2016 Dollar General Bowl, Ohio vs. Troy: Date, time, location, and everything to know

Also, head over here for the fully updated bowl season calendar as it fills in, from the New Orleans Bowl through the Rose Bowl. We’ll also add picks, scores, and more to that calendar over time.

Our long national nightmare is over, because Dollar General has a bowl game now. Indeed, the GoDaddy Bowl has a new name, replaced by your favorite place to buy last-minute candles for your toddler’s birthday party. It’s a thing!

The Dollar General Bowl’s tie-ins this year are from the MAC and the Sun Belt, so there’s a good chance we’ll see some points. (We saw them last year, when triple-option Georgia Southern dropped 58 on Bowling Green.) Before GoDaddy, GMAC sponsored this game, which debuted in 1999.

Its previous MVPs include luminaries such as LaDainian Tomlinson, Ben Roethlisberger, Omar Jacobs, Bruce Gradkowski and Dan LeFevour. This game’s had some really good college football players do really well in it, including a few who went on to big things.

The game’s played in Alabama, so the weather’s reasonably warm and the crowds are very pro-football. Alabama’s hosting three bowl games this year, and that works because the people there like their football. This is the middle game, after the Camellia Bowl but before the Birmingham Bowl.

Date and time: Dec. 23, 8 p.m. ET

TV channel: ESPN

Location: Mobile, Ala.

Stadium: Ladd-Peebles Stadium

Last year’s score: Georgia Southern 58, Bowling Green 27

Last year’s attendance: 28,656

Teams with the most all-time appearances: Arkansas State, Louisville Marshall, Miami (Ohio), Toledo and Tulsa, 2

Teams with the most all-time wins: All of those except Louisville, 2

Ohio (8-5, 6-2 in MAC)

Ohio opened its season with a triple overtime loss to Texas State, but the rest of the Bobcats’ 2016 season has shaped up nicely. Ohio lost a close 29-18 loss on the road to Tennessee, one which the Vols had to pull away with in the fourth quarter. Ohio went on to win six out of its next seven, losing to just Eastern Michigan along the way.

In the Bobcats’ regular season finale, Ohio clinched the MAC East title with a 9-3 win over Akron. They made their first trip to the MAC Championship since 2011, but unbeaten Western Michigan rowed the boat past OU to take the conference title.

Offensively, the Bobcats have been in the bottom half of the MAC. Senior quarterback Greg Windham threw for over 1,3000 games through the Bobcats’ first eight games, but missed four games battling a leg injury. Backup Quinton Maxwell performed well in Windham’s absence.

This year marked the eighth straight winning season for head coach Frank Solich, and getting back to the MAC title game is something Solich, along with Bobcat fans, can hang his hat on this year.

Troy (9-3, 6-2 in Sun Belt)

Troy’s body of work in 2016 has been impressive, even though the Trojans took a bad loss to Georgia Southern on the regular season’s final day.

In Week 2, the Trojans nearly upset the No. 2 Clemson Tigers, losing by just six points in a 30-24 loss. Troy followed that loss with seven straight wins before dropping its second game of the season to Arkansas State. The loss to the Red Wolves would prove to be costly, given Arkansas State’s undefeated record inside conference play, thus giving them the Sun Belt title.

The Trojans haven’t been all that impressive offensively, and they’ve struggled to score with any regularity. Quarterback Brandon Silvers has racked up a bunch of yardage and some touchdowns, but he’s had his share of interception problems, too.

How Troy has done this season is impressive when you consider what it did just a season ago. Head coach Neal Brown’s first season had the Trojans going 4-8 in 2015, so a turnaround like this has to be all kinds of encouraging.