LendingTree Bowl


The LendingTree Bowl is a postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game that has been played annually at Ladd–Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, since 1999. The game currently matches teams from the Sun Belt Conference and the Mid-American Conference. Originally known as the Mobile Alabama Bowl during its first two playings, it has undergone name changes due to changes in sponsorship, which have included GMAC, GoDaddy, Dollar General, and LendingTree.

History

The game was known as the Mobile Alabama Bowl for its first two playings, in 1999 and 2000. GMAC had become the title sponsor for the 2000 playing, and the game was renamed as the GMAC Bowl for the 2001 though January 2010 playings. It was then the GoDaddy.com Bowl for the January 2011 to January 2013 playings when GoDaddy took over sponsorship. In May 2013, it was announced that the ".com" would be dropped from the bowl's name, rebranding it as the GoDaddy Bowl for the January 2014 through December 2015 editions. Dollar General took over sponsorship on August 17, 2016, with the 2016 through 2018 playings branded as the Dollar General Bowl. It was announced on May 29, 2019, that Dollar General would no longer sponsor the bowl. It was temporarily called by its original named, the Mobile Alabama Bowl, until new sponsorship by LendingTree was announced on November 15, 2019, making it the LendingTree Bowl.
When the bowl first began, it was played as one of the first games of the bowl season with a December date. The 2006 season saw the game moved to January, and it served as one of the last bowls played before the national championship game of either the Bowl Championship Series or the College Football Playoff. For the 2015 season, the bowl was moved back to December, where it remained for four years. For the 2019 season, the bowl was once again moved to January.

Conference tie-ins

From 1999 to 2009, the bowl pitted a Conference USA team against a team from either the Mid-American Conference except for the first two playings, where the Western Athletic Conference could receive the bid if one of its easternmost teams qualified as bowl eligible. For the 2010 game the Atlantic Coast Conference was to participate in the bowl as its ninth bowl tie-in. The ACC failed to have sufficient bowl-eligible teams to fill the slot, and the bowl chose Sun Belt Conference champion Troy as a replacement. A MAC vs. Sun Belt matchup has been retained for every game since 2010.

Notable games

The 2001 game between the Marshall Thundering Herd and East Carolina Pirates set the record as the highest-scoring bowl game of all time, and Marshall achieved what was then the greatest scoring comeback in bowl history. In this contest, Marshall battled back from a 38–8 deficit to win 64–61 in double overtime. Thundering Herd quarterback Byron Leftwich threw for 576 yards in the game. The 2008 game had the largest margin of victory in bowl history, with Tulsa defeating Bowling Green, 63–7.

Game results

MVPs

Most appearances

Updated through the January 2020 edition.
;Teams with multiple appearances
;Teams with a single appearance
Won: Appalachian State, Central Michigan, Georgia Southern, Louisiana, Northern Illinois
Lost: Buffalo, Kent State, Memphis, Middle Tennessee State, UTEP

Appearances by conference

Updated through the January 2020 edition.

Media coverage

The bowl has been televised on ESPN or ESPN2 since its inception.