The 2010 PapaJohns.com Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game between the South Carolina Gamecocks of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Connecticut Huskies (UConn) of the Big East Conference, on January 2, 2010, at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. The game was the final contest of the 2009 NCAA Division I-Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I-FBS) football season for both teams, and it ended in a 20–7 victory for Connecticut.
South Carolina had a 7–5 regular-season, highlighted by wins over then-No. 4 Mississippi and then-No. 15 Clemson. The Gamecocks faced Connecticut. The Huskies were selected to play in the 2010 PapaJohns.com Bowl following a tumultuous 7–5 regular season that included five losses by a total of just fifteen points, a double-overtime victory at Notre Dame, and the murder of cornerback Jasper Howard. Pregame coverage focused on the tragedy that marked the Huskies' season, as well as on head coaches Steve Spurrier of South Carolina and Randy Edsall of Connecticut.
Connecticut scored twice in the first quarter: on a one-handed 37-yard touchdown reception by wide receiver Kashif Moore and then on a 33-yard field goal after South Carolina failed to convert a fourth-down play at its 32-yard line. Running back Andre Dixon scored for UConn on a 10-yard rush early in the fourth quarter. South Carolina scored its sole touchdown after the game had effectively been decided, on a two-yard run by Brian Maddox.
Dixon was named player of the game, and finished with 126 rushing yards and one touchdown. Connecticut wide receiver Marcus Easley and South Carolina linebacker Eric Norwood were among four players from the teams to be selected in the subsequent 2010 National Football League (NFL) Draft.
Team selection
In 2010, the PapaJohns.com Bowl selection committee had a contractual arrangement with the Big East and SEC conferences that allowed the committee to pick one team from each conference. The Big East had a contractual bowl bid to the game since its inception in 2006. The SEC agreed to send its ninth bowl-eligible team to the bowl starting in 2008, but did not have enough bowl-eligible teams in either 2008 or 2009 to take advantage of the bid. In 2010, the SEC received $900,000 for sending a team to the game, while the Big East received $600,000.
The Big East's contract with the bowl committee stated that the group would make its selection in coordination with the International Bowl and the St. Petersburg Bowl after other Big East-affiliated bowl games made their selections. Conference champion Cincinnati was awarded an automatic Bowl Championship Series (BCS) berth in the 2010 Sugar Bowl. The Gator Bowl had the first pick after the BCS, and selected West Virginia. The Meineke Car Care Bowl, which had the next selection, considered both Pittsburgh, which had the better regular-season record, and Rutgers, whose fans had a better traveling reputation; it selected Pittsburgh.
Three bowl-eligible Big East teams remained: Connecticut, Rutgers, and South Florida. The previous two years, Rutgers had played in the 2008 International Bowl and the 2008 PapaJohns.com Bowl. In the same period, South Florida played in the 2007 PapaJohns.com Bowl and the 2008 St. Petersburg Bowl. Connecticut had played in the 2009 International Bowl the previous year. In general, bowl games and conferences prefer to have different teams play in each game each year. Partly because of this, Rutgers went to the 2009 St. Petersburg Bowl, South Florida to the 2010 International Bowl, and Connecticut to the 2010 PapaJohns.com Bowl.
For Connecticut's opponent, the PapaJohns.com Bowl had the right to select a SEC team, but only after all other bowls with contracts with the SEC made their selections. Conference champion Alabama finished No. 1 in the BCS standings and earned a berth to the 2010 BCS National Championship Game. Conference championship game loser Florida took the SEC champion's automatic slot in the 2010 Sugar Bowl, vacant since Alabama was selected to appear in the national championship game. The Capital One Bowl had the next selection and opted for Louisiana State University (LSU). The Cotton Bowl and Outback Bowl selected Ole Miss and Auburn respectively. The Chick-fil-A Bowl, which had the next pick, selected Tennessee. The next selections were shared by the Liberty Bowl and Music City Bowl, which opted for Arkansas and Kentucky, respectively. The Independence Bowl, with the next-to-last selection, picked Georgia, leaving the PapaJohns.com Bowl with the last available bowl-eligible SEC team, South Carolina.