Beef ' O ' Brady ' s Bowl The Beef ' O ' Brady ' s Bowl ( formerly the St . Petersburg Bowl ) is an NCAA - sanctioned post - season college football bowl game that has been played annually at Tropicana Field in St . Petersburg , Florida , since 2008 . It was first played known as the magicJack St . Petersburg Bowl , after corporate sponsor magicJack . When Beef O ' Brady ' s became the sponsor in 2009 , the official name was changed to the St . Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef ' O ' Brady ' s . The bowl game features teams from the Big East Conference and Conference USA , unless one of the conferences does not have enough bowl eligible teams , in which case the MAC or Sun Belt Conference are eligible to send a team . History . The Beef O ' Brady ' s Bowl is the third college bowl game to be played in the Tampa Bay area ; both the long - defunct Cigar Bowl and the ongoing Outback Bowl have been held across the bay in Tampa . On April 30 , 2008 , the NCAA ' s Postseason Football Licensing Subcommittee approved a to - be - named bowl for Tropicana Field to be played after the 2008 college football season . On November 25 , 2008 , ESPN Regional Television , the game ' s owner , announced a one - year title sponsorship agreement with magicJack . The inaugural game was played on Dec 20 , 2008 , between the South Florida Bulls and Memphis Tigers , with the USF Bulls winning by a score of 41 – 14 . USF Quarterback Matt Grothe was named Most Outstanding Player , after throwing for 236 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 83 yards on 15 carries . Both the UCF Knights and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights accepted bids to play in the 2009 St . Petersburg Bowl on December 19 , 2009 . On December 9 , 2009 , the bowl ' s name was changed to the St . Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef O ' Brady ' s after the restaurant chain obtained a title sponsorship . In the second St . Petersburg Bowl , Rutgers defeated Central Florida 45 - 24 . The 2010 Beef ' O ' Brady ' s bowl pitted the Southern Miss Golden Eagles against the Louisville Cardinals on December 21 , 2010 . It was the 29th meeting between former Conference USA rivals . After falling behind 14 – 0 and 21 – 7 , Louisville came back to win their sixth contest in a row against Southern Miss , 31 – 28 The 2011 Beef ' O ' Brady ' s Bowl featured the first Sun Belt conference team to play in the game , as Florida International lost 20 - 10 to Marshall ( Conference USA ) . This was the first time that the Big East was unable to send a team to the game . Stadium . Since Tropicana Field was originally designed for baseball , the football gridiron is arranged along the right field line , from home plate to the foul pole . The game is one of three to take place in a baseball - only stadium among current post - season football contests ; the others are the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl ( see the Emerald Bowl ) , played at San Francisco ' s AT & T Park , the home of the San Francisco Giants , and Yankee Stadium , home of the New York Yankees , hosting the Pinstripe Bowl . Between 2000 and 2005 , the Insight Bowl was played at the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks , Chase Field ( see Bank One Ballpark ) in Phoenix , Arizona after being moved from Tucson , while the 2001 Seattle Bowl was played at Safeco Field while CenturyLink Field was being built on the site of the Kingdome . Original plans had the Military Bowl ( see Eaglebank Bowl ) in Washington being played at Nationals Park , but the game has been played at RFK Stadium instead .