GMAC Bowl

GMAC Bowl

The GoDaddy.com Bowl is a postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FFBS college football bowl game that has been played annually at Ladd Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama since 1999. The game currently matches teams from the Sun Belt Conference and the Mid-American Conference, and will through 2013.

The game was previously known as the Mobile Alabama Bowl from 1999 to 2000. It was then known as the GMAC Bowl from 2000 to 2010 when its corporate sponsorship was GMAC Financial Services. From 1999 to 2009, the bowl pitted a Conference USA team against a team from either the Mid-American Conference or the Western Athletic Conference. For the 2010 game the Atlantic Coast Conference was to participate in the bowl as its ninth bowl tie-in. The ACC failed to have sufficient bowl-eligible teams to fill the slot, and the bowl chose Sun Belt conference champion Troy as a replacement. The Mid-American Conference was the other conference tie-in.

The 2001 game between the Marshall Thundering Herd and East Carolina Pirates set the record as the highest scoring bowl game of all time, and Marshall achieved what was then the greatest scoring comeback in Bowl history. In this contest, Marshall battled back from a 38–8 deficit to win 64–61 in double overtime. Thundering Herd quarterback Byron Leftwich threw for 576 yards in the game.

The 2007 edition of the game was played on January 7, 2007, making it the next-to-last bowl game in the 2006–07 bowl season prior to the BCS National Championship Game the following night. The Golden Eagles of Southern Mississippi knocked off the Ohio Bobcats, 28–7. The 2008 edition of the contest took place the night before the BCS National Championship Game once again on Sunday, January 6, 2008. The game became the largest blowout in bowl history, with Tulsa beating Bowling Green, 63–7.

On October 18, 2010, it was announced that the GMAC Bowl was renamed the GoDaddy.com Bowl. The 2013 edition of the GoDaddy.com Bowl will be played on January 6, 2013 and will feature No. 25 Kent State from the MAC, and Arkansas State from the Sun Belt.