Maryland To Meet Tennessee In Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
12/5/2002 7:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 5, 2002
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
University of Maryland and the University of Tennessee will renew their postseason bowl rivalry in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Dec. 31 in Atlanta.
The Vols Thursday officially accepted an invitation to meet the Terps in the New Year's Eve bowl game at the Georgia Dome. Maryland accepted its invitation shortly after defeating Wake Forest in its regular season finale last Saturday.
Tennessee will bring an 8-4 record into its meeting with the Terps. The Vols finished third in the SEC Eastern Division with a 5-3 league mark. All four losses were to nationally ranked teams.
The Terps, ranked 19th (USA Today/ESPN) and 21st (Associated Press), will be the first 10-win team to participate in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Maryland won nine of its last 10 games after opening the season with a 1-2 record.
Tennessee is Maryland's most common bowl opponent. The meeting later this month will mark the fifth time the Terps and Vols have squared off in the postseason; the previous appearances came in the 1952 Sugar Bowl, the 1974 Liberty Bowl, the 1983 Citrus Bowl and the 1984 Sun Bowl.
Kickoff on New Year's Eve is set for 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised by ESPN.
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is one of America's best bowl games at providing a memorable and exciting bowl experience for the student athletes, coaches and fans of its participating teams.
Did you know...
1. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is the most competitive bowl game in college football history with an average margin of victory of 4.8 points over the last 15 years and an 8.73-point margin over the 34-year history of the game?
2. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is celebrating its 35th anniversary making it the ninth-oldest bowl game in the history of college football?
3. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is the only guaranteed ACC vs. SEC match-up in the bowl business?
4. Three of the past four Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl champions have finished with Top 17 national rankings?
5. The 2001 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl marked the fifth consecutive sellout, and the ninth in the last 11 years? The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is the only non-BCS bowl game to finish in the Top 4 in attendance in four of the last five years, and has the fourth-highest average attendance of any bowl game over the past five years.
6. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is the only prime time (EST) game on New Year's Eve, running unopposed in its time slot on ESPN?
7. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl has disbursed more than $1 million in charitable and scholarship contributions in the last five years?
8. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will host more than 30 events, including a basketball doubleheader, a game-day Parade and a FanFest that will attract thousands of fans during Bowl Week?
9. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl has disbursed $17 million in team payouts over the last five years? The Bowl's per team payout has increased 58% since 1996 and has increased 111% in the past 10 years.
10. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl has paid out $55.4 million in its 34-year history ranking it 8th in cumulative payout of all bowl games?
