Bowl Challenge Cup

Template:Short description The Bowl Challenge Cup is a competition among NCAA college football conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly called Division I-A, based on win–loss records in the bowl games that take place annually during December and January. The winner is the conference that has the highest winning percentage, among conferences with a minimum of three teams appearing in bowl games.

The Challenge was created in 2002 by ESPN, who also occasionally refers to it as the "Bowl Cup Challenge" when promoting it. Originally sponsored by Cooper Tire, ESPN went several years without a sponsor; since the 2015–16 bowl season, Progressive has been the sponsor.

Participants

The ten Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) conferences that compete in the Bowl Challenge Cup are:

Power Five

• Atlantic Coast Conference
• Big Ten Conference
• Big 12 Conference
• Pac-12 ConferenceTemplate:Dagger
• Southeastern Conference

Group of Five

• American Athletic Conference
• Conference USA
• Mid-American Conference
• Mountain West Conference
• Sun Belt Conference

Template:Dagger As of the 2024 season, the Pac-12 lacks a sufficient number of teams to meet the minimum number of bowl games required for Bowl Challenge Cup honors.

Former conferences that competed in the Bowl Challenge Cup were:

• Big East Conference, which reorganized as the American Athletic Conference after the 2012 season
• Western Athletic Conference, which has not sponsored football in FBS since the 2012 season

Results

Bowl Challenge Cup champions

Bowl season	Conference	W	L	Win %	Ref.
2002–03	Big Ten	Template:WinLossPct
2003–04	ACC	Template:WinLossPct
2004–05	Mountain West	Template:WinLossPct
2005–06	ACC	Template:WinLossPct
	Big 12	Template:WinLossPct
2006–07	Big East	Template:WinLossPct
2007–08	Mountain West	Template:WinLossPct
2008–09	Pacific-10	Template:WinLossPct
2009–10	Mountain West	Template:WinLossPct
2010–11	Mountain West	Template:WinLossPct
2011–12	Conference USA	Template:WinLossPct
	MAC	Template:WinLossPct
2012–13	Conference USA	Template:WinLossPct
2013–14	SEC	Template:WinLossPct
2014–15	Conference USA	Template:WinLossPct
2015–16	SEC	Template:WinLossPct
2016–17	ACC	Template:WinLossPct
2017–18	Big Ten	Template:WinLossPct
2018–19	Conference USA	Template:WinLossPct
2019–20	SEC	Template:WinLossPct
2020–21	Big 12	Template:WinLossPct
2021–22	Mountain West	Template:WinLossPct
2022–23	MAC	Template:WinLossPct
2023–24	Big Ten	Template:WinLossPct
2024–25	American	Template:WinLossPct

Number of Bowl Challenge Cup championships

Conference	Times	Championships
Mountain West	5	2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2021–22
Conference USA (C-USA)	3+1⁄2	2011–12, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2018–19
Big Ten	3	2002–03, 2017–18, 2023–24
Southeastern (SEC)	3	2013–14, 2015–16, 2019–20
Atlantic Coast (ACC)	2+1⁄2	2003–04, 2005–06, 2016–17
American (Big East to 2013)	2	2006–07, 2024–25
Big 12	1+1⁄2	2005–06, 2020–21
Mid-American (MAC)	1+1⁄2	2011–12, 2022–23
Pac-12 (Pacific-10 to 2010)	1	2008–09
Sun Belt	0

Italics designate a shared title (tie).

External links

• Bowl Challenge Cup trophy via Shutterstock