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AutoZone Liberty Bowl

Jan. 2, 2009, 5 p.m.

Memphis, Tenn., Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium

Kentucky 25, East Carolina 19

The Liberty Bowl is an annual U.S. American college football bowl game played in December of each year since 1959. The Liberty Bowl was sponsored by AXA Financial and was known as the AXA Liberty Bowl from 1997 to 2003. Since 2004, the game has been sponsored by Memphis-based auto parts retailer AutoZone, and is now called the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

The bowl game was first played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at John F. Kennedy Stadium (originally Municipal Stadium) until 1963. Initially, the game, the only cold-weather bowl game of its time, was plagued by poor attendance (the 1963 game drew only 8,309 spectators), so the 1964 game was the first bowl game ever played indoors in Atlantic City, New Jersey at Convention Hall before 6,059 fans.

Since 1965, the game has made its home in Memphis, Tennessee in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium to much larger crowds and has established itself as one of the oldest non-BCS bowls. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Liberty Bowl offered an automatic invitation to the winner of the Commander in Chief's Trophy, if that team was bowl eligible.[1] From 1997-2004, the regular season champion of Conference USA served as the host team. Since 2005, the winner of the C-USA Championship game has received the berth.

From 1998 to 2005, the opponent for the C-USA champion was the Mountain West Conference champion. There were two exceptions:

In 2004, Mountain West Champion Utah qualified for the BCS. In their place, the Liberty Bowl chose WAC champion Boise State.

In 2005, Mountain West Champion TCU chose to play in the Houston Bowl instead of the Liberty Bowl. At-large WAC team Fresno State took their place.

Since the 2006 football season, the game matches the Conference USA champion with a team from the SEC.

The game airs nationally on ESPN, and is carried nationwide by ESPN Radio.

For the 2008-2009 bowl season the Liberty Bowl will be played on January 2, 2009, marking the first time that the game will be played in January.

Football Betting News

Tennessee Titans vs. Houston Texans 8:30 ET

Posted on 11/20/2009 12:00:00 AMby North Shore Sports, INC

Monday Night Football betting action heads to Reliant Stadium, where the Tennessee Titans (3-6, 4-5 ATS) will take on the Houston Texans (5-4, 5-3-1 ATS). The final game on the Week 11 NFL betting slate is arguably the most intriguing game on the schedule for Bookmaker Sportsbook customers to dig into. QB Vince Young will return to the Lone Star State, where the crowd will certainly be on his side considering that he led the Texas Longhorns to a National Championship. But the Texans are the upstarts of the league, and they'll want to kick off the second half of their season in a strong manner after their bye week.
 
The host Texans currently sit as 4.5-point home favorites with the game ‘total set at 48-points at Bookmaker.com for tonight’s MNF betting AFC South battle.
 
Since their bye week, the Titans have won and covered three straight games. HC Jeff Fisher's decision to change quarterbacks has apparently worked, as Young has led the Titans to 30+ points in each of their L/3 games. However, the game plan may be a large part of that as well. Young hasn't been asked to do much with his arm. He has only thrown for 507 yards in his three starts. Instead, the onus has fallen on RB Chris Johnson.
 
The East Carolina product is already a 1,000+ yard rusher this year, as he has rumbled for 1,091 yards and eight TDs. He also has 262 receiving yards on 30 receptions. The second-year back has turned himself into an MVP candidate very quickly, as he has accounted for 623 rushing yards and six TDs over the L/4 games. Johnson will be salivating at the idea of facing a Houston defense which he absolutely torched in Week 2, as he ran for 197 yards and received for another 87, accounting for three TDs in the process.
 
QB Matt Schaub and WR Andre Johnson had fantastic games against these Titans in Week 2 as well, though. Johnson caught ten passes for 149 yards and two scores, while Schaub won AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors for going 25/39 for 357 yards and four TDs without throwing a pick. There's no doubt that Houston can throw the ball around the field, as Schaub is pacing the #3 passing attack in the NFL at 283.7 yards per game.
 
The biggest question is whether an improving defense can figure out how to contain Johnson and keep Young in the pocket. Before taking their bye week last week, the Texans had gone 3-0-1 ATS and 3-1 SU in their L/4, and they came as close as any team has come to knocking off the Colts when they lost 20-17 at Lucas Oil Stadium two weeks ago.
 
The 34-31 victory for Houston in Week 2 marked the second straight win for the Texans in this series. The underdog has covered seven of the L/2 clashes between these two squads. The home team has won three straight. Last year at Reliant, the Texans used a stifling defensive effort and 207 receiving yards by Johnson to capture a 13-12 victory.
 
Tensions will be high between these division rivals, as playoff positioning is also on the line. You're not going to want to miss all of the NFL betting action under the bright lights of Monday Night with Bookmaker.com!

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