Is This Year’s Sun Bowl the MAC’s Biggest Non-New Year’s Bowl?
Central Michigan plays in arguably the MAC’s biggest bowl since the 2017 Cotton Bowl this weekend
After news of Central Michigan’s switch from the Arizona Bowl to the Sun Bowl, we’ve written a good amount about how special of an occurrence this was.
Landing a team in the Sun Bowl, with its revered standing and pomp and circumstance, is a significant victory for the MAC. With the exception of the conference’s two BCS/New Year’s Six games, the conference has hardly been a bowl of this magnitude over the past fifty years.
Of course, there are arguments one can make for past bowls being the biggest non-New Year’s bowls in the MAC’s history, so we’ll analyze the competitors to this year’s Sun Bowl for that crown.
Tangerine Bowls of the 60s and 70s
Toledo and Miami (Ohio) fielded some of the MAC’s greatest teams of all-time in the 1960s and 1970s. Toledo won 33 games in a row from 1969-1971 under the leadership of Chuck Ealey, a trailblazer for Black quarterbacks who finished 8th in the Heisman voting in 1971.
Miami (Ohio) had some legendary teams themselves in the 1970s, winning three MAC titles in a row from 1973 to 1975 and notching three straight Tangerine Bowl wins over SEC teams in that period. In those three years, Miami went 32-1-1 and finished in the top 20 every year. Another pioneering Black quarterback, Sherman Smith, led Miami to greatness in those years as he amassed over 2000 rushing yards.
Ohio even sent an all-time great team to Orlando when their 1968 squad went 10-0 and earned the #15 ranking before losing to Richmond in the Tangerine Bowl. Yet another pioneering Black quarterback, Cleve Bryant, led the Bobcats to greatness that year.
The mention of Miami’s wins over SEC teams and Toledo’s epic winning streak may cause some to wonder why these bowls are not easily considered the most important of the MAC’s non-New Year’s bowls. After all, the bowl schedule only had 10 games in those years, so they had to be nationally significant.
Despite the minuscule bowl slate of the era, the Tangerine Bowl was largely an afterthought on the national stage. In Ohio’s 1968 appearance and the three years of Toledo’s 35-game winning streak, the game was hardly syndicated outside of the markets of the participating teams.
In 1969, when New York City’s WPIX11 picked up Toledo’s Tangerine Bowl appearance against Davidson up, they only did so on a tape-delay at 11:30 PM that night. Throughout my research, I failed to find a station West of the Mississippi River that picked up a Citrus Bowl during Toledo’s winning streak.
When Miami’s MAC dynasty took place, the Tangerine Bowl’s reach remained about the same with the game being syndicated to a few markets in 1973, and only the home markets in 1975. The closest thing to a national broadcast came in 1974 when several independent stations across the country picked up #15 Miami’s 21-10 victory over 6-5 Georgia. Consequently, this game may be the best competition with this year’s Sun Bowl as the MAC’s most important non-New Year’s bowl.
(For a more detailed breakdown of the Tangerine Bowl and it’s markets in the 1960s and 1970s, please see this link)
So what does this whirlwind of syndication data mean? While the MAC showcased some generational teams in the Tangerine Bowls, these games lacked television exposure and did little for the conference’s national profile with the exception of the 1974 game. This makes them less significant in terms of exposure than this year’s Sun Bowl.
Motor City and Quick Lane Bowls
After reading the argument against the Tangerine Bowls, one may think Central Michigan’s appearance in the 2021 Sun Bowl is comparable to the MAC’s previous showings in Detroit’s bowls.
In terms of opponent quality, this comparison to this year’s Sun Bowl is true as most of the “significant” opponents the MAC faced in Detroit were middling BCS/Power Five conference foes.
The Motor City Bowl and now Quick Lane Bowl simply do not have the tradition of the the Sun Bowl, college football’s second-oldest bowl.
There’s a reason why CBS always prides itself in its 53-year partnership with the Sun Bowl, a partnership that becomes even more special when one looks at the near-monopolization of the bowl season by ESPN.
When the Motor City Bowl burst onto the scene in 1997, the bowl schedule ballooned to 20 games. It lacked the reputation of the rest of its counterparts and therefore was an afterthought, despite having a national TV audience.
The same is true for the Quick Lane Bowl, even more so in fact, with the bowl schedule consisting of over 40 games now. It is likely that no matter how big bowl season gets, the Sun Bowl will maintain its honored reputation.
Other Significant Bowls
Of course, there are several other bowls that others can argue for such as the 2004 Independence Bowl where Miami defeated Iowa State, or any bowl where the MAC has played a Group of Five conference champion like the 2014 or 2018 Boca Raton Bowls. Even last season, Ball State played Mountain West champion, San Jose State on CBS in the Arizona Bowl.
Yet, none of those bowls had the prestige of or feel of a rare occurrence that this Sun Bowl has. Additionally, the matchups against fellow Group of Five conference champs failed to jump out as “defining moments” from many fans’ perspectives.
Central Michigan may have finished in the middle of the pack of a stacked MAC this year, but a wise coach once told me in a high school football film room, “I’d rather be lucky than good,” and it is fits here.
Call it bad luck due to COVID or good luck for the Chippewas, they have a chance to represent the MAC on one of college football’s most tradition-rich stages. As a result, it’s reasonable to argue that this game competes with only the MAC’s New Year’s Six and BCS appearances in terms of relevance for the conference.