Capital One Bowl

The Capital One Bowl is a college football game played in Orlando, Fla., each postseason. It has been operating since 1947 and has become one of the most prestigious non-BCS bowls in the NCAA postseason. It is owned and operated by Florida Citrus Sports, which also owns the Champs Sports Bowl (Orlando's other college bowl game). The bowl has tie-ins with the SEC and the Big Ten, claiming first pick after the BCS from both conferences.

South Carolina rolled over Nebraska in the 2012 edition of the bowl, winning 30-13.

The Capital One Bowl is one of the oldest non-BCS bowls, established in 1947. The first edition -- played in front of 9,000 people -- pit Catawba against Maryville on New Year's Day. The game was then known as the Tangerine Bowl thanks to its home state. It quickly grew in popularity. By 1952, it had undergone a 2,000-seat stadium expansion and was known as "The Little Bowl with the Big Heart" because FCS donated all its proceeds to charity.

Six years later, the Tangerine Bowl was marked by controversy. The University of Buffalo was invited to the bowl to face Florida State (its first and only bowl invitation until 2008), but was told that the team's two African-American players would not be allowed to play. The Orlando high school athletic association (which leased the bowl's stadium) did not allow blacks and whites to play together. The team unanimously decided to skip the bowl. In 1966, Morgan State became the first historically black college to play in -- and win -- the Tangerine Bowl.

For its first two decades, the Tangerine Bowl usually featured matchups of small Southern schools. By the late 1960s, though, it had become a major bowl and began to earn conference tie-ins. In 1968, the bowl joined with the Mid-American Conference, and its opponent varied between the Southern Conference, the SEC or an at-large team for the next several years.

In 1973, the Tangerine Bowl stadium was undergoing renovations, and the construction would not be finished in time for the bowl. The game officials decided to invite Florida as its at-large bid and moved the game to Gainesville in what was then known as the "Transplant Bowl" (Florida lost, despite the home-field advantage).

The bowl became known as the Florida Citrus Bowl in 1983, a name it would keep exclusively for the next 10 years before gaining title sponsors. Tie-ins also changed throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with the bowl mostly choosing two teams at-large until joining with the ACC -- playing the conference's champion -- in 1987.

The bowl began its tie-ins with the Big Ten and the SEC in 1992, taking the first pick of the conferences after the BCS berths are given. That gave the bowl both huge prestige and national attention, and it has since become one of the most-watched bowls outside of the BCS.

The attendance record for the bowl was set in 1998; when local draw Florida took on Penn State 72,940 attended.

Capital One has been the bowl's sponsor since 2001 (its exclusive title sponsor since 2003). Previous sponsors include Florida Citrus Growers Association (1983-2002), CompUSA (1994-99) and Ourhouse.com (2000).

In 2011, defending national champion Alabama set a new record for margin of victory in the bowl, defeating Michigan State 49-7.

The Florida Citrus Bowl is a stadium in Orlando, Fla., that hosts both the Capital One Bowl and the Champs Sports Bowl. It also houses the UFL's Florida Tuskers.

The stadium was built and opened in 1936 as a college stadium with a capacity of 8,900. The first game was held in 1947, between Catawba and Maryville. It has since been expanded and renovated many times -- the first in 1968, the latest in 2002. Some of those changes included increasing the capacity to 70,000 (done in 1989), adding a new video screen and sound system, and building press boxes and upper decks.

The bowl games held during the 2009-10 bowl season were criticized heavily after poor field conditions led to two player injuries, so the surface was replaced with AstroTurf before the 2010 bowls.

The stadium also hosts the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, the Florida Classic and hosted matches for the 1994 FIFA World Cup as well as several other international or MLS soccer games. It hosts Monster Jam shows each year, as well as events in AMA Supercross and Super Bowl of Motorsports. In 2007, previous attendance records were smashed when the stadium housed Wrestlemania XXIV, with 74,635 attending.