Outback Bowl Betting History

The Outback Bowl is played annually on New Year’s Day in Tampa, Florida. This event was originally called the Hall of Fame Bowl from 1986 to 1994 before being renamed the Outback Bowl under new sponsorship in 1995. In the event that New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on January 2 on Monday instead.

When it was the Hall of Fame Bowl, this bowl game had no formal tie-ins, usually grabbing a team from the Southeastern Conference or the Atlantic Coast Conference to play a team from another part of the nation. Since becoming the Outback Bowl in 1995, the game has had agreements locked in with the SEC and Big Ten. From 1995 to 2016, the SEC held a 13-8 lead in this head-to-head series.

From 2011 to 2014, betting underdogs in the Outback Bowl had a nice run of 4-0 ATS with two outright upsets. That stretch came to an end at the heels of back-to-back blowout wins by SEC favorites, with Tennessee beating Northwestern 45-9 as 9.5-point chalk at the end of the 2015 season and Florida winning 30-3 as a 2.5-point favorite over Iowa at the end of 2016.

The January 1, 2000, Outback Bowl was dubbed “The First Sporting Event of the Millennium.” Despite being on the losing end of a game that saw Georgia come from behind to tie and win the game 28-25 in overtime, Purdue’s Drew Brees won the MVP award with 378 passing yards and four passing touchdowns.

In a more recent Outback Bowl overtime thriller, Melvin Gordon scored the MVP award in 2014 with 251 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in Wisconsin’s 34-31 win over Auburn.

This year’s Outback Bowl will see the Iowa Hawkeyes take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs. For the latest odds, a free pick and handicapping information, visit our Outback Bowl Game Center.