Stadium Levi's Stadium Operated 2002–present | Previous stadiums AT&T Park (2002–2013) | |
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Location Santa Clara, California Previous locations San Francisco, California (2002–2013) Conference tie-ins Pac-12 (2006–present)
Big Ten (2014–present) | ||
The Foster Farms Bowl is a post-season college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that has been played annually since 2002. The game is currently sponsored by the Foster Farms poultry company. It was previously known as the Fight Hunger Bowl in 2013, the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl from 2010 to 2012 due to its sponsorship by Kraft Foods, as the Emerald Bowl from 2004 to 2009, and as the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl from 2002 to 2003, in recognition of the corporate title sponsor, Diamond Foods.
Contents
- 2016 foster farms bowl utah football outlasts indiana in thriller
- History
- Field configuration
- Matchups
- References
From 2002 to 2013, the annual game was played at 40,800-seat AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, in San Francisco, California. Starting in 2014, it has been played at Levi's Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, in Santa Clara, California.
2016 foster farms bowl utah football outlasts indiana in thriller
History
In 2010, Kraft Foods became the sponsor of the bowl and announced the new name, which the corporation launched as part of a broader hunger relief program. According to Sports Illustrated, the executive director of the bowl, Gary Cavalli, was paid a $377,475 salary in 2009. Mondelēz International continued to support the game and the program related with Feeding America in 2013.
As of August 2014, the bowl's official website listed the game's name as the San Francisco Bowl once again. However, on November 11, 2014, it was announced that the San Francisco Bowl Game Association had reached a multi-year naming rights deal with Northern California-based poultry company Foster Farms, giving the bowl its current name.
On July 12, 2016, the San Francisco 49ers NFL team announced that it had taken over management of the Foster Farms Bowl from the San Francisco Bowl Game Association, and also announced a new, four-year broadcast rights deal with Fox Sports (replacing ESPN).
Field configuration
Because AT&T Park was not normally used for football, the arrangement of the playing field required both teams to be on the same sideline, separated by a barrier at the 50-yard line. The field ran southwest-to-northeast in this configuration, with the south end zone along the first base line, and the north meeting near the left field wall to place optimum seating along the third base grandstand, and some temporary bleacher seating in center field.
Matchups
The Fight Hunger Bowl had a contract to host the Pac-12's sixth-place team during the 2010 through 2013 seasons. There were multiple contracts that determined the opponent. In 2011, the Pac-12 team's opponent was Illinois, replacing Army, which did not achieve bowl eligibility; in 2012, it was Navy; and in 2013, it was BYU. Had these teams not qualified for bowl eligibility, they would have been replaced by teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) or the Mid-American Conference (MAC).
Beginning with the 2014 season, teams come from the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences.