New Orleans Bowl

2001 Running ESPN

The New Orleans Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana since 2001. The game was sponsored by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from 2002 to 2004 and was officially called the Wyndham New Orleans Bowl. R+L Carriers replaced Wyndham as the sponsor in 2006, and thus it became officially known as the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. In 2001, the Sun Belt Conference signed a temporary contract to play against the 5th-ranked team from the Mountain West Conference. Beginning in 2002, the New Orleans Bowl established conference tie-ins with the Sun Belt and Conference USA. The Sun Belt usually sends its conference champion to the New Orleans Bowl, but can (and has) sent the champion to the GoDaddy Bowl. In 2010, Ohio represented the Mid-American Conference in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, after the Bowl released UTEP to compete in the regional Gildan New Mexico Bowl. In 2011 and 2014 the Mountain West replaced Conference USA as the opponent to the Sun Belt representative The Sun Belt and Conference USA are currently under contract to contribute teams to the bowl through the 2017 game.