Camellia Bowl 2018, Georgia Southern vs. Eastern Michigan: Where, when, and team info
The game in Montgomery kicks off Saturday.
Eastern Michigan and Georgia Southern will face off in Saturday afternoon’s Camellia Bowl. The matchup joins four other bowls in kicking off college football’s first bowl weekend of 2018. Nine-win Georgia Southern enters this one as a 3-point favorite over the EMU, and S&P+ likes GSU by 52 percent. Both teams will be appearing in the bowl for the first time in the game’s history, so it should be a fun time for both sides!
Who’s playing in the 2018 Camellia Bowl?
Eastern Michigan (7-5, 5-3 in MAC)
Not long ago, the Eagles were arguably the worst program in FBS. Those days have passed, as they’ve morphed into a bowl team two of the last three years under Chris Creighton. They have a top-40 defense, per S&P+, and used that to beat a Purdue team that later got its act together enough to beat the brakes off Ohio State. They also used it to hold Central Michigan, Arkon, and Kent State to 34 points over the last three games.
Georgia Southern (9-3, 6-2 in Sun Belt)
GaSo went back to triple-option principles under first-year head coach Chad Lunsford, and, what do you know, the Eagles won nine games again – exactly what they’d done in their first two FBS teams under Willie Fritz, before they went astray under Tyson Summers. This program’s history is definitive: When it runs the triple, things go well. This marks the program’s second actual bowl appearance, because they weren’t eligible as a new FBS program in 2014. They trounced Bowling Green in 2014’s GoDaddy Bowl.
Where is the Camellia Bowl?
The Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Ala., where it’s been hosted since 2014.
When is the Camellia Bowl, and how can I watch it?
5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 15, on ESPN and WatchESPN
