Pitt vs. Northwestern, Pinstripe Bowl 2016: Wildcats beat Panthers at Yankee Stadium

Miami began the Russell Athletic Bowl with five consecutive three-and-outs. Late in the first quarter, WVU pulled off the same feat. The Mountaineers only once drove more than 40 yards in a possession, and Miami finished the game gaining 42 yards on its final 15 plays.

This was a game of droughts ... and one burst. When UM’s Brad Kaaya and Ahmmon Richards connected for a 51-yard score with 6:30 left in the first half, it tied the game at 7-7 and kick-started a short run of Hurricane success. They drove 59 yards in six plays to go up 14-7 on their next possession, then improbably went 70 yards in five plays in the final minute of the first half go up 21-7. They took advantage of a dubious third-down pass interference penalty to score a touchdown on their first drive of the second half, and that was about it. They tacked on a field goal to pull away for a 31-14 win in Orlando.

Northwestern beat Pitt in the Pinstripe Bowl on Saturday, and, wow, did Wildcats running back Justin Jackson have a day.

Jackson toted the rock 32 times. He gained 224 yards and scored three of NU’s four touchdowns. That yardage total was a career high by a long shot.

Northwestern beat Pitt in an exciting Pinstripe Bowl on Wednesday in New York, 31-24. The Wildcats finished the 2016 season 7-6 and the Panthers 8-5.

Pitt’s best chance to come back came just inside the three-minute-remaining mark in the fourth quarter, with Northwestern up by a touchdown.

The NBA community lost one of its brightest stars when heralded TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager passed away in December after a years-long battle with a rare form of leukemia.

But it wasn’t just the NBA who lost one of its iconic figures. Sager graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in speech in 1973. He was among many successful Northwestern sports reporters, including Michael Wilbon, J.A. Adande, and Rachel Nichols.

Pitt and Northwestern cap their 2016 seasons on Wednesday at the Pinstripe Bowl in New York. Notably, it’s the last collegiate game for Pitt’s inspiring, cancer-beating running back James Conner, who’s headed to the NFL afterward. It’s also the last game at Pitt for newly hired LSU offensive coordinator Matt Canada and senior quarterback Nathan Peterman, so the Panthers are losing quite a bit of firepower after the final whistle. They’ll want to seize the moment with the players and coordinator they have.

The Wildcats are trying to finish in style a season that once looked pretty doomed. Northwestern started the year 0-2 after last year’s 10-win campaign, with losses at home to Western Michigan (which turned out to be better than we thought) and Illinois State. The Wildcats could’ve tanked 2016 easily, but they figured enough things out to finish the year 6-6 and get to the Pinstripe. That’s not so bad at all.

The Pittsburgh Panthers are 5-1 straight up and against the spread in their last six games played in the month of December. The Panthers will try to end a solid 2016 campaign on a high note with a win over the Northwestern Wildcats in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Pittsburgh is a 5.5-point favorite at Yankee Stadium at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Since opening as a 3-point favorite, the Panthers have received steady betting action to move the line to -5.5.

Both sides are right. Bowls are a cynical money-making exercise, an excuse for ESPN inventory, and an outdated way for all the wrong people to maintain some semblance of control over college football. They’re also happy, bonus football.

We are at both extremes in 2016. We once again had 80 bowl bids to give out and fewer than 80 bowl-eligible teams, a sure sign of bloat and excess. We’re also loaded with perhaps more interesting bowl matchups than we’ve ever seen.

The Pitt football team will play Northwestern in this year’s Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 28 (2 p.m. ET, ESPN). College football players can’t get paid, but they can accept bowl gifts, which range from cool to not. The Pinstripe Bowl’s sponsor is apparel company New Era, so there’s going to be a good deal of athletic swag here.

Pitt convinced Santa Claus to stop into the team’s facility with the delivery.

Bowl games are good. There are too many of them. Both things are true.

We’re holding steady at 41 on this year’s schedule, counting the National Championship, and again have multiple 5-7 teams that made it in because we ran out of 6-6 teams (Mississippi State and North Texas this time).

College football’s bowl season is upon us. A full schedule is here.

There are 40 bowl games spread from Dec. 17 to Jan. 2, with the National Championship on Jan. 9. Unless you’re watching on multiple monitors and are really committed, you won’t catch all of them. (If that is your plan, more power to you.)

Pittsburgh Panthers running back James Conner announced Saturday that he’d forgo his senior season and enter the 2017 NFL draft.

Conner, 21, scored 16 rushing touchdowns and four receiving touchdowns during his junior season in 2016, but it was most impressive because it was a return to football after missing most of the 2015 season because of an MCL injury. But in December 2015, he announced he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

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.

The new Yankee Stadium, the house that replaced the House that Ruth Built, hosts college football games now. It’s the site of the annual Pinstripe Bowl, which this year has automatic tie-ins for someone from the ACC against someone from the Big Ten. (It’s also the site of a future Rutgers-Maryland game, which, fine.)