Orange Bowl

History

Early roots

In 1890, Pasadena, California, held its first Tournament of Roses Parade to showcase the city's mild weather compared to the harsh winters in northern cities. As one of the organizers said: "In New York, people are buried in snow. Here, our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let's hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise." In 1902, the annual festival was enhanced by adding an American football game.

In 1926, leaders in Miami, Florida, decided to do the same with a "Fiesta of the American Tropics" that was centered around a New Year's Day football game. Although a second "Fiesta" was never held, Miami leaders, including Earnest E. Seiler, later revived the idea with the "Palm Festival" (with the slogan "Have a Green Christmas in Miami").

Palm Festival Game

In 1932, George E. Hussey, official greeter of Miami, organized the first Festival of Palms Bowl, a predecessor of the Orange Bowl. With Miami suffering from both the Great Depression and the preceding Florida land bust, Hussey and other Miamians sought to help its economy by organizing a game similar to Pasadena's Rose Bowl.

Two games were played in this series at Moore Park in Miami, both pitting an invited opponent against a local team, the University of Miami. In the first game, played on January 2, 1933, Miami defeated Manhattan College 7–0. In the second game, played on New Year's Day 1934, Duquesne defeated Miami 33–7. Duquesne was coached by Elmer Layden, one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.

These games are not recognized as bowl games by the NCAA because one team was guaranteed a berth regardless of record. However, following the success of these games, backers organized another game for New Year's Day 1935 under the Orange Bowl name. This game, unlike the Palm Festival Games, did not automatically grant a berth to one team, although the University of Miami was again a participant. For this reason, the 1935 Orange Bowl was later recognized by the NCAA as an official bowl game.

Modern game

The Orange Bowl was played at Miami Field (located where Miami Orange Bowl was later built) from 1935 to 1937, the Miami Orange Bowl from 1938 to 1996, and again in 1999, and was moved to its current site, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, in December 1996. The game was played back at the namesake stadium in 1999 (which would be the final bowl game ever in the Miami Orange Bowl) because the game was played on the same day the Miami Dolphins hosted an NFL Wild Card Playoff game. Coincidentally, both of those games were aired on ABC.

On January 1, 1965, the Texas vs. Alabama Orange Bowl was the first college bowl game to be televised live in prime time.

From 1954 onwards, the game usually featured the champion of the former Big Eight Conference. When the Big Eight Conference merged with four members of the defunct Southwest Conference in 1996, the newly formed Big 12 Conference moved its conference champion tie-in to the Fiesta Bowl. From 1998 to 2013, however, with the creation of the Bowl Championship Series system, team selection for the Orange Bowl was tied into the other three BCS Bowls and (from 2006 to 2013) the BCS National Championship Game.

From 1998 to 2005, the game hosted the champion of either the ACC or Big East conferences, unless they were invited to the National Championship game, or if the Orange Bowl itself was hosting the national championship matchup.

Starting with the 2006 season, the Orange Bowl has been exclusively tied with the ACC and has used the brand Home of the ACC Champion. As one of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games, the site of the Orange Bowl also hosted the national championship game one week after the Orange Bowl game; it did so on a four-year rotating basis with the other three BCS games (the others being the Sugar, Fiesta, and Rose Bowls). The tie-in with the ACC continued with the inception of the College Football Playoff after the 2014 season. However, following the expansion to a 12-team playoff format, the Orange Bowl's official relationship with the ACC ended as all New Year's Six bowls became permanent playoff fixtures.

King Orange Jamboree Parade

From 1936 to 2001 (except for the World War II years), the Orange Bowl Committee also sponsored a parade. The very first King Orange Jamboree Parade was held the day before the 1936 game with 30 floats at an expense of $40,000 . In its heyday, the parade was a nighttime New Year's Eve tradition, televised nationally with lighted floats and displays going down part of Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami to crowds as high as 500,000 people in the 1970s. However ratings dropped and the national television contract was lost in 1997, causing the parade to quickly become a shell of its former self since there were no sponsors for the elaborate floats. Attendance dwindled as well; by the turn of the millennium, the parade was lucky to draw 20,000 people. As a result, the committee chose to bring this tradition to an end in early 2002.

Conference tie-ins

During the three seasons of the Bowl Coalition from 1992 to 1994, the Orange Bowl invited the champion of the Big Eight Conference unless the champion was selected for the Bowl Coalition championship game and was the lower-ranked team. The Orange Bowl hosted the Big Eight champion all three seasons, and hosted the championship game for the 1993 and 1994 seasons.

From the 1998 to 2023 seasons, the Orange Bowl had an agreement with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) to receive its champion, or, from 2014 onward, its best available team if the ACC champion qualified for the playoff. When not serving as the BCS National Championship Game game, the Orange Bowl hosted the ACC champion eleven times, and did not host the ACC champion in the 1998, 1999, and 2013 seasons.

