, current venue of the Birmingham Bowl The bowl marked the return of post-season football to the city of Birmingham, which previously hosted the
Dixie Bowl from 1947 to 1948, the
Hall of Fame Classic from 1977 to 1984 (which relocated to
Tampa and became the
Outback Bowl), and the
All-American Bowl from 1985 to 1990 (which was canceled when the
SEC Championship Game was awarded to the city). In the inaugural edition of the bowl, played on December 23, 2006, the
South Florida Bulls defeated the
East Carolina Pirates, 24–7, in front of a crowd of 32,023.
Running back Benjamin Williams of South Florida scored the bowl's first points on a 16-yard touchdown run less than two minutes into the game; he added a second touchdown during the first quarter and was named the game's MVP. After being held in December for its first three years, the fourth edition of the bowl was played in January 2010. As a result, there was no game during the 2009 calendar year. The bowl was subsequently played in January through its ninth edition, held in January 2015. The tenth edition of the bowl saw a return to December, resulting in two editions of the bowl being played during calendar year 2015. The bowl remained in December through its 13th edition, held in December 2018. The 14th edition of the bowl was held in January 2020, thus there was no game during calendar year 2019. The January 2021 edition of the bowl was cancelled due to an insufficient number of teams being available to fill all
2020–21 bowl games, following a season impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic. Since the December 2021 edition, the bowl has been played at
Protective Stadium.
Conference tie-ins The bowl originally had a four-year agreement with
Conference USA (C-USA) to match a representative of that conference against an opponent from the
Big East Conference, but the bowl's officials later appealed to the NCAA for a recertification which was granted in late April 2008. In 2008 and 2009, the bowl featured the ninth bowl-eligible team of the
Southeastern Conference (SEC) and a team from the Big East Conference. The game currently features teams from the SEC and the
American Athletic Conference (The American). Should either of these conferences not fulfill their bowl commitments, a team from C-USA or the
Mid-American Conference (MAC) will take their place, provided it is
bowl eligible. Otherwise, the game will choose an at-large team. This happened in 2008, when the SEC was unable to send a team; the bowl selected
North Carolina State of the
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) to face
Rutgers from the Big East, even though the bowl had an arrangement with the
Sun Belt Conference at the time, and that conference had at least one bowl-eligible team it could send. This occurred again in 2022 when the bid was brought down to the Sun Belt Conference.
Sponsorship From 2006 through 2010, the game was the PapaJohns.com Bowl, named after
Papa John's Pizza, who became the title sponsor signing a multi-year agreement in November 2006. On August 6, 2010, Papa John's announced it would not renew its sponsorship, after having secured a sponsorship deal with the
National Football League. The game was temporarily renamed the Birmingham Bowl until
BBVA Compass was announced as its title sponsor on November 4, 2010, officially changing its name to the BBVA Compass Bowl. The bowl was sponsored by BBVA through the January 2014 game, following which BBVA Compass declined to renew its sponsorship, and the game was subsequently renamed the Birmingham Bowl. The 2018 edition was sponsored by the Jared brand of
Sterling Jewelers, and the 2019–2022 editions were sponsored by TicketSmarter. On November 30, 2023, the
76 chain of gas stations was announced as the new sponsor of the game. This arrangement was in place for just one edition of the game. In September 2025, a four-year sponsorship agreement with
JLab Audio was announced. ==Game results==