Alamo Bowl

Alamo Bowl
Valero Alamo Bowl
Stadium	Alamodome
Location	San Antonio, Texas
Operated	1993–present
Conference tie-ins	Big 12 (1995–present) Pac-12 (1993–1994; 2010–present)
Previous conference tie-ins	Southwest (1993–1994) Big Ten (1995–2009)
Payout	US$3,825,000 (As of 2015[update])
Sponsors
Builders Square (1993–1998) Sylvania (1999–2001) MasterCard (2002–2005) Valero Energy Corporation (2007–present)
Former names
Builders Square Alamo Bowl (1993–1998) Sylvania Alamo Bowl (1999–2001) Alamo Bowl Presented By MasterCard (2002) MasterCard Alamo Bowl (2003–2005) Alamo Bowl (2006)
January 2016 matchup
Oregon vs. TCU (TCU 47–41)
December 2016 matchup
Colorado vs. Oklahoma State (December 29, 2016)

The Alamo Bowl is a NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The current champions are the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and the third choice team from the Big 12 Conference.

Traditionally, the Alamo Bowl has been played in December, although there have been three instance where it was played in January; the games following the 2009, 2014, and 2015 seasons were played early in the next calendar year.

The game was previously known as the Builders Square Alamo Bowl (1993–1998), the Sylvania Alamo Bowl (1999–2001) and the MasterCard Alamo Bowl (2002–2005). The logo of the event has evolved to reflect the changes in sponsorship. On May 24, 2007 the Alamo Bowl announced a partnership with San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corporation, and thus the bowl's full name was changed to the Valero Alamo Bowl.

The game originally gave an automatic invite to a team from the now-defunct Southwest Conference (SWC). However, in 1993, only two of the eight SWC teams finished with the necessary 6 wins against Division I-A teams to become bowl-eligible (and those two teams were already committed to other bowls). The Alamo Bowl invited the Iowa Hawkeyes instead. The SWC was able to provide teams for the next two seasons (Baylor Bears in 1994 and Texas A&M Aggies in 1995) before the conference disbanded.

During the 1996 Alamo Bowl, the Iowa Hawkeyes wore plain black helmets (removing their tigerhawk logo and gold stripe) in honor of linebacker Mark Mitchell's mother, who died in a car accident while traveling to San Antonio for the game.