Hawaii Bowl


The Hawaiʻi Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played annually at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, since 2002. The bowl is one of the post-season contests run by ESPN Events. Since 2018, the game has been sponsored by the personal finance company SoFi and officially known as the SoFi Hawai'i Bowl. Previous sponsors include ConAgra Foods and Sheraton Hotels and Resorts Hawaii.
Typically played on or near Christmas Eve, the bowl normally features a team from the Mountain West Conference, playing a team from either the American Athletic Conference or Conference USA. For practical and logistical reasons, the Mountain West bid is automatically awarded to the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors if the team is bowl-eligible, and was not selected to play in a New Year's Six bowl game. This means that the Rainbow Warriors do not have to travel to the mainland for a bowl game unless it is of significant importance. As a result of this practice, they have also made the most appearances in the game, at nine.

Bowl games in Hawaii

The Hawaii Bowl is not affiliated with other bowl games previously staged in Hawaii: the Poi Bowl, Pineapple Bowl, Aloha Bowl, and Oahu Bowl, or the Hula Bowl all-star game. While the Aloha Bowl tried to move to San Francisco, California, and was decertified by the NCAA, the Oahu Bowl was moved to Seattle, Washington, and was held for two years as the Seattle Bowl before losing certification in 2002.

Game history

In its first year, the Hawai'i Bowl was sponsored by ConAgra Foods. The following year, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts Hawaii assumed sponsorship; the game's full name was changed to the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl until Sheraton declined to renew sponsorship in 2014. In 2018, SoFi signed on as title sponsor of the game which is officially known as the SoFi Hawai'i Bowl.
The current Mountain West tie-in was held by the Western Athletic Conference until 2012, when the WAC ceased sponsoring college football, and Hawaii moved to the Mountain West.
The first two editions were played on the Aloha Bowl's traditional Christmas Day date, but ESPN's acquisition of NBA rights came with the league's Christmas Day games, thus the game moved to Christmas Eve after 2004 in most years.
The 2005 appearance of the UCF Knights at the Hawaii Bowl was the first ever bowl game in that school's history. In 2006, the Pac-10 replaced Conference USA as the WAC's opposition, with C-USA as an alternate. Since Christmas Eve fell on a Monday in 2007, the game was scheduled for the night prior to avoid a conflict with Monday Night Football. In 2008, the bowl organizers selected Notre Dame as an at-large bid, marking the first time an independent played in the contest. C-USA again became a primary tie-in starting in 2009. The 2011 game featured the C-USA champion for the first time, as Southern Mississippi played instead of going to the Liberty Bowl, where the C-USA champion typically plays. The bowl featured the Mountain West champion for the first time in 2015, as San Diego State played instead of going to the Las Vegas Bowl, where the Mountain West champion typically plays.
Between 2002 and 2018, C-USA sent a team to the bowl 12 times, registering an 8–4 record. In 2019, the American Athletic Conference superseded C-USA as the primary tie-in to face a Mountain West team.

Tenth Anniversary Team (2011)

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Hawai'i Bowl, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, in conjunction with the bowl game, allowed fans to vote on a tenth anniversary team. Nine players were selected by a public vote, and an additional seven players were picked by a panel of sportswriters and organizers. The team was announced on December 16, 2011.

Game results

MVPs

Source:

Most appearances

Updated through the December 2019 edition.
;Teams with multiple appearances
;Teams with a single appearance
Won: East Carolina, Louisiana Tech, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Rice, San Diego State, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa
Lost: Arizona State, BYU, Cincinnati, Middle Tennessee, UAB, UCF

Appearances by conference

Updated through the December 2019 edition.

Media coverage

The bowl has been televised on ESPN since its inception.