With the advent of the College Football Playoff, the Orange Bowl hosted the semifinals every three seasons. In other seasons, the Orange Bowl selected the highest-ranked team from the Big Ten Conference, Southeastern Conference (SEC), or the University of Notre Dame to play against the highest-ranked available ACC team. During the twelve-year period of the initial CFP contract, the Big Ten and SEC were guaranteed three appearances each, while Notre Dame could appear in a maximum of two games but was not guaranteed any appearances. The selection of the Big Ten/SEC/Notre Dame team was subject to several constraints:

• The Big Ten and SEC champions were always excluded due to tie-ins with the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl and, when those bowls served as semifinal games, requirements that the champions appear in the Cotton Bowl Classic, Fiesta Bowl, or Peach Bowl if they did not qualify for the playoffs.
• If the Big Ten champion qualified for the playoff when the Rose Bowl was not serving as a semifinal, the next-highest ranked team available from the conference was obligated to appear in the Rose Bowl.
• If the SEC champion qualified for the playoff when the Sugar Bowl was not serving as a semifinal, the next-highest ranked team available from the conference was obligated to appear in the Sugar Bowl.
• If the highest-ranked team available from the Big Ten, SEC, and Notre Dame created a rematch with the ACC team, the Orange Bowl had the option of passing over that team for the next-highest ranked team among the Big Ten, SEC, and Notre Dame, again subject to the other constraints. Rankings are based on the College Football Playoff committee's rankings.

During the four-team CFP era, the ACC champion appeared twice in the Orange Bowl when it was not a semifinal, in 2022 and 2023. For the other five Orange Bowls not serving as a semifinal, the second-best ACC team appeared four times and the third-best ACC team appeared once (2020). To face the ACC representative in non-semifinal editions, the Orange Bowl selected the second-best Big Ten team once, the second-best SEC team three times, the third-best Big Ten team once, and the third-best SEC team twice. The Big Ten made two appearances, the SEC made five appearances, and Notre Dame made zero appearances in non-semifinal Orange Bowls during the four-team CFP era. The Orange Bowl never exercised its option to pass over the highest-ranked available team from the Big Ten, SEC, and Notre Dame.

When the Orange Bowl served as a semifinal, the ACC was guaranteed a spot in the Cotton Bowl Classic, Fiesta Bowl, or Peach Bowl for its champion, or if the champion qualified for the playoff, its highest-ranked available team. Under these provisions, the ACC representative appeared in the Peach Bowl in 2015, 2018, and 2021.

Game results

All rankings are taken from the AP poll (inaugurated in 1936), before each game was played.

EDITORS: For all games, AP rankings are used.

Source: : Denotes Bowl Coalition Championship Game : Denotes Bowl Alliance Championship Game : Denotes BCS National Championship Game : Denotes College Football Playoff quarterfinal game : Denotes College Football Playoff semifinal game : Denotes a historical name for what is now Hard Rock Stadium : Due to an NFL scheduling conflict, the 1999 game was played at the Miami Orange Bowl : USC vacated their 2005 victory due to NCAA sanctions

MVPs

The bowl first named an MVP in 1965. From 1970 through 1998, two MVPs were named for each game. Since 1999, only a single MVP is named, except when the game is part of the College Football Playoff, in which case both an offensive and defensive MVP are named.

CFP semifinal or quarterfinal

Most appearances

Updated through the January 2026 edition (92 games, 184 total appearances).

;Teams with multiple appearances

USC's win–loss record and winning percentage exclude their vacated 2005 win.

;Teams with a single appearance Won (12): Bucknell, Catholic, Duquesne, Louisville, Oregon, Rice, Santa Clara, Stanford, Tulsa, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin Lost (15): Baylor, Boston College, Cincinnati, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Kentucky, Michigan State, Navy, North Carolina, Northern Illinois, Ole Miss, TCU, Texas Tech, Virginia, Wake Forest

Appearances by conference

Updated through the January 2026 edition (92 games, 184 total appearances).

The Pac-12's win–loss record and winning percentage exclude USC's vacated 2005 win.

• Conferences that are defunct or not currently active in FBS appear in italics.
• Big Eight records include results when the conference was known as the Big Six and Big Seven.
• Pac-12 records include results when the conference was known as the Pacific-10.
• Multiple teams have played in the bowl as members of different conferences at different times:

Game records

Source:

Sponsorship

The game was previously officially known as the Discover Orange Bowl, since Discover Financial was announced as title sponsor on August 26, 2010, as part of a new four-year agreement. The game had been called the FedEx Orange Bowl from 1989 to 2010, as FedEx sponsored the event during that period. Starting with the 2010–11 season, ESPN carried the Orange Bowl, replacing Fox after four seasons. ABC aired the game from 1999 to 2006, with CBS (1995–1998) and NBC (1964–1994) previously carrying the game.

Discover stated that they would not renew their sponsorship of the game further on June 9, 2014; the game will be a part of the College Football Playoff in the future, and CFP rightsholder ESPN has asked for higher sponsorship fees, in return. On September 22, 2014, Capital One was announced as the new title sponsor of the Orange Bowl, transferring their bowl game sponsorship from the Citrus Bowl. Subsequently, the company's "Capital One Mascot Challenge" winner naming ceremony also moved to the Orange Bowl. The Orange Bowl Committee includes Corporate Members such as iHeart Media, Ernst & Young, Cinch Home Services, Bank of America, Amazon, American Airlines, AT&T, and Uber Technologies.

Broadcasting

ESPN is the current rightsholder of the Orange Bowl, a relationship that began in 2011 as part of the contract to broadcast the Bowl Championship Series games. In anticipation of the transition to the College Football Playoff in the 2014–15 season, ESPN reached a new deal with the game's organizers in November 2012 to extend its rights through 2026, paying $55 million yearly. The game is also broadcast nationally by ESPN Radio.

Prior to that, Fox held the rights to the event (along with the other BCS bowls) since 2007, preceded by ABC (1999–2006 and 1962–64), CBS (1996–98 and 1953–61), and NBC (1965–95). This game, along with the Fiesta Bowl, is one of only two bowl games ever to air on all the "big 4" U.S. television networks. ESPN Deportes added a Spanish language telecast of the game in 2013.

Notes

References

References

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