The fifth annual New Era Pinstripe Bowl is nigh, and to date, the four bowl games in Yankee Stadium have fared much better than when Northwestern and Illinois tried to take Wrigley Field by storm for a regular-season game in 2010.
2014 Pinstripe Bowl, Penn State vs. Boston College: Date, time, location and more
New York City’s favorite sport, which is clearly college football, will take over Yankee Stadium two days after Christmas.
Notre Dame snuck in last year when the Big 12 didn't have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill its obligation, but the Pinstripe Bowl's official affiliation is with the ACC and Big Ten for at least the next five years. The bowl game was built from the ground up in 2010, so it doesn't have much history. Not much of note happened in its previous four games, either. Last year's MVP of the game in Notre Dame's 29-16 win over Rutgers was Zack Martin, an offensive tackle, so there's that. This year, it will be Penn State and Boston College, according to ESPN.
Date and time, ET: Saturday, Dec. 27, 4:30 p.m. ET
TV channel: ESPN
Location: Bronx, N.Y.
Stadium: Yankee Stadium; 54,251
Last year’s score: Notre Dame 29, Rutgers 16
Last year’s attendance: 47,122
Last year’s TV rating: 3.2
Last year’s payout for each school: $1,800,000
Team with the most all-time appearances: Syracuse and Rutgers, two
Team with the most all-time wins: Syracuse, two
Penn State Nittany Lions (6-6, 3-5 Big Ten)
The first year of the James Franklin era in Happy Valley was notable as much for Penn State’s victories off the field as on. Two relatively quiet, but hard-fought early wins — 26-24 over UCF in Ireland and 13-10 over Rutgers — ended up being Penn State’s best of the season and helped the Nittany Lions squeak into the first bowl game they’ve been allowed to be eligible for since the grave unpleasantness of 2011 and 2012.
Penn State is led on offense by QB Christian Hackenberg, but the one-time 5-star QB prospect threw just eight touchdowns in 434 attempts this season and took roughly 6 million sacks in an overall frustrating year. If anyone’s a bedrock of consistency for the Nittany Lions, it’s senior kicker Sam Ficken, who scored more than the margin of victory in three of PSU’s six wins, including both Big Ten victories.
Last bowl game: 2012 TicketCity Bowl vs. Houston, 30-14 loss
All-time bowl record: 27-15-2
Head coach’s bowl record: James Franklin, 2-1
Boston College (7-5, 4-4 ACC)
Boston College hasn’t really done anything to spark the interest of the college football world this year, but a year removed from losing star running back Andre Williams, who rushed for over 2,000 yards last season, the Eagles were actually a pretty good team. They beat USC in Week 3, and they took some good teams — including Clemson and Florida State — down to the wire before eventually losing. It wasn’t exactly a memorable year, due to the close losses in big games, though.
That said, BC still has the chance to pick up its second “big win” of the season, and it will attempt to do so behind a solid running game and a strong defense. Tyler Murphy has struggled to throw the ball at times, but he has over 1,000 yards rushing, and freshman running back Jon Hilliman is close behind him. Still, it will be the defense’s responsibility to win the bowl game, just like it has been all year.
Last bowl game: 2013 AdvoCare V100 Bowl vs. Arizona, 42-19 loss
All-time bowl record: 13-10
Head coach’s bowl record: Steve Addazio, 1-1
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