GameAbove Sports Bowl
| GameAbove Sports Bowl | |
|---|---|
| File:GameAbove Sports Bowl.png | |
| Stadium | Ford Field |
| Location | Detroit, Michigan |
| Operated | 2014–present |
| Conference tie-ins | Big Ten, MAC[1] |
| Previous conference tie-ins | ACC (2014–2019) |
| Payout | US$2 million (2019)[2] |
| Website | gameabovesportsbowl |
| Preceded by | Little Caesars Pizza Bowl |
| Sponsors | |
Ford Motor Company (2014–2023) GameAbove Sports (2024–present) | |
| 2024 matchup | |
| Pittsburgh vs. Toledo (Toledo 48–466OT) | |
| 2025 matchup | |
| Central Michigan vs. Northwestern (December 26, 2025) | |
The GameAbove Sports Bowl is a post-season college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that began play in the 2014 season. The game was previously known as the Quick Lane Bowl with Ford Motor Company serving as title sponsor of the game for 10 years, through its auto shop brand Quick Lane. That sponsorship ended in June 2024. In October 2024, strategic investment company GameAbove, through its GameAbove Sports brand, was announced as the game's new title sponsor.
Backed by the Detroit Lions of the National Football League, the game features a bowl-eligible team from the Big Ten Conference competing against an opponent from the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The bowl is played at Ford Field in Detroit and was created as a de facto replacement for the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (last played in 2013), and inherited its traditional December 26 scheduling. Unlike its predecessor, which featured the eighth-place team in the Big Ten against the MAC champion, competing teams are selected by conference representatives and are not based on final rankings.[3]
History
[edit | edit source]Since 2002, Detroit's Ford Field had played host to the Motor City Bowl—later known as the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl for sponsorship reasons; a bowl game between the 8th placed team in the Big Ten Conference and the champion of the Mid-American Conference (MAC), which was first played in 1997 at the Pontiac Silverdome. In May 2013, ESPN reported that the Detroit Lions were planning to organize a new Big Ten bowl game at Ford Field against an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) opponent—Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany had expressed a desire to revamp the conference's lineup of bowl games for the 2014 season to keep them "fresh".[4] In August 2013, the Lions officially confirmed the new, then-unnamed game, tentatively scheduled for December 30, 2014. The team had reached six-year deals with the Big Ten and ACC to provide tie-ins for the game; the teams playing in the bowl are to be picked by representatives from each participating conference.[3]
The announcement of the Lions' bowl game, and the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl's loss of Ford Field as a venue, left the fate of the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl—which had a relatively lower-profile matchup—in jeopardy. Detroit Lions president Tom Lewand remarked that "very few" markets could adequately support hosting two major bowl games.[5][6] Organizers were open to the possibility of moving the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl across the street to Comerica Park, home stadium of the Detroit Tigers, for 2014 as an outdoor game.[5] Comerica Park, the Tigers, and game sponsor Little Caesars are all owned by Ilitch Holdings.[5] However, these plans never came to fruition.[4][6]
In August 2014, the Lions announced that the Ford Motor Company had acquired title sponsorship rights to the new Detroit bowl, making it the Quick Lane Bowl—named for its auto shop brand, Quick Lane. It was also confirmed that the inaugural edition of the bowl would inherit the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl's traditional date of December 26, and be televised by ESPN. In a statement to Crain's Detroit Business, Motor City Bowl co-founder Ken Hoffman confirmed that "there is no Pizza Bowl for 2014. We will have to see about the future", implying that the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl had been cancelled indefinitely;[6][7] the December 2013 playing proved to be the final edition of the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.
On October 21, 2014, bowl organizers announced a secondary tie-in with the MAC.[8] The inaugural edition of the bowl was played on December 26, 2014, between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights of the Big Ten and North Carolina Tar Heels of the ACC.[9]
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the bowl was not played; although a specific reason was not given by organizers.[10]
In June 2024, Quick Lane sponsorship ended.[11] For several months, the organizers used "Detroit Bowl" as a working title. On October 8, 2024, strategic investment company GameAbove, through its GameAbove Sports brand, was announced as the game's new title sponsor, making it the GameAbove Sports Bowl.[12]
The 2024 edition of the bowl took six overtime periods to decide, setting a new record for the most overtime periods in an FBS bowl game.[13] It broke the prior record of five overtime periods, which had been set just two days prior in the 2024 Hawaii Bowl.[14]
Game results
[edit | edit source]| Date | Bowl name | Winning team | Losing team | Attendance | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 26, 2014 | Quick Lane Bowl | Rutgers | 40 | North Carolina | 21 | 23,876 |
| December 28, 2015 | Quick Lane Bowl | Minnesota | 21 | Central Michigan | 14 | 34,217 |
| December 26, 2016 | Quick Lane Bowl | Boston College | 36 | Maryland | 30 | 19,117 |
| December 26, 2017 | Quick Lane Bowl | Duke | 36 | Northern Illinois | 14 | 20,211 |
| December 26, 2018 | Quick Lane Bowl | Minnesota | 34 | Georgia Tech | 10 | 27,228 |
| December 26, 2019 | Quick Lane Bowl | Pittsburgh | 34 | Eastern Michigan | 30 | 34,765 |
| 2020 | Quick Lane Bowl | Canceled[15] | ||||
| December 27, 2021 | Quick Lane Bowl | Western Michigan | 52 | Nevada | 24 | 22,321 |
| December 26, 2022 | Quick Lane Bowl | New Mexico State | 24 | Bowling Green | 19 | 22,987 |
| December 26, 2023 | Quick Lane Bowl | Minnesota | 30 | Bowling Green | 24 | 28,521 |
| December 26, 2024 | GameAbove Sports Bowl | Toledo | 48 | Pittsburgh | 46 (6OT) | 26,219 |
| December 26, 2025 | GameAbove Sports Bowl | Central Michigan vs. Northwestern | TBA | |||
Source:[16]
MVPs
[edit | edit source]
| Year | MVP | Team | Position | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Josh Hicks | Rutgers | RB | [17] |
| 2015 | Mitch Leidner | Minnesota | QB | [18] |
| 2016 | Defensive Line | Boston College | DL | [19] |
| 2017 | Daniel Jones | Duke | QB | [20] |
| 2018 | Mohamed Ibrahim | Minnesota | RB | [21] |
| 2019 | Kenny Pickett | Pittsburgh | QB | [22] |
| 2021 | Sean Tyler | Western Michigan | RB | [23] |
| 2022 | Diego Pavia | New Mexico State | QB | [24] |
| 2023 | Darius Taylor | Minnesota | RB | [25] |
| 2024 | Junior Vandeross III | Toledo | WR | [26] |
| 2025 |
Most appearances
[edit | edit source]Updated through the December 2025 edition (11 games, 22 total appearances).
