The 2024 Citrus Bowl was a

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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 ...

played on January 1, 2024, 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 ...

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 ...

. The 78th annual

Citrus Bowl The Citrus Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Pop-Tarts Bowl and Florida Classic. The g ...

featured

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

and

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 ...

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 ...

(SEC). The game began at approximately 1:00 p.m. EST and was aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

. The Citrus Bowl was one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by

Cheez-It Cheez-It is a brand of cheese crackers manufactured by Kellanova through its Sunshine Biscuits division. Approximately , the rectangular crackers are made with wheat flour, vegetable oil, cheese, skim milk, salt, and spices. History The histo ...

and was officially known as the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.

Teams

Following the release of the final

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...

(CFP) rankings, the

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 20 sports, 7 for men and 13 for women; The teams participate in Division I of the Nati ...

, having lost the 2023 Big Ten Football Championship Game, were selected to play the

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Colleg ...

. This was the third bowl game contested between the schools. Iowa won the 1982 Peach Bowl, 2822, and Tennessee won the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl, 4528. Entering the Citrus Bowl, Tennessee held a 21 advantage in the overall series, also winning the

Kickoff Classic The Kickoff Classic was a season-opening college football game played at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey from 1983 to 2002. History In 1978, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA), which operated and scheduled e ...

game, 2322, to open the 1987 season.

Iowa

Iowa entered the Citrus Bowl with a 10–3 record (7–2 in the Big Ten). They reached the Big Ten Championship, where they were shut out by

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, 26–0. They lost to

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

and

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

during the regular season. This was Iowa's third Citrus Bowl; the Hawkeyes posted a 1–1 record in prior editions of the game, winning the 2005 edition and losing the 2022 edition.

Tennessee

Tennessee finished the regular season with an 8–4 record (4–4 in the SEC). They lost to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, and

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 ...

. This was Tennessee's sixth Citrus Bowl, tying six other teams for the most appearances in the game. The Volunteers posted a 4–1 record in prior Citrus Bowls, winning the

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

and

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

games; their loss came in the 1994 edition.

Halftime show

The Citrus Bowl halftime show featured a sponsored performance from singer

Gavin DeGraw Gavin Shane DeGraw (born February 4, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. DeGraw rose to fame with his song "I Don't Want to Be" from his debut album ''Chariot (album), Chariot'' (2003); the song became the main theme song for The WB/The CW, ...

as well as performances from the University of Iowa

Hawkeye Marching Band The Hawkeye Marching Band (or HMB) is the marching band for the University of Iowa. The band performs at all home Hawkeye football games at Kinnick Stadium in addition to other events. It is the largest and most visible musical ensemble at t ...

and University of Tennessee Pride of the Southland Band. The halftime show announcement initially generated controversy. Under the original halftime show plans, the Hawkeye Marching Band were to play only during pregame and the Pride of the Southland Band were to only play during halftime. This was a change from previous editions of the Citrus Bowl, which allotted time for both marching bands to play during pregame and halftime. In addition to negative social media reactions (using the hashtag "LetTheBandsPlay") receiving coverage from Iowa and Tennessee media outlets, a

Change.org Change.org is a website which allows users to create and sign petitions in an attempt to advance various social causes by raising awareness and influencing decision-makers. The site is a US-based for-profit company and claims to have 551 million ...

petition protesting the change (as well as similar developments in the 2023 Pop-Tarts Bowl and 2023 Frisco Bowl) obtained over 5,000 signatures a day after posting. On December 10, The Citrus Bowl announced on their Twitter and Facebook pages that both marching bands would now play at pregame and halftime, issuing the following statement:

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Tennessee Volunteers bowl game navbox

Citrus Bowl (game) Iowa Hawkeyes football bowl games Tennessee Volunteers football bowl games