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The Motor City Bowl is a post-season college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that has been played annually since 1997. The first five games (1997-2001) were played at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. Starting in 2002, the game was moved to 65,000-seat Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The game features the champion from the Mid-American Conference playing one from the Big Ten Conference. If the Big Ten does not have an eligible team, the game will feature a team from the Big East that meets the requirement of at least seven wins; otherwise, an at-large team is chosen. The game is jointly sponsored by the "Big Three" automakers in Detroit: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.
The Motor City Bowl marked the first bowl game held in the Detroit area since the Cherry Bowl in 1984-1985.
| The most recent installment, played December 26, 2007 on ESPN, matched up Central Michigan University and Purdue. After a one-sided first half in the Boilermakers favor, CMU came back to tie the game late in the fourth quarter. Purdue kicked a field goal as time expired to win. A bowl record crowd of 60,624 fans witnessed the exciting finish to the 11th Motor City Bowl. |
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[edit] Bowl matchups and results
| Date |
Winning Team |
Losing Team |
Attendance |
Notes |
| December 26, 1997 |
Mississippi |
34 |
Marshall |
31 |
43,340 |
| December 23, 1998 |
Marshall |
48 |
Louisville |
29 |
38,016 |
| December 27, 1999 |
Marshall |
21 |
BYU |
3 |
44,449 |
| December 27, 2000 |
Marshall |
25 |
Cincinnati |
14 |
44,911 |
| December 29, 2001 |
Toledo |
23 |
Cincinnati |
16 |
44,164 |
| December 26, 2002 |
Boston College |
51 |
Toledo |
25 |
45,761 |
| December 26, 2003 |
Bowling Green |
28 |
Northwestern |
24 |
51,286 |
| December 27, 2004 [1] |
Connecticut |
39 |
Toledo |
10 |
52,552 |
| December 26, 2005 [2] |
Memphis |
38 |
Akron |
31 |
45,801 |
| December 26, 2006 [3] |
Central Michigan |
31 |
Middle Tennessee |
14 |
54,113 |
| December 26, 2007 |
Purdue |
51 |
Central Michigan |
48 |
60,624 |
notes |
[edit] Most appearances
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- ^ Connecticut received the bid to play in this game as the Big Ten did not field enough teams to qualify for this game.
- ^ Memphis replaced the Big Ten and Big East teams as they did not have enough teams to qualify for this game.
- ^ The Big Ten did not have enough bowl-eligible teams to fulfill their obligation to qualify for this game, so Middle Tennessee filled the Big Ten's spot.
