This was the first year the game was known as the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. The game was previously known as the Texas Bowl in 2010 and is not to be confused with the previous Meineke Car Care Bowl held in North Carolina which is now called the Belk Bowl.

The game, which was telecast at 11:00 a.m. CT on ESPN and available for streaming online via ESPN3, featured the Northwestern Wildcats of the Big Ten Conference versus the Texas A&M Aggies of the Big 12 Conference.

Texas A&M won the game 33–22. It would be the Aggies’ first bowl victory since they won the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl in the Astrodome in the same city of Houston, Texas in 2001. The win broke a string of 5 consecutive bowl losses for the Aggies.

The game MVP was Aggie quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, who went 27 of 40 in passing with 329 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. Tannehill also added 10 rushing yards.

Aggie offensive lineman, Joseph Villavisencio was killed in an automobile accident on December 22, 2011, after leaving a Texas A&M team charity event and heading home for the Christmas holiday. The Aggies and Wildcats both honored Villavisencio by wearing black and white helmet decals bearing the words “Joey V” and his number 67.

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Wikipedia