Bowl Challenge Cup


The Bowl Challenge Cup is a competition among NCAA college football conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly called Division I-A, based on win–loss records in the bowl games that take place annually during December and January. The winner is the conference that has the highest winning percentage, among conferences with a minimum of three teams appearing in bowl games.
The Challenge was created in 2002 by ESPN, who also occasionally refers to it as the "Bowl Cup Challenge" when promoting it. Originally sponsored by Cooper Tire, ESPN went several years without a sponsor; since the 2015–16 bowl season, Progressive has been the sponsor.

Participants

The ten Football Bowl Subdivision conferences that compete in the Bowl Challenge Cup are:
Power conferences
Other conferences
Since the 2024 season, the Pac-12 has lacked a sufficient number of teams to meet the minimum number of bowl games required for Bowl Challenge Cup honors.
Former conferences that competed in the Bowl Challenge Cup were:

Results

Bowl seasonConferenceWin %Ref.
2002–03Big Ten--
2003–04ACC--
2004–05Mountain West--
2005–06ACC--
2005–06Big 12--
2006–07Big East--
2007–08Mountain West--
2008–09Pacific-10--
2009–10Mountain West--
2010–11Mountain West--
2011–12Conference USA--
2011–12MAC--
2012–13Conference USA--
2013–14SEC--
2014–15Conference USA--
2015–16SEC--
2016–17ACC--
2017–18Big Ten--
2018–19Conference USA--
2019–20SEC--
2020–21Big 12--
2021–22Mountain West--
2022–23MAC--
2023–24Big Ten--
2024–25American--
2025–26Big Ten--

ConferenceTimesChampionships
Mountain West52004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2021–22
Big Ten42002 NCAA [Division I-A football season#Bowl Games|2002–03], 2017–18, 2023–24, 2025–26
Conference USA 2011–12, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2018–19
Southeastern 32013–14, 2015–16, 2019–20
Atlantic Coast 2003–04, 2005–06, 2016–17
American 22006–07, 2024–25
Big 122005–06, 2020–21
Mid-American 2011–12, 2022–23
Pac-12 12008–09
Sun Belt0