Football: Top First-year Bowl Games

From Continental Tire Bowl for MSNsportsNET.com
December 17, 2002

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The inaugural Continental Tire Bowl, which was officially declared a sellout Saturday morning (Dec. 14), less than six days after announcing its matchup between Virginia and West Virginia, has announced ticket sales totaling 73,258. That total ranks as the second-highest attendance figure for a first-year bowl game.

The NCAA attendance record for a first-year bowl game was set by the now-defunct Blockbuster Bowl, on Dec. 28, 1990, when 74,021 watched Florida State defeat Penn State 24-17 in Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium.

Since college football's first bowl game - the first Rose Bowl in 1902 - there have seven bowl games whose debut attendance totals exceeded 50,000. Current ACC teams will have played in five of those bowls.

A complete listing of all first-year bowl game attendance marks exceeding 50,000 are as follows:

Bowl Game Debut Attendance Records

Bowl	Site	Attendance	First Year	Schools
Blockbuster	Miami, Fla.	74,021	1990	Florida St. 24, Penn St. 17
Continental Tire	Charlotte, N.C.	73,258	2002	West Virginia vs. Virginia
Cherry	Detroit, Mich.	70,332	1984	Army 10, Michigan St. 7
Bluebonnet	Houston, Texas	55,000	1959	Clemson 23, TCU 7
Holiday	San Diego, Calif.	52,500	1978	Navy 23, BYU 16
Fiesta	Tempe, Ariz.	51,089	1971	Arizona St. 45, Florida St. 38
Capital One *	Orlando, Fla.	50,183	1983	Tennessee 30, Maryland 23
* originally the Florida Citrus Bowl

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