The California Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game played annually in Fresno, California, from 1981 to 1991. The games matched the championship teams from the Big West Conference (formerly the Pacific Coast Athletic Association) with teams from the Mid-American Conference. During the bowl's existence it was generally the first "major" bowl game (one involving teams from NCAADivision I-A) played during the bowl season. It was generally regarded as one of the lower-profile bowl games in that the conferences involved were generally considered at the time to be at the lowest level of "major"-college football, and was one of the first bowls largely to restrict its television marketing efforts to the medium of cable television, which was just beginning to emerge as a mainstream technology at the time that the bowl was started. It was sometimes referred to as the California Raisin Bowl in contemporary accounts, perhaps a historical reference to the Raisin Bowl formerly played at the same location, but primarily due to the purchase of naming rights in the game's by the California Rasin Marketing Board. Fresno State University largely dominated this game, playing in five of the 11 games and winning four of them.
During the bowl's existence it was generally the first bowl game played during the postseason.
It was regarded as one of the lower-profile bowl games in that the conferences involved were mid-majors, and was one of the first bowls to restrict its television marketing efforts to the medium of cable television.
Due to the purchase of naming rights by the California Raisin Advisory Board, the Californiabowl was sometimes referred to as the California Raisin Bowl in contemporary accounts.
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