page_title: Orange Bowl
section_title: Modern game
hierarchical_section_title: Orange Bowl / History / Modern game
caption_attribution_description: John F. Kennedy at the Orange Bowl
context_page_description: The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. The Orange Bowl is one of the New Year's Six, the top bowl games for the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.
  The Orange Bowl was originally held in the city of Miami at Miami Field before moving to the Miami Orange Bowl stadium in 1938. In 1996, it moved to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Since December 2014, the game has been sponsored by Capital One and officially known as the Capital One Orange Bowl. Previous sponsors include Discover Financial and Federal Express/FedEx.
  In its early years, the Orange Bowl had no defined conference tie-ins; it often pitted a team from the southeastern part of the country against a team from the central or northeastern states. From the 1950s until the mid-1990s, the Orange Bowl had a strong relationship with the Big Eight Conference.
context_section_description: The Orange Bowl was played at Miami Field (located where Miami Orange Bowl was later built) from 1935 to 1937, the Miami Orange Bowl from 1938 to 1996, and again in 1999, and was moved to its current site, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, in December 1996. The game was played back at the namesake stadium in 1999 (which would be the final bowl game ever in the Miami Orange Bowl) because the game was played on the same day the Miami Dolphins hosted an NFL Wild Card Playoff game. Coincidentally, both of those games were aired on ABC.
  On January 1, 1965, the Texas vs. Alabama Orange Bowl was the first college bowl game to be televised live in prime time.
  From 1968, the game usually featured the champion of the former Big Eight Conference. When the Big Eight Conference absorbed four members of the defunct Southwest Conference in 1996, the newly formed Big 12 Conference moved its conference champion tie-in to the Fiesta Bowl. Since 1998, however, with the creation of the Bowl Championship Series system, team selection for the Orange Bowl is now tied into the other three BCS Bowls.
  From 1998 to 2005, the game hosted the champion of either the ACC or Big East conferences, unless they were invited to the National Championship game, or if the Orange Bowl itself was hosting the national championship matchup.
  Starting with the 2006 season, the Orange Bowl has been exclusively tied with the ACC and has used the brand Home of the ACC Champion. As one of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games, the site of the Orange Bowl also hosted the national championship game one week after the Orange Bowl game; it did so on a four-year rotating basis with the other three BCS games (the others being the Sugar, Fiesta, and Rose Bowls). The tie-in with the ACC continued with the inception of the College Football Playoff after the 2014 season. It hosts the ACC champion in the years that it is not a national semifinal, unless the ACC champion is selected for the College Football Playoff.
caption: President John F. Kennedy (lower center) at the Orange Bowl, 1963
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