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California Bowl

American college football bowl game

| previous_tie-ins = | conference_tie-ins = PCAA/Big West, MAC

The California Bowl (later the California Raisin Bowl) was a post-season college football bowl game played annually at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California, from 1981 to 1991. The game featured the champions of the Big West Conference (known prior to 1988 as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association) and the Mid-American Conference.

In 1988, the California Raisin Advisory Board purchased the naming rights to the bowl.

The game was dealt a severe blow in 1992 when Fresno State moved to the Western Athletic Conference. The MAC and Big West then moved their tie-ins to Las Vegas, Nevada and created the Las Vegas Bowl. The California Bowl made plans to hold the 1992 game without tie-ins, but was unable to find a new sponsor. When organizers came up short of a $1.75 million fundraising goal, the NCAA pulled the bowl's certification. It has never returned.

Game results

Date played	Winning team	Losing team	Notes
December 19, 1981	Toledo	27	No. 20 San Jose State
December 18, 1982	Fresno State	29	Bowling Green
December 17, 1983	Northern Illinois	20	Cal State Fullerton
December 15, 1984	Toledo *	13	UNLV
December 14, 1985	No. 18 Fresno State	51	No. 20 Bowling Green
December 13, 1986	No. 19 San Jose State	37	Miami (OH)
December 12, 1987	Eastern Michigan	30	San Jose State
December 10, 1988	Fresno State	35	Western Michigan
December 9, 1989	Fresno State	27	Ball State
December 8, 1990	No. 25 San Jose State	48	Central Michigan
December 14, 1991	Bowling Green	28	Fresno State

UNLV won this game, but subsequently forfeited its entire schedule due to the use of ineligible players earlier in the season.

MVPs

Season	MVP	Position
1981
1982	Jeff Tedford	QB
1983	Lou Wicks	FB
1984
1985	Mike Mancini	P
1986	Mike Perez	QB
Andy Marlatt
1987	Gary Patton	RB
1988	Darrell Rosette	RB
1989	Ron Cox	LB
1990
1991

Appearances by team

Rank	Team	Appearances	Record	Win %
1	Fresno State Bulldogs}}	[	5	4–1	.800
2	San Jose State Spartans}}	[	4	2–2	.500
3	Bowling Green Falcons}}	[	3	1–2	.333
4	Toledo Rockets}}	[	2	2–0	1.000
T5	Eastern Michigan Eagles}}	[	1	1–0	1.000
T5	Northern Illinois Huskies}}	[	1	1–0	1.000
T5	Ball State Cardinals}}	[	1	0–1	.000
T5	Cal State Fullerton Titans}}	[	1	0–1	.000
T5	Central Michigan Chippewas}}	[	1	0–1	.000
T5	Miami RedHawks}}	[	1	0–1	.000
T5	UNLV Rebels}}	[	1	0–1	.000
T5	Western Michigan Broncos}}	[	1	0–1	.000

Appearances by conference

Rank	Conference	Appearances	Record	Win %	# of Teams	Teams
T1	Big West	11	6–5	.545	4	Fresno State (4–1)

T1	MAC	11	5–6	.455	8	Bowling Green (1–2)

References

Foldesy, Jody. "Bowls burgeon as big business", ''The Washington Times''. December 21, 1997. Page A1.
"Archives".
[https://web.archive.org/web/20101220040130/http://espn.go.com/ncf/topics/_/page/las-vegas-bowl] "history"

Info: Wikipedia Source

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