2015 Outback Bowl, Tennessee vs. Northwestern: Date, time, location and more

It’s that time to pick sides again, America: Team Bloomin’ Onion or Team Coconut Shrimp. There can only be one winner in this year’s edition of the Outback Bowl.

Once known as the Hall of Fame Bowl, Outback Steakhouse took over as the title sponsor of the game in 1996 and since then, the game has matched up teams from the SEC and Big Ten. The two conferences have stayed relatively even through the history of the event, with the Big Ten posting an 11-15 record and the SEC at 14-11.

The last four Outback Bowls were decided by just one score, including an overtime victory for Wisconsin over Auburn in 2014 and a triple-overtime victory for Michigan State over Georgia in 2011.

Here is everything you need to know to get ready for this year’s Outback Bowl:

Date and time: Friday, Jan. 1, 12 p.m. ET

TV channel: ESPN2

Location: Tampa, Fla.

Stadium: Raymond James Stadium, 65,890

Last year’s score: Wisconsin 34, Auburn 31

Last year’s attendance: 44,023

Last year’s TV rating: 3.8

Last year’s payout for each school: $3.5 million

Teams with the most all-time appearances: Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, 5

Teams with the most all-time wins: Georgia, Michigan, South Carolina and Penn State, 3

The 2015 Tennessee Volunteers were a good litmus test for how inflated expectations can color the perception of a season. The Vols’ regular-season record improved by two games in Butch Jones’ third year, but as the preseason hype grew this summer, so did expectations that this team would contend for the SEC East title. The Vols blew multi-score leads in losses to Oklahoma, Florida and Arkansas in the season’s first half, but rebounded to win five straight as the season ended, including blowouts of Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

Junior quarterback Joshua Dobbs paces the offense, throwing for 2,125 and 15 touchdowns, with another 623 yards and nine touchdowns rushing. Sophomore tailback Jalen Hurd finished fourth in the SEC with 1,158 rushing yards, plus 13 total touchdowns.

On defense, end Derek Barnett followed up his freshman All-American 2014 with another nine sacks this season. But it was junior linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin who was the star of the show with 99 tackles, 13 tackles for loss and five sacks of his own.

Last bowl game: 2014 season’s TaxSlayer Bowl (45-28 win over Iowa)

All-time bowl record: 26-24

Head coach’s bowl record: Butch Jones is 2-2 in bowl games, including 1-0 at Tennessee.

Northwestern fell off the national radar after back-to-back blowout losses to Michigan and Iowa in the middle of the year. However, the Wildcats haven’t lost since, finishing with 10 wins in the regular season for the first time since 1995, with big wins over Stanford and Penn State at home, and on the road against Duke and Wisconsin. NU finished as the undisputed second-place team in the Big Ten West and fifth-place team in the Big Ten.

This team has been successful because of its defense. The unit showed up early in the year with a big defensive performance, beating Stanford 16-6, and the defense followed that up all season, finishing eighth nationally in yards per play against. That includes shutting out Minnesota, holding Wisconsin to seven points and Duke to 10.

The offense is another story. The Wildcats struggled to do anything on offense against Iowa or Michigan, and they were consistently one of the least efficient offenses in the country. Running back Justin Jackson is solid, but the passing game is abysmal. Expect yet another low-scoring game from the Wildcats.

Last bowl game: 2013 Gator Bowl (34-20 win over Mississippi State)

All-time bowl record: 2-9

Head coach’s bowl record: Pat Fitzgerald is 1-4 in bowl games. His first bowl win came in his last bowl game, the 2013 Gator Bowl against Mississippi State.