Texas Bowl Tickets

Texas Bowl
The Texas Bowl
The Texas Bowl is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I-A college football bowl game that took place for the first time in 2006 in Houston, Texas. The game replaced the Houston Bowl, which was played every year 2000 to 2005. The present Texas Bowl champions are the Rutgers, who defeated Kansas State in 2006.

Taking over of the Houston Bowl by the Texas Bowl
In 2005, there was great speculation on whether or not the Houston Bowl would survive as its three year contract with EV1 was expiring on December 31, 2005, leaving the game without a title sponsor. In addition the Houston Bowl owed about $600,000 to the Big 12 Conference and the Mountain West Conference following the 2005 game. Before the game's next season, the NCAA had approved Lone Star Sports and Entertainment, a division of the NFL's Houston Texans, who also play in Reliant Stadium, to take over game management. In July the NFL Network acquired both TV rights and naming rights to the bowl. The Texas Bowl officials referred to the game as "inaugural" and the official website also makes no mention of the Houston Bowl that it replaced.

The Texas Bowl name and logo were officially unveiled on August 10, 2006 at a press conference. The Big 12, Big East and Conference USA were all to be affiliated with the game, as well as Texas Christian University of the Mountain West. Rutgers accepted an invitation to play against Kansas State on December 28 at the Reliant Stadium. On May 17, 2007, Conference USA announced that it had secured a slot in the Texas Bowl, recently vacated by the Big East Conference.

Notes from the Rutgers Game 2006
With much hype attached to the Rutgers Vs Kansas State game scheduled for December 28, the Time Warner Cable agreed to carry the NFL Network free for at least the duration of the game. Then on December 22, Cablevision agreed to carry the game also. Neither cable company normally carried the NFL Network. This would enable Rutgers fans living in New York and New Jersey to watch the game.

New Jersey native Spero Dedes provided the commentary for the game on the NFL Network. However, his geographic knowledge of his home state was questionable as he made a number of erroneous comments related to the University. This included referring to Rutgers being in "South Jersey" at least four times during the broadcast and calling the campus location "South Brunswick" instead of "New Brunswick". Other blunders included referring to running back Ray Rice as "Way Wice" and tight end Clark Harris as "Cliff" Harris who was a safety for the Dallas Cowboys in the 70s.

In addition to an inaccurate commentary, the telecast itself underwent a few technical problems when the "1st & Ten" electronic yardage system malfunctioned several times. Also sideline reporter Marshall Faulk, failed to show up leaving the game with no reports from field level, which was unusual for a college football telecasts.