The HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl will make a return to The Bahamas as the ninth edition is set to kick off the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Bowl Season. The game will be held on Saturday December 16, getting underway at 11 a.m. It will be televised live on ESPN. The announcement came from the organizers yesterday.
The 11 a.m. kickoff is the earliest in the game’s history that it will start. It will be played at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium.
“It’s an honor to be the very first game of Bowl Season,” said Lea Miller-Tooley, executive director of the HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl. “It’s an action-packed time of year for college football, and the HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl delivers a unique atmosphere with two great teams enjoying a week in one of the most beautiful locations in the world.”
The game is played between a school in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and a member of Conference USA (C-USA). It is one of 17 bowl games that is owned and operated by ESPN Events.
Last year, there was a close game between the Conference USA’s University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Blazers and the Miami University (Ohio) RedHawks. The Blazers won, 24-20, to lift the Prime Minister’s Trophy. The win gave the Blazers their second consecutive bowl win after they won the Independence Bowl in 2021.
In last year’s game, the Blazers’ defense made a key tackle to stop the RedHawks’ offense two yards shy of a touchdown as time expired. Blazers’ wide receiver Trea Shropshire tied the bowl record of 183 receiving yards that former Western Michigan receiver Corey Davis, now with the New York Jets, had in 2015.
The 2023 National Football League (NFL) Draft was in April and Blazers’ running back DeWayne McBride was drafted in the seventh round at pick 222 by the Minnesota Vikings. RedHawks’ wide receiver Mac Hippenhammer agreed to terms on a mini-camp invite with the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders won in 2021, the University at Buffalo in 2019, Florida International University (FIU) in 2018, the RedHawks in 2017, Old Dominion in 2016, Western Michigan in 2015 and Western Kentucky in 2014.
HomeTown Lenders is in its second year as the title sponsor of the game.
