Motor City Bowl
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. However, starting in 2002, the game was moved to 65,000-seat Ford Field in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Ford Field is home to the NFL's Detroit Lions, and played host to Super Bowl XL.
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| MOTOR CITY BOWL | ||
December 26, 2008 8:00 est ESPN | ||
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History
The Motor City Bowl features a bowl-eligible team from the Mid-American Conference playing a bowl-eligible team 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 NCAA requirement of at least six wins. In the event that the Big East does not have an available team, an at-large team can be 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. It is the only Division I college bowl game played in the Midwest United States.
The 2007 Motor City Bowl, played December 26, 2007 on ESPN, matched the MAC Champion Central Michigan Chippewas against the Purdue Boilermakers of the Big Ten. After a first half dominated by the Boilermakers, CMU generated a furious comeback, and tied the game late in the fourth quarter. Following two changes of possession, Purdue kicked a field goal as time expired to win. A bowl record crowd of 60,624 fans and a national television audience witnessed the exciting finish to the 11th Motor City Bowl.