| Gasparilla Bowl | |
|---|---|
| Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl | |
 | |
| Stadium | Raymond James Stadium |
| Location | Tampa, Florida |
| Previous stadiums | Tropicana Field (2008–2017) |
| Previous locations | St. Petersburg, Florida (2008–2017) |
| Operated | 2008–present |
| Conference tie-ins | seetie-ins |
| Previous conference tie-ins | Big East/AAC,C-USA,ACC |
| Payout | US$1.125 million (2019)[1] |
| Website | gasparillabowl.com |
| Sponsors | |
| |
| Former names | |
| |
| 2025 matchup | |
| Memphis vs.NC State (NC State 31–7) | |
TheGasparilla Bowl is an annualNCAA-sanctioned post-seasoncollege footballbowl game played in theTampa Bay area. It was first played in 2008 as theSt. Petersburg Bowl atTropicana Field inSt. Petersburg, Florida, one of several new bowl games played inMajor League Baseball venues. The game was renamed the Gasparilla Bowl in 2017 as a nod to the legend ofJosé Gaspar, a mythical pirate who supposedly operated in the Tampa Bay area and who is the inspiration forTampa'sGasparilla Pirate Festival. The bowl relocated toRaymond James Stadium in Tampa in 2018.
Since 2020, the game has been sponsored byUnion Home Mortgage and has been officially known as theUnion Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl. Previous sponsors includemagicJack (2008),Beef O'Brady's (2009–2013),BitPay (2014), and Bad Boy Mowers (2017–2019).[2]
The Gasparilla Bowl is the third collegebowl game to be played in theTampa Bay area. The first was theCigar Bowl, which was played in Tampa from 1947 to 1954, and the second was theReliaQuest Bowl, which has been held in Tampa since 1986 and was known as the Outback Bowl for over 20 years.
In 2008, the NCAA's Postseason Football Licensing Subcommittee approved a yet-to-be-named bowl game to be owned by ESPN and played atTropicana Field after the2008 college football season.[3] Telecom companymagicJack signed on as the title sponsor, and theinauguralmagicJack St. Petersburg Bowl was played on December 20, 2008, betweenSouth Florida andMemphis, with theBulls winning 41–14 behind Most Outstanding Player quarterbackMatt Grothe.[4]
For the2009 game, restaurant chainBeef O'Brady's took over as presenting sponsor. The game became known asSt. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef O'Brady's in December 2009 after the restaurant chain obtained a title sponsorship.[5]Rutgers defeatedUCF 45–24.
In 2010, the bowl's name was shortened to theBeef 'O' Brady's Bowl.Southern Miss facedLouisville; it was the 29th meeting between formerConference USA rivals.[6] Louisville rallied from a 14-point deficit to win their sixth contest in a row against Southern Miss.[7]
Beef 'O' Brady's stopped sponsoring the bowl after the 2013 edition.[2] On June 18, 2014, it was announced thatBitcoinpayment service providerBitPay would become the new sponsor of the game under a two-year deal, renamed theBitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. Bitcoin, thedigital currency, was accepted for ticket and concession sales at the game as part of the sponsorship, and the sponsorship itself was also paid for using bitcoin.[8][9] On April 2, 2015, after one year of sponsorship, BitPay declined to renew sponsorship of the game, and it was again called the St. Petersburg Bowl for the next two years.[10]
On August 23, 2017, Bad Boy Mowers signed a three-year deal to become the official title sponsor of the game, which was rebranded as theBad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, after Tampa'sGasparilla Pirate Festival.[11] The sponsorship ended after the 2019 game.[12]
On October 20, 2020,Union Home Mortgage signed on as title sponsor of the bowl, making it theUnion Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl.[13] The 2020 edition of the bowl was set to matchupSouth Carolina andUAB. However, on December 22, South Carolina had to withdraw from the bowl due toCOVID-19 issues within their program.[14] As no replacement team was available, the bowl was subsequently canceled.[14]
The first three editions of the bowl featured teams fromC-USA and theBig East. TheAmerican Athletic Conference (AAC) succeeded the Big East after 2013. The bowl entered a six-year agreement with theACC for the 2014 to 2019 seasons; the ACC would provide a team in 2014 and 2016, and would be an alternate for the other seasons.[15] Ultimately, the only ACC team to play in the bowl during this period wasNC State in 2014. Four of the five games from 2015 through 2019 featured a matchup between AAC and C-USA teams. The exception was 2016, when an overall lack of bowl-eligible teams yielded some "odd matchups";[16] the bowl's 2016 edition featured teams from theMAC andSEC.
