Orange Bowl Tickets

The Capital One Orange Bowl is one of the six games that are a part of the College Football Playoffs semifinals rotation. Every year, it is played at the Miami Dolphins’ home base: the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. From 1938 to 1996, prior to moving into the Hard Rock Stadium, the Orange Bowl game was played in the Miami Orange Bowl.

The origins of the game can be traced as far back as 1926 when city leaders of Miami decided to hold the ‘Fiesta of the American Tropics’ featuring a college football game, as a way to promote tourism to the area. It was only held for one year, but in 1932 it was revived and became a continuous feat for many years to come. At the time of its revival, the game was called the Palm Festival. At its center was the Festival of Palms Bowl, a college football game between the Miami Hurricanes and an invited team.

This game was never officially recognized as a bowl game since it guaranteed a spot to one team regardless of the team’s record. But the success of the game encouraged organizers to back another game in 1935—the Orange Bowl.

The 1964 edition of the game (played on January 1, 1965) between Texas and Alabama has the distinction of being the first college football game broadcasted during prime time television. No. 5 Texas beat then-No. 1 Alabama, 21-17 in an upset win.

For many years, the game did not have an official conference tie-in; just a loose affiliation with the Big Eight. Starting in 1998, it became part of the Bowl Coalition making it part of the rotation of bowls that would host the BCS title game (which it did in 2001 and 2005). Since 2007, if the ACC conference champion wasn’t playing in the championship game, it played in the Orange Bowl (or the runner-up would).

Over the years, the game has been sponsored by FedEx (1989-2010) and Discover (2011-2014). It is currently being sponsored by Capital One (since December 2014).