The 2008 Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl was the eleventh edition of the college football bowl game played at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee. The game started at 2:30 pm US CST (2030 UTC) on Wednesday, December 31, 2008. The game, telecast on ESPN, pitted the Vanderbilt Commodores against the Boston College Eagles. The Commodores, playing near their Nashville campus, won 16–14, earned their first bowl win in exactly 53 years, and completed their first winning season since 1982.

For the Eagles, this game was the culmination of their tenth consecutive season in a bowl game, a school record. They also entered the game on a streak of eight consecutive bowl wins, the best in Division I FBS. They ended the regular season on a four-game winning streak, but missed out on a chance to gain a BCS berth with a 30-12 loss to Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship Game. The Eagles still had a major milestone to play for, as a win would have given them a third consecutive 10-win season for the first time in school history.

Vanderbilt's recent football history was practically a reverse image of BC's. The Commodores, long hampered by being the only private school in the Southeastern Conference, had gone without a winning season since 1982, and entered the 2008 campaign with only three winning seasons in the last 50 years. While BC was on a streak of 10 consecutive bowl appearances, this was Vandy's first bowl game since a trip to the Hall of Fame Bowl in 1982, and only the fourth in their history.

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