As of the 2020 football season, the bowl has a large set of tie-ins, such that it could feature teams from eight different conferences as well as twoindependent programs:[17]
Note: since 2020, both Army and BYU have joined conferences.
The bowl has been played atRaymond James Stadium in Tampa since the 2018 edition. The first ten games were played atTropicana Field inSt. Petersburg.[18]
"The Trop" is the homeballpark of theTampa Bay Rays of MLB, and when it was first established, the then-St. Pete Bowl was one of several new college bowl games to be played in baseball venues.[19] At Tropicana Field, the footballgridiron was situated down the right field line from near home plate to the outfield wall with just enough room for theendzones.[20]
Source:[24]
From 2008 through 2016, an MVP was selected from each team; since 2017, a single game MVP is named.
| Year | Winning team MVP | Losing team MVP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | Position | Player | Team | Position | |
| 2008 | Matt Grothe | South Florida | QB | Duke Calhoun | Memphis | WR |
| 2009 | Mohamed Sanu | Rutgers | WR | Kamar Aiken | UCF | WR |
| 2010 | Jeremy Wright | Louisville | RB | Austin Davis | Southern Miss | QB |
| 2011 | Aaron Dobson | Marshall | WR | T. Y. Hilton | FIU | WR |
| 2012 | Blake Bortles | UCF | QB | Jahwan Edwards | Ball State | RB |
| 2013 | Vintavious Cooper | East Carolina | RB | Donte Foster | Ohio | WR |
| 2014 | Jacoby Brissett | NC State | QB | Josh Reese | UCF | WR |
| 2015 | Deandre Reaves | Marshall | WR | Bobby Puyol | Connecticut | K |
| 2016 | Nick Fitzgerald | Mississippi State | QB | Gus Ragland | Miami (OH) | QB |
| 2017 | Frank Nutile | Temple | QB | |||
| 2018 | Keion Davis | Marshall | RB | |||
| 2019 | Dillon Gabriel | UCF | QB | |||
| 2021 | Ryan O'Keefe | UCF | WR | |||
| 2022 | Sam Hartman | Wake Forest | QB | |||
| 2023 | Jamal Haynes | Georgia Tech | RB | |||
| 2024 | DJ Lagway | Florida | QB | |||
| 2025 | Caden Fordham | NC State | LB | |||
Updated through the December 2025 edition (17 games, 34 total appearances).
| Rank | Team | Appearances | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UCF | 6 | 3–3 |
| 2 | Marshall | 4 | 3–1 |
| 3 | NC State | 2 | 2–0 |
| South Florida | 2 | 1–1 | |
| Florida | 2 | 1–1 | |
| Memphis | 2 | 0–2 | |
| FIU | 2 | 0–2 |
Won (7):East Carolina,Georgia Tech,Louisville,Mississippi State,Rutgers,Temple,Wake Forest
Lost (7):Ball State,Connecticut,Miami (OH),Missouri,Ohio,Southern Miss,Tulane
Updated through the December 2025 edition (17 games, 34 total appearances).
