Capital One Bowl – Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium

The 2011 Capital One Bowl in Orlando will be held on January 1, 2011 at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. The projected time for the game is 1:00 EST. This top tier college football bowl game features a representative of the Big Ten Conference versus the highly competitive Southeastern Conference. The final score from the 2010 Capital One Bowl was 19-17 in favor of Penn State over Louisiana State. Funds from this college football bowl game and associated activities benefit regional community affiliated charities.

The area Citrus Bowl festivities are supervised by a very diligent and hard-working volunteer community organization – Florida Citrus Sports. Vacation homes in the Central Florida area are a perfect fit for any football fans wanting to get close to the stadium along with all the fun bowl activities. The vacation home and resort community reviews on this site will assist you with further information needed to book vacation rental accommodations.

There is big news for the 2011 Capital One Bowl game on several fronts. ESPN has retained the rights for the bowl game in 2011, a new $1 million plus astro turf field for the Citrus Bowl along with the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten Conference in 2011-2012. The kick-off time will remain at approximately 1:00 p.m. EST for 2011, but in subsequent years the actual start time could fluctuate between Noon and 12:30 p.m. This additional flexibility should bode well for improved viewer ratings. Projected payout for the game is $4.0 million for each participating university. The University of Nebraska will also potentially represent the Big Ten in the 2013 Capital One Bowl with the new conference re-alignment.

The Citrus Bowl also announced a recent $10 million improvements campaign for overall stadium conditions. More specifically and as mentioned earlier, part of the funds will be used to upgrade the field turf which was a major issue during the 2010 Capital One Bowl. The  new synthetic field “astro turf” should help restore the reputation of this prestigious college bowl game.

Our initial prediction for the 2011 Capital One Bowl is the Arkansas Razorbacks vs. the Wisconsin Badgers. The Razorbacks return Ryan Mallett, a 2010-2011 Heisman Trophy candidate and first team pre-season All-American at quarterback. He began his college career at Michigan after signing with the team out of high school. Ryan Mallett is also expected to be drafted in the National Football League at some point after a successful 2010-11 season.

The University of Arkansas is part of the very rugged Western division of the SEC. We believe the Auburn Tigers will ultimately win the SEC and be pushed into a BCS bowl or title game. The LSU Tigers or South Carolina Gamecocks, odds on favorite to win the Eastern division of the SEC, would then possibly play in the Sugar Bowl.

Bowl Update: Both sides of the SEC divisional races are becoming more clear. Auburn, Alabama and LSU were dueling to win the Western side, but Auburn will now advance to Atlanta. The Eastern division winner will be South Carolina. Many local fans are also buzzing about the the Alabama Crimson Tide representing the SEC in the Capital One Bowl. In fact, Alabama will play Michigan State in a very interesting bowl match-up.

The 2010 Wisconsin Badgers football squad is much improved. Coach Bret Bielema returned many starters from a team that won the 2009 Champs Sports Bowl and is a solid Top 20 team. Wisconsin showed its grit with its showdown win over Ohio State. Wisconsin has played in the Capital One Bowl before and should bring plenty of enthusiastic fans to Orlando. In this case, Wisconsin will head to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Our second projection would be the Michigan State Spartans who have played in the Capital One Bowl recently as well. The Big Ten overall has great depth and quality. Alabama vs. Michigan State will be a great match-up.

Michigan State vs. Alabama will indeed be a hot ticket for a 2011 Capital One Bowl marquee match-up. Staying in an area Orlando vacation rental would top off a great holiday bowl season in Orlando. Consult our reviews of over 80+ vacation home resorts to help you select the accommodations that meet your needs.

Final Score: The final score for the 2011 Capital One Bowl was 49-7 in favor of Alabama over Michigan State. The game was dominated from start to finish by the Crimson Tide.