College football's premier all-star game has a new home.
The Reese's Senior Bowl is remaining in Mobile, Alabama but will be played at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the South Alabama campus beginning in 2021. The Reese's Senior Bowl Board of Trustees unanimously approved a multi-year deal with the university, BOT chairman and president Angus R. Cooper II announced in a statement Wednesday.
The new state-of-the-art stadium seats 25,000 people and will also be the host site of Senior Bowl practices. The initiative to improve fan experience includes acres of grassy pre-game tailgating and RV areas around the stadium, thousands of reserved on-campus parking spaces, chair- and bench-back seating, indoor and outdoor private suites, and premium club and loge seats.
NFL coaches, scouts, and players will have access to South Alabama's weightlifting and sports medicine amenities, indoor and outdoor practice facilities, and brand-new locker room and meeting areas.
The Senior Bowl was played in Mobile's Ladd-Peebles Stadium from 1951-2020. The 2019 game produced 93 overall draft picks, or about 37 percent of last year's selections. Notable coaches and players to participate include Don Shula, Tom Landry, Joe Namath, Walter Payton, Dan Marino, Bo Jackson and Brett Favre.
The 2021 iteration will be played Jan. 30, 2021 and televised nationally on NFL Network.
