For the fourth time in history, the UCF football team is headed to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area for a postseason bowl game, this time to play in the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.
UCF (9-3) will meet Conference USA representative Marshall (8-4) at 2:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Dec. 23, 2019, in 40,277-seat Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, in the Gasparilla Bowl.
What are the benefits of ordering through UCF?
The number of tickets UCF sells for a bowl game can help the athletic department present the best possible bowl scenario for the Knights. It is critical that UCF fans purchase bowl game tickets from UCFKnights.com, as institutional ticket purchases can impact future bowl opportunities. Here are a few reasons to order through UCF:
- Purchasing through UCF Athletics directly benefits your Knights financially.
- It strengthens UCF's candidacy for major bowl selection, now and into the future.
- By waiting to get tickets through secondary websites, you could impede UCF's profile and standing.
- It's important that we show the country how great UCF fans are!
- Know where you are sitting without risking secondary markets.
- Thousands of good tickets are available now! Get the best seats among multiple levels with fair prices.
- Everyone who orders bowl tickets through UCF will receive a commemorative spirit item.
IMPORTANT Ticket Information:
Fans have until 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, December 10 to purchase tickets using Priority Points HERE.
- All tickets are $85 regardless of location.
- Bowl game seating will be allocated by priority points. Ticket orders from fans who do not have priority points will be allocated in the order they are received after all priority point orders have been assigned.
- Seat locations for tickets purchased after the priority deadline will be assigned first come, first served if available.
- We are placing no limit on the amount of bowl tickets that can be ordered, however only the first 10 tickets will be based on priority point rankings. Any bowl tickets purchased beyond this amount will be seated AFTER all other priority seating is completed and will not be seated together.
- If you wish to be seated with other individuals, please complete the group request form HERE. Please note, groups will be seated based on the LOWEST priority in the group.
- No refunds or exchanges will be available.
We are expecting a high call volume, so all fans are strongly encouraged to purchase their tickets online when at all possible. Fans calling in to purchase tickets, at 407-823-1000 (Options 1, 2 and 3), will experience longer wait times than usual, so thank you for your understanding.
Additional Gasparilla Bowl information and FAQs can be found HERE.
This marks a program-record fourth consecutive postseason bowl appearance for the Knights, the seventh in eight seasons and the 11th in 15 years. UCF also previously played in the NCAA Division II playoffs in 1987 and in the NCAA FCS Playoffs in 1990 and 1993. It's the second straight season under Josh Heupel the Knights have played in the postseason—following an appearance a year ago in the Fiesta Bowl.
The Knights have played twice each in the Fiesta Bowl (following 2014 and 2018 seasons), Liberty Bowl (2007 and 2010) and St. Petersburg Bowl (2009 and 2014) and once each in the Hawaii Bowl (2005), Beef O'Brady's Bowl (2012), Cure Bowl (2016) and Peach Bowl (2017).
This will be the fifth time UCF has played a bowl game in the state of Florida—after three previous appearances in the St. Petersburg/Beef O'Brady's game and one in the Cure Bowl in Orlando. The Gasparilla Bowl has been played since 2008—in 2008-09 as the St. Petersburg Bowl, 2010-13 as the Beef O'Brady's Bowl, 2014 as the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl, 2015-16 as the St. Petersburg and since 2017 as the Gasparilla Bowl (with UCF playing in the game in 2009, 2012 and 2014). The game originally was played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg and moved to Tampa and Raymond James Stadium in 2018.
Previous UCF postseason appearances have produced record numbers in terms of television ratings. In 2018 UCF played in the top-rated game (LSU in the Fiesta Bowl) involving at least one AAC institution. In 2017 and 2013 UCF also played in the top rated-game (Auburn in the Peach Bowl and Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl, respectively) among league members.
Here's a listing of UCF's top-rated bowl games during its first six years in the AAC:
| Date | Opponent | Result | Network | Rating | Viewers |
| Jan. 1, 2013 | Baylor (Fiesta Bowl) | W, 52-42 | ESPN | 6.61 | 11,303,941 |
| Jan. 1, 2018 | LSU (Fiesta Bowl) | L, 40-32 | ESPN | 4.7 | 8,471,000 |
| Jan. 1, 2017 | Auburn (Peach Bowl) | W, 34-27 | ESPN | 4.6 | 8,377,376 |
| Dec. 26, 2014 | NC State (St. Pete Bowl) | L, 34-27 | ESPN | 2.0 | 3,268,000 |
UCF and Marshall will meet for the 12th time and the first time since 2012. The programs first met in 2002 in Huntington, West Virginia, a 26-21 UCF loss, and most recently again in Huntington in 2012, a 54-17 UCF victory. The Knights hold an 8-3 advantage in the all-time series.
This marks the first time UCF has faced a current Conference USA member in a bowl game.
Here are details of UCF's previous postseason appearances (4-6 in bowl games, 4-9 overall):
-- 1987--Troy defeated UCF 31-10 in NCAA Division II Playoffs
-- 1990—Georgia Southern defeated UCF 44-7 in NCAA FCS Playoffs
-- 1993--Youngstown State defeated UCF 56-30 in NCAA FCS Playoffs
-- 2005—Nevada defeated UCF 49-48 in Hawaii Bowl
-- 2007—Mississippi State defeated UCF 10-3 in Liberty Bowl
-- 2009—Rutgers defeated UCF 45-24 in St. Petersburg Bowl
-- 2010—UCF defeated Georgia 10-6 in Liberty Bowl
-- 2012—UCF defeated Ball State 38-17 in Beef O'Brady's Bowl
-- 2013—#15 UCF defeated #6 Baylor 52-42 in Fiesta Bowl
-- 2014—NC State defeated UCF 34-27 in St. Petersburg Bowl
-- 2016—Arkansas State defeated UCF 31-13 in Cure Bowl
-- 2017--#12 UCF defeated #7 Auburn 34-27 in Peach Bowl
-- 2018--#11 LSU defeated #7 UCF 40-32 in Fiesta Bowl