- Teams with multiple appearances
| Rank | Team | Appearances | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minnesota | 3 | 3–0 |
| 2 | Pittsburgh | 2 | 1–1 |
| Central Michigan | 2† | 0–1 | |
| Bowling Green | 2 | 0–2 |
† December 2025 participant
- Teams with a single appearance
Won (6): Boston College, Duke, New Mexico State, Rutgers, Toledo, Western Michigan
Lost (6): Eastern Michigan, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Northern Illinois
TBD (1): Northwestern
Appearances by conference
[edit | edit source]Updated through the December 2025 edition (11 games, 22 total appearances).
| Conference | Record | Appearances by season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | W | L | Win pct. | Won | Lost | |
| MAC | 8† | 2 | 5 | .286 | 2021, 2024 | 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023 |
| Big Ten | 6† | 4 | 1 | .800 | 2014, 2015, 2018, 2023 | 2016 |
| ACC | 6 | 3 | 3 | .500 | 2016, 2017, 2019 | 2014, 2018, 2024 |
| Independents | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 2022 | |
| Mountain West | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 2021 | |
† December 2025 participant
- Independent appearances: New Mexico State (2022)
Game records
[edit | edit source]| Team | Record, Team vs. Opponent | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Most points scored (one team) | 52, Western Michigan vs. Nevada | 2021 |
| Most points scored (losing team) | 46, Pittsburgh vs. Toledo | 2024 |
| Most points scored (both teams) | 94, Toledo vs. Pittsburgh | 2024 |
| Fewest points allowed | 10, Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech | 2018 |
| Largest margin of victory | 28, Western Michigan vs. Nevada | 2021 |
| Total yards | 524, Rutgers vs. North Carolina | 2014 |
| Rushing yards | 352, Western Michigan vs. Nevada | 2021 |
| Passing yards | 361, Pittsburgh vs. Eastern Michigan | 2019 |
| First downs | 30, Pittsburgh vs. Toledo | 2024 |
| Fewest yards allowed | 242, Nevada vs. Western Michigan | 2021 |
| Fewest rushing yards allowed | 65, Duke vs. Northern Illinois | 2017 |
| Fewest passing yards allowed | 26, Bowling Green vs. Minnesota | 2023 |
| Individual | Record, Player (Team) | Year |
| All-purpose yards | 281, Sean Tyler (Western Michigan) | 2021 |
| Touchdowns (all-purpose) | 2, most recently: Jaxson Kincaide (Western Michigan) |
2021 |
| Rushing yards | 224, Mohamed Ibrahim (Minnesota) | 2018 |
| Rushing touchdowns | 2, most recently: Jaxson Kincaide (Western Michigan) |
2021 |
| Passing yards | 361, Kenny Pickett (Pittsburgh) | 2019 |
| Passing touchdowns | 3, Kenny Pickett (Pittsburgh) | 2019 |
| Receptions | 12, shared by: Maurice Ffrench (Pittsburgh) Junior Vandeross III (Toledo) |
2019 2024 |
| Receiving yards | 194, Junior Vandeross III (Toledo) | 2024 |
| Receiving touchdowns | 2, Tyler Johnson (Minnesota) | 2018 |
| Tackles | 14, Lorenzo Waters (Rutgers) | 2014 |
| Sacks | 2, most recently: Jah Joyner (Minnesota) |
2023 |
| Interceptions | 1, by several players | |
| Long Plays | Record, Player (Team) | Year |
| Touchdown run | 62 yds., Ty Johnson (Maryland) | 2016 |
| Touchdown pass | 96 yds., Kenny Pickett to Maurice Ffrench (Pittsburgh) | 2019 |
| Kickoff return | 100 yds., Sean Tyler (Western Michigan) | 2021 |
| Punt return | 27 yds., Le'Meke Brockington (Minnesota) | 2023 |
| Interception return | 58 yds., Darius Alexander (Toledo) | 2024 |
| Fumble return | 7 yds., Truman Gutapfel (Boston College) | 2016 |
| Punt | 59 yds., Julian Diaz (Nevada) | 2021 |
| Field goal | 57 yds., Ben Sauls (Pittsburgh) | 2024 |
Media coverage
[edit | edit source]The bowl has been televised by ESPN or ESPN2 since its inception.
See also
[edit | edit source]References
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