The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (known as the Motor City Bowl until 2009) 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 downtown Detroit, Michigan. Ford Field is home to the NFL's Detroit Lions, and played host to Super Bowl XL.
The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl features a bowl-eligible team from the Mid-American Conference (usually the winner of the MAC Championship Game, although that team is not required to accept the bid; prior to the formation of the bowl the MAC champion earned an automatic bid to the Las Vegas Bowl) 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 was jointly sponsored by the "Big Three" automakers in Detroit from 1998 to 2007 (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler). Starting with the 2008 game, Chrysler was replaced by the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights as a presenting sponsor. In 2009, Little Caesars became the title sponsor of the game after General Motors and Chrysler reorganized under bankruptcy protection. Ford remained as a sponsor.[2]
The then-named-Motor City Bowl marked the first bowl game held in the Detroit area since the Cherry Bowl in 1984–85. It is the only Division I college bowl game played in the Midwest United States.
The 2008 Motor City Bowl, played December 26, 2008, matched the Central Michigan Chippewas of the Mid-American Conference against the Florida Atlantic Owls of the Sun Belt Conference.
A bowl record crowd of 60,624 fans witnessed the 2007 bowl game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Central Michigan Chippewas.
Game results
| Date |
Winning team |
Losing team |
Attendance |
Game |
| December 26, 1997 |
Mississippi |
34 |
Marshall |
31 |
43,340 |
Game article |
| December 23, 1998 |
Marshall |
48 |
Louisville |
29 |
38,016 |
Game article |
| December 27, 1999 |
Marshall |
21 |
BYU |
3 |
44,449 |
Game article |
| December 27, 2000 |
Marshall |
25 |
Cincinnati |
14 |
44,911 |
Game article |
| December 29, 2001 |
Toledo |
23 |
Cincinnati |
16 |
44,164 |
Game article |
| December 26, 2002 |
Boston College |
51 |
Toledo |
25 |
45,761 |
Game article |
| December 26, 2003 |
Bowling Green |
28 |
Northwestern |
24 |
51,286 |
Game article |
| December 27, 2004[3] |
Connecticut |
39 |
Toledo |
10 |
52,552 |
Game article |
| December 26, 2005[4] |
Memphis |
38 |
Akron |
31 |
45,801 |
Game article |
| December 26, 2006[5] |
Central Michigan |
31 |
Middle Tennessee |
14 |
54,113 |
Game article |
| December 26, 2007 |
Purdue |
51 |
Central Michigan |
48 |
60,624 |
Game article |
| December 26, 2008 |
Florida Atlantic |
24 |
Central Michigan |
21 |
41,399 |
Game article |
| December 26, 2009 |
|
Game article |
MVPs
Most appearances
See also
- List of Little Caesars Pizza Bowl broadcasters
External links
Notes
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