New Mexico Bowl

December 19, 2009 – 10:09 pm

The New Mexico Bowl is a NCAA sanctioned post-season bowl game played at University Stadium on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The game between teams representing the Mountain West Conference and the Western Athletic Conference is televised on ESPN, whose ESPN Regional Television division (a/k/a ESPN Plus) supervises the bowl activities as one of the six bowl games they run. The 2006 contest was the first bowl game played in New Mexico, pitting the MWC’s New Mexico Lobos and the WAC’s San Jose State Spartans (of note, the MWC had been formed by 8 schools - New Mexico being one of them - that had left the WAC in 1999). The Spartans won that game 20-12.

The game trophy is a 20-inch piece of Zia Pueblo pottery, painted with Pueblo symbols, the New Mexico Bowl logo, football players, and the logos of the competing teams. Zia Pueblo is an Indian tribe from New Mexico. The Zia symbol, a Zia Pueblo symbol that is used in the state flag, is incorporated into the bowl game logo. The most valuable player trophies are crafted from traditional leather shields.

Game results

Date Played	Winning Team		Losing Team		Notes
December 23, 2006	San Jose State	20	New Mexico	12	notes
December 22, 2007	New Mexico	23	Nevada	0	notes
December 20, 2008	Colorado State	40	Fresno State	35	notes
December 19, 2009	Wyoming	35	Fresno State	28	notes

 MVPs

Date Played	Offensive MVP			Defensive MVP
	Player	Team	Pos.	Player	Team	Pos.
December 23, 2006	James Jones	San José State	WR	Matt Castelo	San José State	LB
December 22, 2007	Donovan Porterie	New Mexico	QB	Brett Madsen	New Mexico	LB
December 20, 2008	Gartrell Johnson	Colorado State	RB	Tommie Hill	Colorado State	DE
December 19, 2009	Austyn Carta-Samuels	Wyoming	QB	Mitch Unrein	Wyoming	DE

 Most appearances

Rank	Team	Appearances	Record
T1	New Mexico	2	1-1
T1	Fresno State	2	0-2
T2	San Jose State	1	1-0
T2	Colorado State	1	1-0
T2	Wyoming	1	1-0
T2	Nevada	1	0-1

 Television coverage

• New Mexico Bowl broadcasters

Tags: bowl, bowl game, mexico, ncaa, new, university stadium