The Mid-American Conference announced today a tie-in with the newly created Miami Beach Bowl to be played in Marlins Park in Miami, Fla. The MAC will play in the Miami Beach Bowl in the 2016 and 2018 bowl seasons as part of a rotation of FBS conferences.
The creation of the Miami Beach Bowl is the third of a series of bowl announcements and the centerpiece of a joint agreement between several FBS conferences. The Miami Beach Bowl, along with the previously announced Boca Raton Bowl and Bahamas Bowl, will be supported by several FBS conferences on a six-year rotating basis (2014-2019).
The MAC will play the American Athletic Conference in the Miami Beach Bowl in both the 2016 and 2018 bowl seasons. The MAC will have the final primary bowl partnership announcement for this rotation in the next several days.
“The Mid-American Conference is proud to have a tie-in with the Miami Beach Bowl as part of this collaborative effort among FBS conferences,” said Jon Steinbrecher, Mid-American Conference commissioner. “We are excited for our student-athletes, fans and alumni to have the opportunity to come to South Florida as a bowl destination during the holidays for the 2016 and 2018 bowl seasons.”
Marlins Park
With the Miami Beach, Boca Raton and Bahamas Bowl rotation, the MAC will have created two new primary appearances on an annual basis for the next six years. Starting in the 2014 college football season, the MAC will have a minimum five guaranteed bowl opportunities.
MAC Primary Bowl Partners 2014-19
2014 Bowl Season
GoDaddy Bowl (Mobile, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, Ida.; vs. Mountain West)
Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, Fla.; vs. Conference USA)
Bahamas Bowl (Nassau, Bahamas; vs. American Athletic)
2015 Bowl Season
GoDaddy Bowl (Mobile, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, Ida.; vs. Mountain West)
Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, Fla.; vs. American Athletic)
Bahamas Bowl (Nassau, Bahamas; vs. Conference USA)
2016 Bowl Season
GoDaddy Bowl (Mobile, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, Ida.; vs. Mountain West)
Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Bahamas Bowl (Nassau, Bahamas; vs. American Athletic)
Miami Beach Bowl (Miami, Fla.; vs. American Athletic)
2017 Bowl Season
GoDaddy Bowl (Mobile, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, Ida.; vs. Mountain West)
Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Bahamas Bowl (Nassau, Bahamas; vs. Sun Belt)
Bowl Game – TBA
2018 Bowl Season
GoDaddy Bowl (Mobile, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, Ida.; vs. Mountain West)
Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, Fla.; vs. Conference USA)
Miami Beach Bowl (Miami, Fla.; vs. American Athletic)
2019 Bowl Season
GoDaddy Bowl (Mobile, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, Ida.; vs. Mountain West)
Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.; vs. Sun Belt)
Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, Fla.; vs. American Athletic)
Bowl Game – TBA
Beginning in the 2014 bowl season, the Miami Beach Bowl, Bahamas Bowl and the Boca Raton Bowl will become a rotation for two MAC bowl appearances as the fourth and fifth primary bowl partners for the Conference.
The MAC has long-term primary contracts with the Go Daddy Bowl (based in Mobile, Ala.) through the 2017 season and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (based in Boise, Ida.) and newly created Camellia Bowl (based in Montgomery, Ala.) through the 2019 season.
Earlier in this month, the MAC announced the creation of the Boca Raton Bowl, a newly created bowl game to begin in 2014, which will be owned and operated by ESPN. The Boca Raton Bowl will be a pre-Christmas bowl game and will be televised nationally on ESPN or ESPN2. The Boca Raton Bowl will be played at FAU Stadium, an open-air stadium opened in 2011 which seats nearly 30,000 fans on the campus of Florida Atlantic University.
Also in October, the MAC announced the creation of the Bahamas Bowl, a newly created bowl game to begin in 2014. The Bahamas Bowl will be played at Thomas A. Robinson Stadium, named for the Olympian track & field star, the stadium has the capacity of 15,000 and the ability to be expanded to hold as many as 30,000 fans.
Earlier this summer, the MAC announced the creation of the Camellia Bowl, a newly created bowl game to begin in 2014, which will be based in Montgomery, Alabama, owned and operated by ESPN. The Camellia Bowl will feature a MAC bowl eligible football program to face a member of the Sun Belt Conference for the next six consecutive football seasons (2014-2019) in a pre-Christmas game televised nationally by ESPN or ESPN2.
