- Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
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Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (formerly Motor City Bowl) 
Stadium Ford Field Location Detroit, Michigan Previous stadiums Pontiac Silverdome (1997–2001) Previous locations Pontiac, Michigan (1997–2001) Operated 1997–present Conference tie-ins Big Ten, MAC
Sun Belt (alternate)Payout US$750,000 (600,000 Minimum) per team Sponsors Little Caesars, Ford[1] Former names Motor City Bowl (1998–2008)
Ford Motor City Bowl (1997)2010 matchup FIU vs. Toledo (FIU 34-32) 2011 matchup (December 27, 2011) 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 Sun Belt that meets the NCAA requirement of at least six wins. In the event that the Sun Belt 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]
Motor City Bowl logo.
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 2009 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, played December 26, 2009, matched the Ohio Bobcats of the Mid-American Conference against the Marshall Thundering Herd of Conference USA.
A bowl record crowd of 60,624 fans witnessed the 2007 bowl game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Central Michigan Chippewas.
On April 12, 2010, it was announced that the Big Ten Conference has extended its affiliation with the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (Big Ten No.8) through the 2013 season. Also the Sun Belt Conference and the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl have agreed to a secondary tie-in that will allow a Sun Belt Conference team to play in the Detroit based game should the Big Ten Conference not have an available bowl-eligible team to play.
The 2010 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl game, the Big Ten did not have enough teams to fill the slot and the MAC champion Miami-Ohio chose to play in the GoDaddy.com Bowl; the bowl chose the MAC's third place team, Toledo, and the Sun Belt's conference champion Florida International; Florida International won giving the university its first ever bowl win.
ESPN has televised the game since its inception.
The 2011 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl will be Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 4:30 p.m. (ESPN).
Contents
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 Marshall 21 Ohio 17 30,331 Game article December 26, 2010 FIU 34 Toledo 32 32,431 Game article 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 Jason Wright Northwestern RB 2004 Dan Orlovsky Connecticut QB 2005 DeAngelo Williams Memphis RB 2006 Dan LeFevour Central Michigan QB 2007 Curtis Painter Purdue QB 2008 Rusty Smith Florida Atlantic QB 2009 Martin Ward Marshall RB 2010 T. Y. Hilton FIU WR Most appearances
Rank Team Appearances Record 1 Marshall 5 4–1 2 Toledo 4 1–3 3 Central Michigan 3 1–2 4 Cincinnati 2 0–2 T5 Boston College 1 1–0 T5 Bowling Green 1 1–0 T5 Connecticut 1 1–0 T5 Florida Atlantic 1 1–0 T5 FIU 1 1–0 T5 Memphis 1 1–0 T5 Mississippi 1 1–0 T5 Purdue 1 1–0 T5 Akron 1 0–1 T5 BYU 1 0–1 T5 Louisville 1 0–1 T5 Middle Tennessee 1 0–1 T5 Northwestern 1 0–1 T5 Ohio 1 0–1 See also
References
- ^ http://littlecaesarspizzabowl.com/Sponsors/tabid/71/Default.aspx
- ^ http://www.clickondetroit.com/sports/20688451/detail.html
- ^ 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.
External links
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl 1997 | 1998 | 1999
2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009
2010 | 2011NCAA Division I FBS bowl games Bowl Championship Series
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- College football bowls
- American football in Detroit, Michigan
- Sports in Pontiac, Michigan
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