Bowl: Cotton Bowl 2005
Sport: College Football
Background: The 69th SBC Cotton Bowl Classic is scheduled for Friday, January 1, 2005, at 10 a.m. CST.

The Cotton Bowl Athletic Association (CBAA) is a nonprofit organization incorporated under the laws of the state of Texas to promote, sponsor and stage an annual postseason intercollegiate football game in Dallas.

SBC Communications became the official title sponsor of the game on September 18, 1996. The length of the partnership runs through the 2006 Classic.

The first Classic was conceived by the late J. Curtis Sanford, a Dallas oilman and business executive. Sanford's first game promotion, a private enterprise guaranteeing each institution $10,000, matched TCU and Marquette on January 1, 1937, at Fair Park's Cotton Bowl Stadium before 17,000 fans. In 1941, the affiliation with the Southwest Conference began, with the SWC voting to send its champion annually to the Classic as the host institution. A partnership was formed in 1998 to create one of the top collegiate matchups in postseason play. Each year the SBC Cotton Bowl Classic will serve as the New Year's Day home for the Big 12 Conference and Southeastern Conference.