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 December 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 five of the last seven years.

The Valero Alamo Bowl has hosted 20 bowl games and three Big 12 Football Championship games at the Alamodome in San Antonio. These 23 games have attracted over 1.35 million spectators (over 50% are out-of-town visitors), generated a direct economic impact in excess of $394 million, contributed over $78 million to higher education, distributed over $1,000,000 in local scholarship funds and been viewed by over 155 million national television viewers on ESPN and ABC.

The 20th Annual Valero Alamo Bowl lived up to its billing as #23 Texas overcame a 10 point second half deficit to beat #13 Oregon State 31-27. Two dramatic touchdowns from Longhorn wide receiver Marquise Goodwin and a bowl record 4.5 sacks from defensive end Alex Okafor keyed the comeback in front of a standing room only crowd of 65,277. It was the fourth highest attendance in Valero Alamo Bowl history. The game was also the seventh game in the last eight where the outcome wasn't decided until the final two minutes.

Over 6.75 million viewers watech the 2012 game making it ESPN's 14th Most-Watched Non-BCS Bowl Game of all-time. The Valero Alamo Bowl has produced five of the Top 15 Most-Watched Non-BCS Bowl Games in ESPN history including #1 (2010 Texas Tech vs. Michigan State), #2 (2006 Texas vs. Iowa), #6 (2005 Michigan vs. Nebraska), #11 (2011 Washington vs. Baylor) and #14.

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.

To view Valero Alamo Bowl individual and team records as well as attendance and TV ratings information, please click here.

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