The 2016 Liberty Bowl was a post-season 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 ...

played on January 2, 2016, at

Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, originally named Memphis Memorial Stadium, and later Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, is a stadium, football stadium located at the former Mid-South Fairgrounds in the Midtown, Memphis, Midtown area of Memphis, Tenne ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. The 57th edition of the

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic Cit ...

featured the

Kansas State Wildcats The Kansas State Wildcats (variously "Kansas State", "K-State", or "KSU") are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The School colors, official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are gener ...

of 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 ...

against the

Arkansas Razorbacks The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Fayetteville. The University of Arkans ...

of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

. It began at 2:20 p.m. CST and aired on

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 ...

. It was one of the 2015–16 bowl games that concluded the 2015 FBS football season. Sponsored by automobile parts and accessories store

AutoZone AutoZone, Inc. is an American retailer of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories, the largest in the United States. Founded in 1979, AutoZone has 7,140 stores across the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and the US Virgin Island ...

, it was officially known as the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

Teams

The game featured the

against the

Kansas State Wildcats

After finishing their season 6–6, the Wildcats accepted their invitation to play in the game. This was the Wildcats' first Liberty Bowl.

Arkansas Razorbacks

After finishing their season 7–5, the Razorbacks accepted their invitation to play in the game. This was the Razorbacks' fifth Liberty Bowl, giving them the new record for most appearances in the game. The Razorbacks are now 2–3 all-time in the Liberty Bowl, losing the

1971 Liberty Bowl The 1971 Liberty Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Tennessee Volunteers, played on December 20, 1971, in Memphis, Tennessee. In the 13th edition of the Liberty Bowl, ninth-ranked Tennessee def ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

14–13, then losing the 1984 Liberty Bowl to Auburn 21–15, losing the 1987 Liberty Bowl to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

20–17, and finally

winning Winning may refer to: * Victory Film * Winning (film), ''Winning'' (film), a 1969 movie starring Paul Newman * ''Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman'', a 2015 documentary by Adam Carolla and Nate Adams Music * ''Winning'', an album by Ten Fo ...

the 2010 Liberty Bowl over

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of universities in North Carolina by enrollment, fourth largest university in North Carolina and the only one in the state with s ...

20–17 in overtime.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Source:

Statistics

Arkansas running back Alex Collins was named the game's MVP, after gaining 185 yards and 3 touchdowns on 23 carries.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liberty Bowl (01), 2016 2015–16 NCAA football bowl games 2016,01

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2016 in sports in Tennessee January 2016 sports events in the United States