won (9):Maryland,Missouri,North Carolina,Northwestern,Notre Dame,Syracuse,Virginia,Virginia Tech,West Virginia
Lost (10):Arkansas,Florida State,Georgia,Georgia Tech,LSU,NC State,Nebraska,Texas A&M,Wake Forest,Wisconsin

Updated through the December 2024 edition (26 games, 52 total appearances).

• Independent appearances: Notre Dame (2014)
• TheAmerican Athletic Conference (The American) retains the conference charter of theBig East following the2013 split of the original Big East along football lines.

The most lopsided game was Auburn's 63–14 win over Purdue in the 2018 edition. Auburn's 63 points (56 in the first half alone, a record for a half in any bowl game) is the bowl's high score, while Kentucky's 0 points in 2022 is the low score. The closest game was Northwestern's 24–23 win over Kentucky in 2017. The lowest point total in the bowl's history is 21, which occurred in 2022 when Iowa shut out Kentucky. The 87 point total in the 2000 edition, when West Virginia defeated Ole Miss, 49–38, is a high for the bowl. A new attendance record for the bowl of 69,489 was set by the 2021 game, surpassing the prior record of 69,143 that had been set by the 2010 game.

The bowl has been televised byESPN since its inception.

• Official website

• Music City Bowl
• College football bowls in Tennessee
• Sports competitions in Nashville, Tennessee
• Recurring sporting events established in 1998
• 1998 establishments in Tennessee

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from December 2019
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