History
The game, which began play in 1947, is one of the oldest of the non-BCS bowls, along with the Gator Bowl, Cotton Bowl Classic and Sun Bowl. The first game played before an estimated crowd of 9,000. By 1952, the game was dubbed the "Little Bowl with the Big Heart," because all the proceeds from the game went to charity. Before 1968 the game featured matchups between schools throughout the South, often featuring the Ohio Valley Conference champion or other small colleges (though a few major colleges did play in the bowl during this early era as well). After becoming a major college bowl game, from 1968 through 1975 the bowl featured the Mid-American Conference champion against an opponent from the Southern Conference (through 1972), the SEC (1972–1973) or an at-large opponent (1975). As the major football conferences relaxed restrictions on post-season play in the mid-1970s, the game went to a matchup between two at-large teams from major conferences, with one school typically (but not always) from the South. From 1987 to 1991, it featured the ACC champion against an at-large opponent. Since 1992, the game has featured one of the top teams from both the Big Ten and the SEC.
In 1986, it was one of the bowl games considered for the site of the "winner take all" national championship game between Penn State and Miami before the Fiesta Bowl was eventually chosen.
The 1991 game featured National Championship implications. Georgia Tech won the Florida Citrus Bowl, finished 11–0–1, and were voted the 1990 UPI national champion.
The 1998 game, which featured nearby Florida beating Penn State, holds the game's attendance record at 72,940. During the 1990s, the second-place finisher in the SEC (but not necessarily the loser of the SEC Championship Game) typically went to this bowl. Florida coach Steve Spurrier, speaking to the fact Tennessee occupied that spot three of four years as Florida finished first, famously quipped "You can't spell 'Citrus' without U-T!" In 1997, the Volunteers played for the last Bowl Alliance national championship in the Orange Bowl, and the Gators went to the Citrus Bowl, where it defeated Penn State 21-6. Florida defeated Tennessee 33-20 in the regular season, but were knocked out of the SEC East title race by losing to LSU and Georgia.
Read more about this topic: Capital One Bowl
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