The first Music City Bowl was played at
Vanderbilt Stadium in
1998. Beginning in
1999, the game was moved to the recently completed
Adelphia Coliseum (now known as Nissan Stadium) in
Nashville, Tennessee, the home stadium of the newly renamed
Tennessee Titans.
American General Life & Accident (now a subsidiary of
AIG) sponsored the inaugural 1998 game, and the now-defunct "homepoint.com" sponsored the 1999 game. There was no sponsor in
2000 or
2001. In
2002, with title sponsorship from Nashville-based
Gaylord Hotels, the game became known as the
Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl. In
2003,
Bridgestone became the presenting sponsor of the game, and its full title became the
Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl presented by Bridgestone. Bridgestone dropped its presenting sponsorship following the
2007 game. Beginning with the
2010 game,
Franklin American Mortgage served as title sponsor, with Gaylord continuing as a major sponsor of the event. In December 2019, it was announced that
TransPerfect, a
New York City-based translation services company, would take over title sponsorship of the bowl for the
2020 through 2025 playings. The 2020 edition, slated for December 30 between
Missouri and
Iowa, was cancelled on December 27 due to
COVID-19 issues within Missouri's program.
Conference tie-ins The game initially featured a matchup between representatives of the
Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the
Big East Conference. The Big East was replaced by the
Big Ten Conference in 2002. Beginning with the 2006 game, the Big Ten was replaced by the
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The ACC also took part in the 2005 game, when
Virginia appeared because the SEC did not have enough bowl-eligible teams. For six seasons beginning in 2014, the Music City Bowl shared its tie in with the
Gator Bowl (also known as the TaxSlayer Bowl for several playings), to match an SEC team with either an ACC or Big Ten team. In June 2019, the Music City Bowl announced an extension to their agreement with the SEC, and an agreement for the Big Ten to provide teams for the 2020 through 2025 seasons. ==Game results==