Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl Teams Up with SEC
New bowl agreement with SEC starts in 2020
TAMPA, Fla. (June 4, 2019) – The Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl and the Southeastern Conference (SEC) have signed an agreement that incorporates the SEC in the upcoming bowl cycle, beginning in 2020, and continues for six years. The Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl is owned-and-operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN.
“We are excited to announce this new relationship and look forward to hosting an SEC team in our game,” said Brett Dulaney, Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl Executive Director. “Our bowl staff, committee members and community partners have worked hard since our game’s inception in 2008 to establish our reputation and put us in a position to forge a relationship with the SEC.”
Only once in the bowl’s history has a team from the SEC played in the game. The bowl hosted Mississippi State in 2016, in which game MVP Nick Fitzgerald and stout special teams play led the Bulldogs to a thrilling 17-16 win over Miami (Ohio). Head Coach Dan Mullen heaped tremendous praise for the bowl in his post game press conference.
“It’s an unbelievable experience,” said Mullen at the 2016 post bowl game press conference. “Having never been here before, the hospitality was fantastic. Maybe as good a bowl that we’ve been to. Everything we did was absolutely first class.”
The SEC will maintain its current bowl selection process in which the Citrus Bowl has the first selection of available SEC teams after any conference schools have qualified for the College Football Playoff, the Allstate Sugar Bowl or the Capital One Orange Bowl, after which the SEC assigns teams to a Pool of Six bowls.
After the Pool of Six selection process is complete, the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl and Birmingham Bowl will collaborate on the selection of remaining eligible teams each year.
The Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl will be played at Raymond James Stadium for the second consecutive year in 2019. In addition to being the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Raymond James Stadium hosted Super Bowls XXXV and XLIII, as well as the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship. It will also host Super Bowl LV on February 7, 2021.
About Bad Boy Mowers
Bad Boy Mowers, located in the heart of the Ozark Mountains in Batesville, Arkansas, has built its reputation on delivering a better zero-turn mower for a better value, and is currently celebrating its 17th year of business. Bad Boy’s reputation for reliability, power and durability has been built into every mower made from the very beginning. Delivering more innovation, from the patented Swing-Away™ design, EZ-Ride™ and Armor-Tek 5 Deck™ advantages, and coupled with its legendary build strength, every Bad Boy Mower is designed to be easy to operate, easy to maintain and last for years with its ruggedness, power and reliability. Bad Boy Mowers is sold through a nationwide dealer network (www.badboymowers.com).