INDEPENDENCE BOWL

The "Independence Bowl"is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I college footballbowl game that is played annually at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Independence Bowl was named because it was inaugurated in the United States bicentennial year, 1976.For its first five years, the game pitted the champion of the Southland Conference against an at-large opponent It then moved to inviting two at-large teams, until 1995 when it began featuring a Southeastern Conference school against an at-large opponent.

From 1998 to 2009 the game normally featured a matchup between teams representing the Big 12 Conference and the SEC. Teams from other conferences were included only if one of those leagues did not have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill its spot, such as in 2004 when Miami (Ohio) played instead of an SEC squad. In 2008 neither the SEC nor the Big 12 had enough bowl-eligible teams to fill their respective spots resulting in a matchup of Louisiana Tech and Northern Illinois. From 2010