College football bowl games: who plays today, Monday December 26? Dates, times and matchups

Things pick up tomorrow with four games and it’s pretty much non-stop action until the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2. Meanwhile fans can enjoy recently unwrapped Christmas presents and leftovers as they follow this matchup between the FBS and MAC conferences in Detroit.

The Quick Lane Bowl at Ford Field will see the New Mexico State Aggies (6-6) take on the Bowling Green Falcons (6-6) from just down the road on I-75. The Fighting Falcons are back at a bowl game for the first time since the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl. The Aggies last bowl game appearance came in 2017 at the Arizona Bowl, which they won 26-20 against the Utah State Aggies.

Bowling Green State University Falcons 2022 season

The Falcons had a rough start to the season, but BGSU managed to bounce back after losing four of their first six games. The Falcons were included in ESPN’s “College Football Bottom 10″ on Oct. 12 after losing 7-38 against Buffalo at home and finishing the first half of their season 2-4.

Despite the rough start, the Falcons managed to come back to win their next three games in a row against MAC rivals Miami, Central Michigan and Western Michigan before getting roughed up by Kent State 6-40. But, the highlight of their season came on Nov. 15 at the Battle of I-75 against arch-rivals University of Toledo. The Tuesday night game televised on ESPN U was a back-and-forth battle until the last second. After all was said and done the Falcons came out on top 42-35.

New Mexico State Aggies 2022 season

The Aggies also had a difficult start to the season losing their first four games with a point difference of 147 to 32. Two of those losses were to Big-10 teams Minnesota and Wisconsin. That tough schedule at the beginning ended up paying dividends as they went on to beat Hawaii, New Mexico, UMass and Lamar with only two more losses mixed in. The Aggies had a very strong finish to their 2022 season beating Liberty 49-15 and Valparaiso 65-3.

How to watch the Quick Lane Bowl 2022 live

The matchup

The Falcons averaged 23.5 points with 237 passing yards and 100 rushing yards per game. The Bowling Green defense, led by DL Karl Brooks, will have to contain Aggies QB Diego Pavia, who threw for over 500 yards in his last two games. The BGSU defense will need to step up and stop the run if they want to have a chance to win.

The Aggies averaged over 155 yards on the ground in 2022. Sophomore RB Star Thomas was New Mexico’s go-to-guy throughout the season and he’ll be looking forward to getting the ball and testing BGSU’s defense. On the other side of the ball the Aggies have struggled against out of conference teams, but have kept their last two opponents to only 17 points.

The Falcons enter the contest as favorites, but the game could go either way. Both teams have demonstrated this season that they’re capable of the best and worst and it’ll come down to which team shows up: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. The team from Ohio will need to tighten up a defense that allowed over 33 points per game. If the Falcons can shut down the Aggie’s run game, then they should be able to come away with a victory.

Aggies coach Jerry Kill takes New Mexico State to its second bowl game since 1960 in his first year. Meanwhile BGSU is led by fourth-year head coach Scot Loeffler, who is taking the Falcons to their 14th bowl appearance.

Despite freezing temperatures and snow in Detroit, the weather won’t be a factor at the Detroit Lions’ home at Ford Field.