The Holiday Bowl

The Cal Bears draw the Longhorns

While not officially a "top-tier" bowl game, the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl has had a history of always being one of the most intriguing match ups on the schedule. The reason for this is because it has always been able to attract some pretty top notch teams, especially considering it's tie in's with the PAC 12 and Big 10 Conferences. On paper, the 2011 version of the bowl may not seem that intriguing, as it pit's two 7-5 teams who went 4-5 in their respective conferences, California (PAC 12) and Texas (Big 12). With that said, this also seems like one of those unpredictable matchups featuring two schools with a lot of history that are looking to get back to their former glory. A 7-5 season and a trip to the Holiday Bowl is not traditionally looked at as a good year for the Texas Longhorns. With that said, the team is coming off a 5-7 season, their first losing season under Mack Brown. In all honesty, you could say it was a rather unspectacular year for the young Longhorns. The team's seven victories all came against "lesser" opponents, while they lost all four games they had against ranked opponents (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Baylor). California had the misfortune of playing in one of College Football's toughest divisions: the PAC-12 North. Finishing fourth in the division, the Golden Bears lost to all three teams in front of them: Washington, Oregon and Stanford. With that said, Cal did hold their own to rival Stanford, losing by only a field goal. Cal lost to both LA-based teams (UCLA and USC), while they beat both Oregon State, Colorado, Washington State and Arizona State in conference play. When you look at this game on paper, it's really a matchup between two teams in the middle of the road on both offense and defense. Cal is ranked #48 in Points Scored, and #52 in Points Scored Against. Texas, on the other hand, is ranked 53rd in Points Scored and #42 in Points Scored Against. Sure, doesn't sound very impressive, but when you look at that, the teams are fairly evenly matched. Both teams feature young quarterbacks (Zack Maynard for Cal and Case McCoy for Texas) that don't have a whole lot of experience, but also don't turn the ball over that much either. For Texas, expect a lot of their offense to come from their ground game, namely freshman running back Malcolm Brown. Brown helped lead the team to a #19 ranking in Rushing Yards Per Game, and if the Longhorns are going to win Brown needs to be able to run free. Cal, on the other hand, has a dangerous running back in Isi Sofele, but tends to rely more on Maynard to move the ball down the field. If Maynard can keep the temp of the game and keep the ball moving down the field, the Golden Bears have their best chance of winning. While it may not always be pretty, the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl should be one worthy of checking out.

Holiday Bowl Overview

History of the Game
Founded back in 1978, the Holiday Bowl was initially constructed with the intent to showcase the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) champion against a team that was nationally ranked by both the writers and coaches. From 1978 to 1994, the WAC champion was automatically chosen as the host team. Starting in 1991, there opponent was the Big Ten 3rd selection.

In 1995, there was an agreement reached by the Holiday and Cotton Bowl along with the WAC, Pac 10 (now the Pac 12) and Big 12 conference arranging for the Pac 10 runner-up or WAC champion to play in either the Holiday or Cotton Bowl while the Big 12's 3rd selection would automatically play in the Holiday Bowl.

The WAC was dismembered in 1997, causing the Holiday Bowl to alter the agreements with the Pac 10 and Big 12 to have the Pac 10's 3rd place team play as the host team against the Big 12's 5th place team.

The Holiday Bowl has been played every year in the city of San Diego, California at Qualcomm Stadium for 32 years. Sponsors of the event have been Sea World, Thrifty Rental Cars, Plymouth, Culligan and Pacific Life Insurance Company. Bridgepoint Education has taken over sponsoring rights starting from 2010; therefore the Holiday Bowl will now be preceded by the words Bridgepoint Education.

Game Facts and Moments
Brigham Young University has made the most Holiday Bowl appearance (11) thanks to their appearances in the 1st 7 Holiday Bowl games. This prompted media members to affectionately label it the "BYU Bowl." A game of particular note was the 1980 game known simply as the "The Miracle Bowl." That game consisted of one of the most exciting final 4 minutes in bowl game history when Brigham Young University came back from a twenty point Southern Methodist lead to win on the last play of the game.

Some of the most impressive performances include Barry Sanders' 5 touchdowns and 222 rushing yards in a single game, Ty Detmer's 42 completions and 576 passing yards and Dez Bryant's 13 receptions and 168 receiving yards. There are also currently 26 members of the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame. Members of distinction include Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Sanders, Phil McConkey and Bart Oates. In the sportsbook we'll have all types of college football betting lines that enable you to place wagers on college fantasy matchups and invidual player performances and awards like the MVP for the bowl game.

Events
One of the biggest ceremonial American Flags in the U.S.A., the Holiday Bowl's "Big Flag" event is often performed as a pregame or halftime show. The flag has even been presented at the Super Bowl and World Series, among others. The flag covers the entire field when deployed, is made of lightweight nylon fabric and weighs roughly 850 lbs. 250 or so people are required to hoist the flag.

Other events include Team Day at Sea World, Team Day at the San Diego Zoo, the Navy and Marine Corps Luncheon, Bumble Bee Foods 5K Run/Walk, Parade Breakfast & VIP Viewing, Amtrak Big Bay Family Festival and EndZoner's Tailgate. One of the more unusual celebrations associated with the bowl is the Wiener Nationals. This the national championship for the United States dachshund racing circuit.

Another popular event is the Big Bay Balloon Parade which is organized by the Port of San Diego and sponsored by San Diego County Credit Union.

We'll have many Holiday Bowl betting options, a Holiday Bowl preview of the matchup and Holiday Bowl odds to cover every aspect of the game once the regular NCAA Football season is completed. At the completion of the season there is a bowl selection show that provides all the teams with their bowl berths.