AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl

The AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl is a college football postseason game played at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, La., each year. First contested in 1976 and the 11th-oldest bowl game in the country, the Independence Bowl historically featured schools from the Southeastern Conference but now pits bowl-eligible teams from the Mountain West and Atlantic Coast conferences. In 2011, Missouri defeated North Carolina, marking the first time since 2006 that a team from the Big 12 won the game.

The origins of the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl date back to 1975, when the board of directors of the Shreveport-Bossier City Sports Foundation applied to the NCAA for a postseason bowl game in the area. With the game's approval from college football's governing body coming in the same year as the country's 200th birthday (1976) and with a strong military presence in the area, organizers decided to name the new game the Independence Bowl. The inaugural game was played Dec. 13, 1976, when McNeese State defeated Tulsa 20-16.

During the first five years of the bowl's existence, a team from the Southland Conference served as the home side for the annual contest. In 1981, game organizers ended that affiliation with the Southland Conference to offer bids to at-large teams throughout the country. The first year of the new setup enabled the bowl to secure two southwestern powers, with Texas A&M outlasting Oklahoma State 33-16. Air Force captured two straight Independence Bowls (in 1983 and 1984), winning over Mississippi and Virginia Tech. Ole Miss returned to Shreveport for the 1986 game and was able to beat Texas Tech 20-17.

Poulan/Weed Eater signed on as the postseason game's first title sponsor in 1990. And two years later, the game at Independence Stadium was aired for the first time by ESPN, which has continued to broadcast the contest through 2010.

In 1995, the Poulan/WeedEater Bowl entered into a three-year agreement with the Southeastern Conference to accept the league's fifth-place finisher as an annual participant in the game. That year, in-state favorite Louisiana State served as SEC representative and won its first Independence Bowl with a 45-26 victory over Michigan State. The Tigers went on to win for a second time in three years by topping Notre Dame 27-9 in 1997.

Sanford took over as title sponsor for the 1998 Independence Bowl, when the annual matchup began featuring a bowl-eligible Big 12 school as the opponent for the SEC team. That year's game was a rematch of the 1986 affair between Ole Miss and Texas Tech that was won by the Rebels. Ole Miss then made it two straight wins by beating Oklahoma 27-25 in 1999.

The 25th Independence Bowl was played in a Louisiana snowstorm in 2000, and it required overtime to determine a winner as Mississippi State edged Texas A&M 43-41. Mississippi captured a fourth Independence Bowl victory in 2002, when MainStay Investments was in its second of three years as the game's sponsor. Missouri then appeared in two of the next three games in Shreveport, winning the 2005 Independence Bowl.

PetroSun agreed to sponsor games for the next three years, before AdvoCare became the game's fifth title sponsor in 2009. That year's game -- won by Georgia over Texas A&M -- marked the final Big 12-SEC matchup for the Independence Bowl, which changed its conference affiliations for 2010. Beginning with the Air Force-Georgia Tech game in December 2010, the game featured bowl-eligible teams from the Mountain West and Atlantic Coast conferences. However, the Big 12 returned to the game in 2011, with Missouri defeating North Carolina. The game itself was a blowout, but was memorable for an incident before the game, when Missouri's mascot, Truman the Tiger, dropped the trophy during a photo op, shattering the crystal atop the base.

Independence Stadium is an outdoor football arena located in Shreveport, La., that hosts college football's Independence Bowl each December.

The stadium has a seating capacity of 49,147 and features a synthetic turf field. In the past, the stadium served as home of the Shreveport Pirates for the 1994-95 season of the Canadian Football League.