The Valero Alamo Bowl was created in 1993 with the following mission statement: "To stage a premier college football game as the showcase of an annual festival of events that will bring enjoyment to South Texans, San Antonians and visitors alike while driving positive national attention to San Antonio and supporting higher education and other worthy causes in our community."

December means more than Christmas lights and jingle bells to San Antonio. Since the first game in 1993, the Valero Alamo Bowl has created excitement and pageantry in San Antonio that wraps up the end of the month with thrilling games in front of capacity crowds and record television ratings.

The Valero Alamo Bowl showcases two of the premier conferences in the country, the Big 12 and Pac-12. The Bowl has quickly become one of the most popular bowls in the country, producing some of the most-watched bowl games in ESPN history while selling out four of the last six years.

Over the last 19 years, the Valero Alamo Bowl has hosted 19 bowl games and three Big 12 Football Championship games in the Alamodome in San Antonio. These 22 games have attracted over 1.3 million spectators (over 50% are out-of-town visitors), generated a direct economic impact in excess of $360 million, contributed nearly $69 million to higher education, distributed $888,000 in local scholarship funds and been viewed by over 150 million national television viewers on ESPN and ABC.

The 2011 game between Baylor and Washington brought the game's first reigning Heisman to town in Bear Robert Griffin III. Three other Heisman winners played a college game in San Antonio (Charles Woodson: 1995 Alamo Bowl; Eric Crouch 1999 Big 12 Championship and 2000 Alamo Bowl; and Sam Bradford 2009 Big 12 Championship) but only before they won the award.

The buzz leading up to 2011 game rivaled the media attention Mike Leach's firing provided the January 2, 2011 match-up between Texas Tech and Michigan State. That game was the fifth straight game where the outcome wasn't decided until the final two minutes. It also received the honor of being the "most-watched bowl game in ESPN history" as over 7.8 million viewers tuned into the ESPN broadcast. 

The Alamodome record sports crowd of 66,166 belongs to the 2007 Valero Alamo Bowl between Penn State and Texas A&M translated into a bowl record $42.6 million direct economic impact for San Antonio. In 2006, the Alamo Bowl featured Texas and Iowa in a game that earned a 6.0 rating making it the at the time the most-watched college football game in ESPN history.

To download a snapshot of all the previous Alamo Bowl games including attendance and TV rating records, please click here.

From NCAA record-breaking performances like Nebraska's 66 points in 2000 to thrilling finishes like Drew Brees leading Purdue in an 80 yard touchdown drive to overtake Kansas State in 1998 in the final seconds, the Valero Alamo Bowl deliver feelings you'll never forget. everyone.

The 19th annual Valero Alamo Bowl will held on December 29, 2011. The game will televised internationally on ESPN HD as well as heard on ESPN Radio.

For information on past Alamo Bowls, please click the respective links below: