The 2010 Texas Bowl was the fifth edition of the

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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 ...

, and was played at

Reliant Stadium NRG Stadium (previously known as Reliant Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. Construction was completed in 2002, at a cost of $352 million and has a seating capacity of 72,220. It was the first NFL facility to h ...

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. The game started at 5:00 p.m. US CST on Wednesday, December 29,

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. The game was telecast on

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for the second time in bowl history after being televised by the

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for the first three games. The bowl matched the sixth selection from the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

, Baylor, versus the sixth selection from the

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, Illinois.

Pre-game

By December 8, three days after the announcement of the participating teams, approximately 60,000 of the stadium's 70,000 seats had been purchased; bowl officials anticipated the bowl's first-ever sellout. Baylor announced the same day that all but 400 of its 12,000-ticket allotment had been sold and that the athletics department had requested more tickets from the Texas Bowl.

Teams

Illinois

After a disappointing 6-6 season Illinois returns to a bowl game to face Baylor. Illinois boasts Mikel Leshoure who emerged as the Big Ten's best running back this season, ranking eighth nationally in rushing with 126.1 yards per game. Illinois has not won a bowl game since 1999 when they defeated

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

in the MicronPC.com Bowl. The game will also mark the Fighting Illini's first appearance in the Texas Bowl.

Baylor

Baylor enters the Texas Bowl with a 7-5 record. After a 7-2 start the Bears lost their last 3 contests. Baylor boasts 5 receivers with at least 40 catches in their high-powered offense. The Bears will be playing in their first Texas Bowl. This is their first bowl appearance since the 1994

Alamo Bowl The Alamo Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and the second ...

where they lost to the high powered Washington State Cougars.

Game Summary

Scoring

Statistics

Notes

This was the second time that the two programs have met in a game. Baylor was a 34-19 winner over Illinois in their only previous meeting at Champaign, Illinois on September 25, 1976.

References

External links

Game summary
at

{{Illinois Fighting Illini bowl game navbox

Texas Bowl The Texas Bowl is an annual postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game first held in 2006 in Houston, Texas. Each edition of the bowl has been played at NRG Stadium, previously known as Reliant Stadium. The bowl replace ...

Texas Bowl Baylor Bears football bowl games Illinois Fighting Illini football bowl games