MAC creates new bowl game in Boca Raton

Nov 16, 2012; Boca Raton, FL, USA; A general view of FAU Stadium before a game between the Florida International Golden Panthers and the Florida Atlantic Owls. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Mid-American Conference announced Friday the creation of the Boca Raton Bowl, a pre-Christmas bowl game that will be televised nationally on ESPN or ESPN2 from 2014 to 2019.

FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla. will host the bowl, a 30,000-seat stadium the Florida Atlantic football team calls home.

The bowl will pair a MAC team against a team from Conference USA in 2014 and a team from the American Athletic Conference in 2015.

“The Mid-American Conference is pleased to partner with ESPN and several other conferences in the creation of the Boca Raton Bowl,” said MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher in a release Friday. “This has all the ingredients for an excellent bowl game: a great location, wonderful facilities for student-athletes and fans, and hungry teams. I am eagerly anticipating the inaugural game in December of 2014.”

According to the conference, the bowl will be supported by several Football Bowl Subdivision conferences on a six-year rotating basis – an idea created and popularized by the Big Ten Conference in early 2013.

Starting in 2014, the MAC will have contracts to play in five bowls. Those bowls include:

•GoDaddy Bowl vs. Sun Belt Conference (Mobile, Ala.),
•Famous Idaho Potato Bowl vs. Mountain West Conference (Boise, Ida.),
•Camellia Bowl vs. Sun Belt (Montgomery, Ala.),
•Boca Raton Bowl, and
•A bowl game yet to be announced.

“We’re delighted at this expansion of opportunity for our student athletes, alumni, and fans,” Western Michigan president John M. Dunn said. “This influx of new bowl locations, new agreements with other FBS conferences and expanded broadcast opportunities keeps the MAC vibrant and continues the growth and profile enhancement we’ve seen under Commissioner Steinbrecher.”