2015 Quick Lane Bowl, Minnesota vs. Central Michigan: Date, time, location and more

The first-ever Quick Lane Bowl went well for the Big Ten, as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights dominated North Carolina in the inaugural edition of the game. Now, the Big Ten will attempt to stay on top of the ACC again in the 2015 Quick Lane Bowl.

The Quick Lane Bowl is the de facto replacement of the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl at Ford Field after the latter folded following the announcement of a new bowl game in Detroit. The Detroit Lions and Ford Motor Family back the Quick Lane Bowl and serve as the primary sponsors of Michigan’s only college bowl game.

In the 2014 Quick Lane Bowl, Rutgers jumped out to a 23-0 lead by halftime and extended that lead to 40-7 in the fourth quarter before UNC was finally able to snag a couple touchdowns in the final minutes.

Here is everything you need to know to get ready for this year’s Quick Lane Bowl:

Date and time: Mon., Dec. 28, 5 p.m. ET

TV channel: ESPN2

Location: Detroit, Mich.

Stadium: Ford Field, 65,000

Last year’s score: Rutgers 40, North Carolina 21

Last year’s attendance: 23,876

Last year’s TV rating: 1.8

Last year’s payout for each school: $1.2 million

Team with the most all-time appearances: Rutgers and North Carolina, 1

Team with the most all-time wins: Rutgers, 1

Minnesota football may have finished the 2015 regular season with five wins, but they still earned a bowl bid thanks to their skills in the classroom. The Golden Gophers ended 2015 on a 1-5 skid that derailed a promising start, but their high Academic Progress Rate (APR) score and an abundance of bowl games led the NCAA to select them for the postseason anyway. Minnesota spent most of the year beating the teams they were supposed to and losing to any team that sniffed the top 25 (and also Nebraska).

Minnesota has struggled against ranked teams after going 0-6 against TCU, Ohio State, Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa, and Wisconsin. They can take some solace in the fact that three of those losses were by six points or fewer, but those missed opportunities kept the Gophers from adding a quality victory to their resume. Instead, their best win is either a three-point victory over a 7-5 Colorado State that ranks 92nd in the Sagarin Ratings or a nine-point win over an Illinois team that fell into the same five-win quagmire that UM did.

Junior quarterback Mitch Leidner struggled through an up-and-down season that mixed good performances (19-27, 264 yards, zero interceptions against Iowa) with bad (16-37, three interceptions against Wisconsin). He’ll get some help from freshman tailback Shannon Brooks, but the first-year player has been wildly inconsistent in 2015. He was able to gash Illinois and Purdue’s soft defenses for 350 total rushing yards in two Minnesota wins, but stronger teams like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio State found a way to hold him to fewer than three yards per carry.

Last bowl game: 2014 season’s Citrus Bowl (33-17 loss to Missouri)

All-time bowl record: 5-12

Head coach’s bowl record: This is head coach Tracy Claeys’s first bowl game.

In the grand scheme of things, 2015 was a solid first year for CMU head coach John Bonamego. After suffering three losses during a brutal non-conference schedule that included potential Playoff participants Michigan State and Oklahoma State, the Chips again contended for a MAC championship and ended in a three-way tie for the MAC West title.

Bonamego, the longtime NFL special teams coach chosen to replace the departed Dan Enos, put his emphasis on defense. CMU fielded the MAC’s best passing defense, allowing just 189 yards per game through the air, and held opponents to 22 points per game.

At the same time, Bonamego’s offense was throwing the ball all over the field. Quarterback Cooper Rush threw for more than 3,700 yards and 25 touchdowns, completing 67 percent of his pass attempts. The Chips’ 313 passing yards per game ranked behind only Bowling Green among MAC teams. Senior wide receiver Jesse Kroll became Rush’s favorite target, catching 59 passes for 856 yards and four touchdowns.

Last bowl game: 2014 Bahamas Bowl (49-48 loss to Western Kentucky)

All-time bowl record: 3-5

Head coach’s bowl record: Bonamego is coaching in his first bowl game.