The 2010 Champs Sports Bowl will be played at 6:30 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday, December 28.  The game, the first of two bowls hosted in Orlando, will air nationwide on ESPN. 

Florida Citrus Sports’ other game, the Capital One Bowl, will kick off at its traditional slot of 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011.  It will move to its new television home on ESPN.

This year will mark its first year of pairing upper-tier teams from the Atlantic Coast and the BIG EAST conferences.  The 2010 Champs Sports Bowl will have the second post-BCS selection in the ACC and the first post-BCS pick in the BIG EAST, as well as the opportunity to select Notre Dame.

The Champs Sports Bowl has continued to make great progress since moving to Orlando.  Last year’s attendance figure of 56,747 continued the upward trend in attendance for the game for the eighth-consecutive year.  That figure also marked the highest attendance since the game came to Central Florida in 2001 and the second-highest attendance in the history of the bowl (1990 Blockbuster Bowl, 74,021).

The Champs Sports Bowl has existed in name since 2004, but the game’s history extends for over 20 years now.  Originating as the Blockbuster Bowl in 1990 and played in Miami, the game was played under a number of titles before moving to Orlando in 2001 and serving as a reincarnation of the old Tangerine Bowl.  It was the addition of Champs Sports as a title sponsor that allowed Florida Citrus Sports to aggressively pursue the growth and development that made the game what it is today.  

Tickets for the game will be $200 (Uprights Club), $65, $45, $40, $35 and $25.  Tickets go on sale to the general public September 1, but tickets to both Orlando bowl games are available by purchasing a 2010-11 Florida Citrus Sports Membership.