Motor City Bowl

Motor City Bowl
Motor City Bowl logo
Stadium	Ford Field
Location	Detroit, Michigan
Previous Stadiums	Pontiac Silverdome (1997 — 2001)
Previous Locations	Pontiac, Michigan (1997 — 2001)
Operated	1997 — present
Conference Tie-ins	MAC, Big Ten^[1]
Payout	US$750,000 (2006)
Sponsors
Ford, General Motors and Chrysler
2005 Matchup
Memphis 38, Akron 31
2006 Matchup
Central Michigan 31, Middle Tennessee 14

The Motor City Bowl is a major postseason 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 a team 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 2006 installment, played December 26, 2006 on ESPN, matched up Central Michigan University and Middle Tennessee, because the Big Ten could not fulfill their bowl requirement. The game set a new Motor City Bowl attendance record of 54,113.

Bowl matchups and results

Date	Winning Team		Losing Team
December 26, 1997	Mississippi	34	Marshall	31
December 23, 1998	Marshall	48	Louisville	29
December 27, 1999	Marshall	21	BYU	3
December 27, 2000	Marshall	25	Cincinnati	14
December 29, 2001	Toledo	23	Cincinnati	16
December 26, 2002	Boston College	51	Toledo	25
December 26, 2003	Bowling Green	28	Northwestern	24
December 27, 2004 ^[2]	Connecticut	39	Toledo	10
December 26, 2005 ^[3]	Memphis	38	Akron	31
December 26, 2006 ^[4]	Central Michigan	31	Middle Tennessee	14
December 26, 2007

Most appearances

Rank	Team	Appearances	Record
1	Marshall	4	3-1
2	Toledo	3	1-2
3	Cincinnati	2	0-2

MVPs

Year	MVP(s)	Team	Position
1997	Stewart Patridge	Mississippi	QB
1998	Chad Pennington	Marshall	QB
1999	Doug Chapman	Marshall	RB
2000	Byron Leftwich	Marshall	QB
2001	Chester Taylor	Toledo	RB
2002	Brian St. Pierre	Boston College	QB
2003	Josh Harris	Bowling Green	QB
2004	Dan Orlovsky	Connecticut	QB
2005	DeAngelo Williams	Memphis	RB
2006	Dan LeFevour	Central Michigan	QB

External links

Official Website of the Motor City Bowl

Notes

^ If the Big Ten does not have enough bowl-eligible teams, a team from the Big East fills in.
^ 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.