Just last July, the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl announced a new six-year deal in which three of the years will match either an ACC school or Notre Dame with an SEC opponent, and on April 3 it was revealed that the game would be taking on a new name. Starting this season, it will be known as the TaxSlayer Bowl.
“A new TV deal and new title sponsor deal significantly increases our revenues, which we can use for increased team payouts,” bowl president and CEO Rick Catlett told The Florida Times-Union.
This season’s edition of the game played annually in Jacksonville, Fla., is scheduled for Jan. 2, 2015 on ESPN. Over the next six times the bowl is played, a Big Ten program will face an SEC foe in each of the three years that the ACC and Notre Dame are not involved.
Florida State is the last ACC team to play in the game, defeating West Virginia on New Year’s Day in 2010.