The Cure Bowl is an annual American

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

that has been played in December of each year since 2015 in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. It is currently held at

Camping World Stadium Camping World Stadium is an outdoor stadium in Orlando, Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States located in the West Lakes neighborhood of Downtown Orlando, west of new sports and entertainment facilities including the Kia Center, the Dr. Phil ...

, and in the past has been held at FBC Mortgage Stadium and

Exploria Stadium Inter&Co Stadium (formerly Orlando City Stadium and Exploria Stadium) is a soccer-specific stadium in downtown Orlando, Florida. The stadium is located along West Church Street in the Parramore neighborhood west of downtown Orlando. It is th ...

. The Cure Bowl is so named to promote awareness and research of

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

, with proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The Cure Bowl usually features teams from the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

and the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...

. Since 2024, it has been sponsored by the health care

employment website An employment website is a website that deals specifically with employment or careers. Many employment websites are designed to allow employers to post job requirements for a position to be filled and are commonly known as job boards. Other employ ...

StaffDNA and officially known as the StaffDNA Cure Bowl; previous sponsors include

AutoNation AutoNation, Inc. is an American automotive retailer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which provides new and pre-owned vehicles and associated services in the United States. The company was founded by Wayne Huizenga in 1996, starting with twelv ...

(2014–2018), FBC Mortgage (2019–2020), Tailgreeter (2021), Duluth Trading Company (2022), and Avocados from Mexico (2023).

History

The game has tie-ins with the

(The American) and the

. The inaugural game took place on December 19, 2015, featuring the San Jose State Spartans from the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

and the Georgia State Panthers of the

. A Mountain West team was invited to the bowl due to The American not having enough bowl-eligible teams to fill the tie-in. During the planning stages, it was originally proposed to hold the game at

Bright House Networks Stadium FBC Mortgage Stadium (scheduled to become Acrisure Bounce House) is an American football stadium located near Orlando, Florida, Orlando in Orange County, Florida, United States, on the main campus of the University of Central Florida. It is the ...

(now known as FBC Mortgage Stadium) on the campus of UCF. However, it was later decided to hold the game at the newly-renovated

in downtown Orlando, joining the Camping World Bowl and the Citrus Bowl as annual bowl games at the venue. The game was at held Camping World Stadium in 2015–2018 and 2020, and at

in 2019, 2021–2022. It moved to FBC Mortgage Stadium at UCF in 2023. It moved back to

in 2024. The game was acquired by

ESPN Events ESPN Events is an American multinational sporting event promoter owned by ESPN Inc. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and shares its operations with SEC Network and formerly with ESPNU. The corporation organizes sporting events ...

in May 2020. The 2020 edition of the bowl, between

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

and Coastal Carolina, became the first Cure Bowl to go to overtime.

Sponsorship

From its inaugural playing in 2015 through 2018, the game was sponsored by

and was known as the ''AutoNation Cure Bowl''. In December 2019, FBC Mortgage became the new title sponsor, making the game the ''FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl''. In December 2020, FBC Mortgage renewed its sponsorship of the bowl. On December 2, 2021, digital marketplace Tailgreeter became the new sponsor of the bowl, making the game the ''Tailgreeter Cure Bowl''. On June 29, 2022, Duluth Trading Company was announced as the new title sponsor for the ''Duluth Trading Cure Bowl''. On October 31, 2023, ''Avocados From Mexico,'' a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ''Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association'', became the new title sponsor of the game. On May 28, 2024, ''StaffDNA'' became the new title sponsor of the game.

Game results

All rankings are taken from the AP Poll prior to the game being played. Source:

MVPs

Source:

Most appearances

Updated through the December 2024 edition (10 games, 20 total appearances). ;Teams with multiple appearances ;Teams with a single appearance Won (6): Appalachian State, Arkansas State,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

, Tulane
Lost (8): Georgia Southern, Jacksonville State,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, Miami (OH),

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois, with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by ...

, UCF, UTSA, Western Kentucky

Appearances by conference

Updated through the December 2024 edition (10 games, 20 total appearances). Independent appearances:

(2019, 2020)

Game records

Source:

Media coverage

The game was initially televised by

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

, making it one of the few bowl games to not be televised by an

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

network. Following the bowl's acquisition by ESPN Events in 2020, broadcasting moved to ESPN.

References

External links

* {{Bowl Games 2015 establishments in Florida American football in Orlando, Florida Annual sporting events in the United States College football bowls Recurring sporting events established in 2015