Stadium Albertsons Stadium Operated 1997–present | Location Boise, Idaho, U.S. Conference tie-ins MW, Sun Belt | |
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Previous conference tie-ins Big West (1997–2000)
C-USA (1997–1999)
WAC (2000–2012)
ACC (2001–2008)
MW (2009)
MAC (2009–2015) Payout US$325,000 (as of 2015) | ||
The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (previously the Humanitarian Bowl and the MPC Computers Bowl) is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 1997 at Albertsons Stadium on the campus of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. As of 2013, the bowl pits a team from the Mountain West Conference against a team from the Mid-American Conference.
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The game is televised nationally on the ESPN family of networks. Cincinnati defeated Utah State, 35–19, in the inaugural game in 1997. The current Famous Idaho Potato Bowl champions are the home state University of Idaho, who defeated Colorado State in the 2016 edition of the bowl. During this game, the Vandals set bowl records for total offense, first downs, and points scored; the losing Rams set a bowl record for passing yardage, with individual Rams players equaling or setting bowl records for touchdown passes and receiving yardage.
Famous idaho potato bowl highlights
History
The Humanitarian Bowl was launched in part to give the Big West Conference a bowl to send its champion to; after the 1996 season, the Big West lost its automatic tie in with the Las Vegas Bowl, where its champion met the Mid-American Conference champion. From 1997 to 1999, the opponent was a team from Conference USA, while in 2000 the Western Athletic Conference sent a representative. The Big West stopped sponsoring football after the 2000 season.
After the 2000 Humanitarian Bowl, the organizers extended a permanent invite to the WAC to replace the Big West as host of the game and struck an agreement with the Atlantic Coast Conference to provide a bowl-eligible team if it had yet to fill its bowl allotment. The WAC champion would receive the automatic bid to the game unless that team received a better offer from another bowl game or qualified for the Bowl Championship Series. The bowl also had to contend with the "hometown guarantee" tie-in with the Hawai'i Bowl, which guaranteed a spot to The University of Hawai'i-Manoa if it was bowl eligible and did not make the BCS.
In 2009, the Mountain West Conference replaced the ACC as the WAC's opponent, but ended its agreement after one season. For the 2010 playing, the Humanitarian Bowl inherited the MAC's International Bowl tie-in after the Toronto-based bowl folded. The WAC stopped sponsoring football in 2012 and the Mountain West inherited its spot as host.
Boise State, the game's host school, is tied with University of Idaho for the record for most bowl wins with three. Fresno State also has multiple wins, with two. Boise State's four appearances are the most of any team.
Sponsors
The game was sponsored by Micron Technology, an Idaho-based manufacturer, from 1999 to 2002 under the name Crucial.com, which sold computer memory upgrades from Micron. The bowl game then briefly had no sponsor for the January 2004 game. In December 2004, the name was changed to the MPC Computers Bowl. MPC Computers, which is also based in Idaho, was formerly MicronPC, the computer manufacturing division of Micron, but was later split off as a separate company. In April 2007, it was announced that the bowl will again be called the Humanitarian Bowl. In May 2007, Boise-based Roady's Truck Stops was announced as the new sponsor, thus renaming the game the Roady's Humanitarian Bowl. On May 25, 2010, mobile business application, uDrove became the sponsor of the Humanitarian Bowl, signing a four-year agreement to replace Roady's. On August 3, 2011 The Idaho Potato Commission signed a six-year naming rights deal to sponsor the bowl, renaming it the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
With fifteen games played through 2011, it is the longest running cold weather bowl game currently in operation. The payout is $750,000, but teams are required to provide a corporate sponsor, purchase a minimum number of tickets, and stay at a selected hotel for a minimum stay. Because of this, 7–4 UCLA declined an invitation to the 2001 Humanitarian Bowl.
Beginning in 2008, the Humanitarian Bowl (in conjunction with the Truckload Carriers Association) featured a "Highway Angel", a truck driver who performed a heroic feat to save the life of another motorist. The 2008 Highway Angel, Leonard T. "Lenny" Roach, pulled a driver from a water-filled ditch near South Bend, Indiana, even though the wind chill factor was −20 °F (−29 °C). The 2009 Highway Angel, Michael Hunt, used his truck to push away a vehicle (and its driver) from a fiery collision near Spring Lake, North Carolina which had already claimed the life of the other driver. The 2010 Highway Angel, Shawn L. Hubbard was honored on December 18, 2010. While driving his truck near Diamond Bar, California, Hubbard came upon a fiery car crash in which the driver was deceased, but the passenger was still alive and trapped in the burning car. Hubbard freed the passenger and pulled him from the vehicle just moments before it was completely engulfed in flames. The 2011 Highway Angel, Marcus Beam, received his award on December 17, 2011. Beam was driving near Benson, North Carolina when he observed a speeding car strike another vehicle, causing the second car to overturn and roll down an embankment. While other motorists watched without offering help, Beam freed the female driver from the wreckage, and pulled two small children from the mangled vehicle as well. The 2012 Highway Angel, Kenny Cass, was honored on December 15, 2012. Cass was driving in Portland, Oregon when he witnessed a pick-up truck rear-end a 53' tractor trailer and become wedged up to its windshield under the trailer. Cass made the scene safe by placing emergency triangles on the road, freed the pick-up truck driver from his vehicle while smoke billowed from beneath the truck and tended to the drivers wounds until emergency personnel arrived 20 minutes later.