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Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
Defunct college football bowl game held in Detroit
Defunct college football bowl game held in Detroit
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Little Caesars Pizza Bowl |
| nickname | Motor City Bowl |
| defunct | yes |
| logo | File:Little Caeasars Pizza Bowl.png |
| image_size | 180 |
| stadium | Ford Field |
| previous_stadiums | Pontiac Silverdome (1997–2001) |
| location | Detroit, Michigan |
| previous_locations | Pontiac, Michigan (1997–2001) |
| years | 1997–2013 |
| conference_tie-ins | Big Ten, MAC |
| Sun Belt (alternate) | |
| payout | 750,000 per team |
| sponsors | Ford (1997) |
| Ford, Chrysler, GM (1998-2007) | |
| Ford, GM, UAW (2008) | |
| Little Caesars (2009–2013) | |
| former_names | Ford Motor City Bowl (1997) |
| Motor City Bowl (1998–2008) | |
| prev_matchup_year | 2013 |
| prev_matchup_season | 2013 |
| prev_matchup_teams | Pittsburgh vs. Bowling Green |
| prev_matchup_score | Pitt 30–27 |
| succeeded_by | Quick Lane Bowl |
| conference_tie-ins = Big Ten, MAC Sun Belt (alternate) Ford, Chrysler, GM (1998-2007) Ford, GM, UAW (2008) Little Caesars (2009–2013) Motor City Bowl (1998–2008)
The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (known as the Motor City Bowl until 2009) was a post-season college football bowl game that was played annually from 1997 to 2013. The first five games (1997–2001) were played at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, and moved to the 65,000-seat Ford Field in downtown Detroit, Michigan in 2002—the past and present homes of the Detroit Lions respectively. The game marked the first bowl game held in the Detroit area since the Cherry Bowl in 1984–85.
The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl featured a bowl-eligible team from the Mid-American Conference (usually the winner of the MAC Championship Game, although that team was 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 did not have an eligible team, the game featured a team from the Sun Belt Conference that met the NCAA requirement of at least six wins. In the event that the Sun Belt did not have an available team, an at-large team could be chosen.
The final Little Caesars Pizza Bowl was held in 2013; it was displaced by the Quick Lane Bowl, which is organized by the Detroit Lions and also features Big Ten and MAC opponents (though the ACC served as the Big Ten's opponent through 2019). Organizers explored the possibility of moving the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl to nearby Comerica Park as an outdoor game, but the game would instead be cancelled.
History
The Motor City Bowl started in 1997 at the Pontiac Silverdome.
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. In 2011, the three automakers, along with the UAW, began contributing $100,000 jointly to become presenting sponsors of the game.
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 had extended its affiliation with the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (Big Ten no. 8) through the 2013 season. Also the Sun Belt Conference agreed to a secondary tie-in that would 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.
In August 2013, the Detroit Lions announced that it would hold a new bowl game at Ford Field beginning in 2014, between the Big Ten and an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) opponent. While Pizza Bowl organizers attempted to move the bowl to Comerica Park (which is owned by Little Caesars' parent company Ilitch Holdings) and convert it to an outdoor game, these plans never came to fruition.
In August 2014, the Lions announced that the new game would be known as the Quick Lane Bowl, and that it would be held on the same day—December 26—that the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl was traditionally held on. The MAC holds a secondary tie-in for the Quick Lane Bowl.
Game results
MVPs
| Year | style="background:#F68121; color:#FFFFFF; border: 2px solid #000000;" | MVP(s) | style="background:#F68121; color:#FFFFFF; border: 2px solid #000000;" | Team | style="background:#F68121; color:#FFFFFF; border: 2px solid #000000;" | Position | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | |||||||||
| 1998 | |||||||||
| 1999 | |||||||||
| 2000 | |||||||||
| 2001 | |||||||||
| 2002 | |||||||||
| 2003 | |||||||||
| Jason Wright | |||||||||
| 2004 | |||||||||
| 2005 | |||||||||
| 2006 | |||||||||
| 2007 | |||||||||
| 2008 | |||||||||
| 2009 | |||||||||
| 2010 | |||||||||
| 2011 | |||||||||
| 2012 | |||||||||
| 2013 |
Appearances by team
There were 17 playings of the bowl (34 total appearances). ;Teams with multiple appearances
| Rank | style="background:#F68121; color:#FFFFFF; border: 2px solid #000000;" | Team | style="background:#F68121; color:#FFFFFF; border: 2px solid #000000;" | Appearances | style="background:#F68121; color:#FFFFFF; border: 2px solid #000000;" | Record | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||||||||
| T2 | |||||||||
| T2 | |||||||||
| T4 | |||||||||
| T4 | |||||||||
| T4 |
;Teams with a single appearance Won: Boston College, Connecticut, Florida Atlantic, FIU, Memphis, Mississippi, Pittsburgh Loss: Akron, BYU, Louisville, Middle Tennessee, Northwestern, Ohio, Western Kentucky, Western Michigan
Appearances by conference
| Rank | Conference | Appearances | Record | Win % | # of Teams | Teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MAC | 17 | 7–10 | 7 | Marshall (3–1) | |
| 2 | C-USA | 5 | 2–3 | Cincinnati (0–2) | ||
| 3 | Sun Belt | 4 | 2–2 | 4 | FIU (1–0) | |
| 4 | Big Ten | 3 | 2–1 | 2 | Purdue (2–0) | |
| 5 | Big East | 2 | 2–0 | 2 | Boston College (1–0) | |
| T6 | ACC | 1 | 1–0 | 1 | Pittsburgh (1–0) | |
| T6 | SEC | 1 | 1–0 | 1 | Ole Miss (1–0) | |
| T6 | MWC | 1 | 0–1 | 1 | BYU (0–1) |
Notes
References
References
- "Little Caesars Pizza Bowl Sponsors and Sponsorship Opportunities". Littlecaesarspizzabowl.com.
- (August 26, 2014). "New Ford Field college bowl game gets a name: Quick Lane Bowl". Crain's Detroit Business.
- [http://www.clickondetroit.com/sports/20688451/detail.html ] {{webarchive. link. (September 6, 2009)
- (21 May 2013). "Report: Detroit Lions to host bowl game with Big Ten tie-in, Pizza Bowl getting dumped".
- "Detroit Lions announce agreement with ACC for Bowl Game at Ford Field".
- "Little Caesars Pizza Bowl organizers open to playing outside; Detroit Lions bowl interest confirmed".
- (19 August 2014). "Little Caesars Pizza Bowl at Ford Field canceled".
- "MAC, Quick Lane Bowl Agree To Backup Tie-In". Hustle Belt (SB Nation).
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