The Tom Bowl is a fan-supported college football bowl game scheduled to be played annually at Frank A. Schafer Field in Beal City, Michigan. The game is not sanctioned by the NCAA. It annually invites the #1 and #2 teams in the nation to play in a college football championship game. Although the group formally invites college teams every year to play in the bowl, no school has ever accepted an invitation. However, some athletic directors and conference presidents/commissioners have sent response letters, declining while sarcastically telling the group that it was an honor to be invited. Responses have been received from Jim Delany, Jack Swarbrick, and Pat Richter, among others. The Tom Bowl started in 1989 by a group of fans with invitations extended to the University of Colorado and the University of Miami. Colorado declined the invitation and alternate teams of Middle Tennessee State and Eastern Michigan were invited. From 1990 to 2006, the Tom Bowl annually invited the top two teams unless those teams played each other in another bowl game. In those years the Tom Bowl has elected to have alternative games such as a battle between the #3 and #4 teams to determine the "true #2" or as in 2002, the Big Ten Championship when Iowa and Ohio State didn't play during the regular season. Following the 2005 season, the Tom Bowl broke with tradition and used a BCS-like formula to invite three teams: USC, Texas, and Penn State to play in Tom Bowl XVII. Predictably, none of the teams showed up (though the Pac-10 replied, apparently accepting the invitation but pledging not to show up on behalf of USC) and only twelve spectators did. The game was declared a 0-0-0 tie. In 2007, the Tom Bowl devised a new format where the top three teams were invited to play in a round-robin tournament style game with each team playing each other for a half. The Tom Bowl has used this formula ever since, although in 2009 invites were extended to six different teams including Emory University, which boasts of being undefeated since 1836 because they do not have a football team. The Tom Bowl returned to the three team format in 2010. Tom Bowl Game-by-Game Results 1989 Middle Tennessee St. 0; Eastern Michigan 0* 1990 University of Colorado ?; Notre Dame ? 1991 University of Washington 0; University of Miami 0 1992 Florida St.