Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium seats over 58,000 and is the home field of the University of Memphis Tigers football team. College football is the dominant autumn sport in this part of the South, and a Memphis Tigers home game is a genuine cultural experience — tailgate culture, the Tiger Walk before the game, and the intensely partisan crowd that fills the stadium when the Tigers are playing well. The stadium is on the fairgrounds, close enough to downtown to walk or take a rideshare.
Every December the Liberty Bowl hosts a post-season college football game between at-large bowl teams, a tradition going back to 1959. The game is typically played between Christmas and New Year's, when Memphis is cool enough to make an outdoor game comfortable. It draws fans from across the country. Memphis is a natural gathering point for the pre-game festivities, and Beale Street fills up in the days before the bowl with visiting fans.