2017 Liberty Bowl

The 2017 Liberty Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game played on December 30, 2017, at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. The 59th edition of the Liberty Bowl featured the 2017 [Iowa State Cyclones football team|Iowa State Cyclones] of the Big 12 Conference against the 2017 [Memphis Tigers football team|Memphis Tigers] of the American Athletic Conference. It was one of the 2017–18 [NCAA football bowl games|2017–18 bowl games] concluding the 2017 [NCAA Division I FBS football season|2017 FBS football season]. Sponsored by automobile parts and accessories store AutoZone, it was officially known as the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
This was the last event that ESPN Play-by-Play announcer, Mike Patrick, called.

Teams

The game featured conference tie-ins from the Southeastern Conference and the Big 12 Conference. However, the SEC did not have enough teams to fill its contractual obligations, so the bowl invited the Memphis Tigers of the American Athletic Conference, the team that occupies the Liberty Bowl during the regular season, thus making the contest—which was the Tigers' first appearance in this bowl—a Memphis home game. This is the third Liberty Bowl for Iowa State, having previously played in the 1972 and 2012 editions of the game.