Was it going back to 1996 and the last Las Vegas bowl?
2006 with Central Michigan over Middle Tennesse(SBC champ in the Motor City Bowl)
2009 with CMU over Troy in the GMAC?
2011 NIU over Arkansas State in GoDaddy?
2020 Ball St over SJSU in the Arizona Bowl?

So the answer is 2020. I guess it hasn't been as long as I would have thought but the MAC champion never played the CUSA champion before. The AAC and SBC champs squared off in the Independence Bowl. This is something I believe we will see a lot more of with ESPN owning so many of the bowl games.

The "Cure Bowl" seemed somewhat obscure to me. Was hoping for a more recognizable team out of a mid major conference, there again is about trophies and winning.

It says something about the sad state of CUSA. Five of the ten teams joined in the two years and four were in the other subdivision four years ago. Just four CUSA teams were bowl eligible this season, and three of them were recent move-ups. UTEP and NMSU reverted to doormat mode after a couple of decent seasons.

Looking at the names of just the bowls today, they all seem "obscure to me." Ask 100 people on the street where the Armed Forces Bowl, the Liberty Bowl and the Holiday Bowl are played and you'd be lucky to have 5 people know where they are all played much less who is playing. That article someone posted in another thread is spot on.

C-USA is not even a shadow of it's former self.

Past members:
Cincinnati
Houston
Louisville
Memphis
Tulane
TCU
UCF

The three bowls you just mentioned have been around for decades each: Liberty Bowl (1959), Holiday Bowl (1978) and Armed Forces (2003) are more recognizable than you think.

It doesn't help that a lot of these keep changing their name because of the sponsorship though - for instance the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl has been around since 1997. First it was the Humanitarian Bowl until 2004 when it became the MPC Computers Bowl. It then switched back to the Humanitarian Bowl for three years before permanently (for now) changing to the Potato Bowl in 2011.

The Cheez-It Bowl started as the Tangerine Bowl in 1947, then changed to the Florida Citrus Bowl in 1983, and then changed to the Capital One Bowl in 2001. They've gone through a handful of sponsors over the years including Buffalo Wild Wings, Kellogg's, CompUSA and VRBO.

Remember the old GMAC Bowl? That has been around since 1999 and is now called the 68 Ventures Bowl. It has also gone through several name changes, including the Dollar General Bowl at one point.

The issue isn't the bowl games or locations, it's the sponsors and names that keep changing.

My comment referenced where they were being played and how constant name changes have served to obscure that. In 1959 there were nine bowls none named after a corporation and all having names pretty much related to their location/environment. Not the case today.

i never understood why the names didn't stay even as the corporate sponsor changed. Motor City Bowl should always be the Motor City Bowl, even if it's Ford MCB, then Dollar General MCB , then what the hellever MCB.