Grantland Rice Bowl

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The Grantland Rice Bowl was an annual college football bowl game in NCAA's College Division, for smaller universities and colleges. The game was named for Grantland Rice, an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. From 1964 to 1972, it was one of four season-ending national quarterfinals which led to the determination of a College Division national champion, by poll. It was the Mideast Regional championship, played in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from 1964 to 1968. In 1969, the regional alignments shifted and the game was relocated to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where it remained through 1975. In the 1968 game, Tommy Spinks of Louisiana Tech set two records when he caught 12 passes for 167 yards; the passes were thrown by junior quarterback Terry Bradshaw, the first selection of the 1970 NFL Draft. In 1973, the College Division was realigned into Division II and Division III, with full eight-team playoffs to determine a national champion in both divisions. The Grantland Rice Bowl became a national semifinal in Division II; it left Baton Rouge and became a hosted game in 1976 at Fargo, North Dakota, and in Anniston, Alabama in 1977. The other semifinal in those two seasons was the Knute Rockne Bowl. With the formation of Division I-AA (renamed FCS in 2006) and the modern playoff structure, the game ceased to exist. After a three-year absence, the game returned in a different form. Since 1981, the NCAA Division I FCS Playoff South Regional Championship (national quarterfinal) is commonly referred to as the Grantland Rice Bowl, in honor of its College Division heritage. The game is played at the highest remaining seed in the South Region with the winner advancing to the NCAA Division I FCS Playoff Final Four (national semifinal).

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Henry Grantland Rice (November 1, 1880 – July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio.

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