| Conference | Record | Appearances by season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | W | L | Win pct. | Won | Lost | |
| American | 11 | 6 | 5 | .545 | 2008, 2009, 2010, 2017, 2019, 2021 | 2014, 2015, 2018, 2024, 2025 |
| CUSA | 10 | 5 | 5 | .500 | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018 | 2008, 2009, 2010, 2017, 2019 |
| ACC | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1.000 | 2014, 2022, 2023, 2025 | |
| SEC | 4 | 2 | 2 | .500 | 2016, 2024 | 2021, 2022 |
| MAC | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | 2012, 2013, 2016 | |
| Sun Belt | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 2011 | |
| Big 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 2023 | |
| Team | Performance, Team vs. Opponent | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Most points scored (one team) | 48, UCF vs. Marshall | 2019 |
| Most points scored (both teams) | 73, UCF vs. Marshall | 2019 |
| Most points scored (losing team) | 28, Southern Miss vs. Louisville | 2010 |
| Fewest points allowed | 3, Temple vs. FIU | 2017 |
| Margin of victory | 27, South Florida vs. Memphis | 2008 |
| Total yards | 587, UCF vs. Marshall | 2019 |
| Rushing yards | 310, UCF vs. Marshall | 2019 |
| Passing yards | 328, Ohio vs. East Carolina | 2013 |
| First downs | 30, East Carolina vs. Ohio | 2013 |
| Fewest yards allowed | 194, Florida vs. Tulane | 2024 |
| Fewest rushing yards allowed | 35, Rutgers vs. UCF | 2009 |
| Fewest passing yards allowed | 86, Marshall vs. Connecticut | 2015 |
| Individual | Player, Team vs. Opponent | Year |
| All-purpose yards | 251, Ryan O'Keefe (UCF) | 2021 |
| Touchdowns (all-purpose) | 3, shared by: Mohamed Sanu (Rutgers) Latavius Murray (UCF) Josh Reese, (UCF) CJ Bailey (NC State) | 2009 2012 2014 2025 |
| Rushing yards | 198, Vintavious Cooper (East Carolina) | 2013 |
| Rushing touchdowns | 2, multiple times—most recent: Isaiah Bowser (UCF) | 2021 |
| Passing yards | 305,DJ Lagway (Florida) | 2024 |
| Passing touchdowns | 3, shared by: Matt Grothe (South Florida) Blake Bortles (UCF) Justin Holman (UCF) Sam Hartman (Wake Forest) | 2008 2012 2014 2022 |
| Receptions | 11,A. T. Perry (Wake Forest) | 2022 |
| Receiving yards | 165, Randall St. Felix (South Florida) | 2018 |
| Receiving touchdowns | 3,Josh Reese (UCF) | 2014 |
| Tackles | 14 by several players, most recently: Greg Reaves (South Florida)[28] | 2018 |
| Sacks | 2, shared by: Steve Beauharnais (Rutgers) Tyler Williams (Wake Forest) | 2009 2022 |
| Interceptions | 1, by several players, most recently: Caden Fordham (NC State) | 2025 |
| Long Plays | Player, Record, Team vs. Opponent | Year |
| Touchdown run | 62 yds., Desmond Johnson (Southern Miss) | 2010 |
| Touchdown pass | 80 yds.,Donte Foster from Derrius Vick (Ohio) | 2013 |
| Kickoff return | 95 yds., Jeremy Wright (Louisville) | 2010 |
| Punt return | 39 yds., Andre Snipes-Booker (Marshall) | 2011 |
| Interception return | 75 yds.,Micah Abraham (Marshall) | 2019 |
| Fumble return | 55 yds.,Tre'Mon Morris-Brash (UCF) | 2019 |
| Punt | 61 yds., Tyler Williams (Marshall) | 2015 |
| Field goal | 52 yds., Bobby Puyol (UConn) | 2015 |
The bowl has been televised onESPN since its inception, and broadcast onESPN Radio and laterGameday Radio.
With South Carolina unable to play in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl on Saturday against UAB because of COVID-19 issues, the bowl game has been canceled.