Famous Idaho Potato Bowl The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is an NCAA - sanctioned post - season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 1997 at Bronco Stadium on the campus of Boise State University in Boise , Idaho . Beginning in 2013 , the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl will match a team from the Mountain West Conference against a team from the Mid - American Conference . The game is televised nationally on the ESPN family of networks . Cincinnati defeated Utah State , 35 – 19 , in the inaugural game in 1997 . The current Potato Bowl champions are the Utah State Aggies ; they defeated the Toledo Rockets 41 – 15 in the 2012 game . History . For its first four years , the then - named Humanitarian Bowl offered an automatic bid to the Big West Conference champion , after that conference lost its contract with the Las Vegas Bowl . From 1997 to 1999 , the opponent was a team from Conference USA , while in 2000 an at - large was chosen . Beginning in 2000 and continuing until 2012 , the automatic bid was given to the Western Athletic Conference , with the bid going to the conference ' s champion unless that team qualified for the Bowl Championship Series or was chosen by another bowl , or if Hawai ' i was the WAC champion ( Hawai ' i has an automatic tie in to the Hawai ' i Bowl , played in their home stadium , if it is bowl eligible ) . From 2000 until 2008 , the Atlantic Coast Conference was to provide an opponent if it had enough bowl - eligible teams ; otherwise an at - large would be chosen . In 2009 , the Mountain West Conference replaced the ACC as the WAC ' s opponent , but ended its agreement after one season . For the 2010 playing , the Humanitarian Bowl inherited the MAC ' s International Bowl tie - in after the Toronto - based bowl folded , and have continued to keep it . After the 2012 season , the WAC stopped sponsoring football and the bowl committee announced that the Mountain West ( Boise State ' s home since 2011 ) would return to playing in the bowl . Boise State , the game ' s host school , holds the record for most bowl wins with three . Fresno State and Idaho also have multiple wins , with two each . Boise State ' s four appearances are the most of any team . Sponsors . The game was sponsored by Micron Technology , an Idaho - based manufacturer , from 1999 to 2002 under the name Crucial . com , which sold computer memory upgrades from Micron . The bowl game then briefly had no sponsor for the January 2004 game . In December 2004 , the name was changed to the MPC Computers Bowl . MPC Computers , which is also based in Idaho , was formerly MicronPC , the computer manufacturing division of Micron , but was later split off as a separate company . In April 2007 , it was announced that the bowl will again be called the Humanitarian Bowl . In May 2007 , Boise - based Roady ' s Truck Stops was announced as the new sponsor , thus renaming the game the Roady ' s Humanitarian Bowl . On May 25 , 2010 , mobile business application , uDrove became the sponsor of the Humanitarian Bowl , signing a four - year agreement to replace Roady ' s . On August 3 , 2011 The Idaho Potato Commission signed six - year naming rights deal to sponsor the bowl , renaming it the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl . With fifteen games played through 2011 , it is the longest running cold weather bowl game currently in operation . The payout is $ 750 , 000 , but teams are required to provide a corporate sponsor , purchase a minimum number of tickets , and stay at a selected hotel for a minimum stay . Because of this , 7 – 4 UCLA declined an invitation to the 2001 Humanitarian Bowl . Beginning in 2008 , the Humanitarian Bowl ( in conjunction with the Truckload Carriers Association ) featured a " Highway Angel " , a truck driver who performed a heroic feat to save the life of another motorist . The 2008 Highway Angel , Leonard T . " Lenny " Roach , pulled a driver from a water - filled ditch near South Bend , Indiana , even though the wind chill factor was . The 2009 Highway Angel , Michael Hunt , used his truck to push away a vehicle ( and its driver ) from a fiery collision near Spring Lake , North Carolina which had already claimed the life of the other driver . The 2010 Highway Angel , Shawn L . Hubbard was honored on December 18 , 2010 . While driving his truck near Diamond Bar , California , Hubbard came upon a fiery car crash in which the driver was deceased , but the passenger was still alive and trapped in the burning car . Hubbard freed the passenger and pulled him from the vehicle just moments before it was completely engulfed in flames . The 2011 Highway Angel , Marcus Beam , received his award on December 17 , 2011 . Beam was driving near Benson , North Carolina when he observed a speeding car strike another vehicle , causing the second car to overturn and roll down an embankment . While other motorists watched without offering help , Beam freed the female driver from the wreckage , and pulled two small children from the mangled vehicle as well . The 2012 Highway Angel , Kenny Cass , was honored on December 15 , 2012 . Cass was driving in Portland , Oregon when he witnessed a pick - up truck rear - end a 53 ’ tractor trailer and become wedged up to its windshield under the trailer . Cass made the scene safe by placing emergency triangles on the road , freed the pick - up truck driver from his vehicle while smoke billowed from beneath the truck and tended to the drivers wounds until emergency personnel arrived 20 minutes later . Game results .