The 2002 Motor City Bowl was a post-season

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

between the

Boston College Eagles The Boston College Eagles are the athletic teams that represent Boston College, located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivisio ...

and the

Toledo Rockets The Toledo Rockets are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Toledo. The Rockets compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The ...

on December 26, 2002, at

Ford Field Ford Field is a domed American football stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It primarily serves as the home of the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), as well as the annual Quick Lane Bowl college football bowl game, state champ ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Boston College scored touchdowns on its first six possessions and routed Toledo 51–25. It was the sixth time the Motor City Bowl had been played and the final game of the

2002 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2002 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with a double overtime national championship game. Ohio State and Miami both came into the Fiesta Bowl undefeated. The underdog Buckeyes defeated the defending-champion Hurricanes 31–24, end ...

for both teams. The game between the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

(MAC) team Toledo and

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...

Boston College was played at neutral-site Ford Field. This was the first Motor City Bowl played at Ford Field; all previous games were played at the

Pontiac Silverdome The Pontiac Silverdome (also known simply as the Silverdome) was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, ...

. As then organized the Motor City Bowl matched a MAC team and a team from either the Big Ten, the

, or an at-large team. Toledo accepted a bid for the Motor City Bowl after losing to

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

in the

MAC Championship Game The MAC Football Championship Game is a football game between the winners of the East and West divisions of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to determine the conference champion. History The game has been played since 1997, when the conferenc ...

. Toledo entered the bowl game as the defending champion, having defeated

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

in the

2001 Motor City Bowl The 2001 Motor City Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game part of 2001–02 NCAA football bowl games in which the Toledo Rockets of the MAC defeated the Cincinnati Bearcats of the Conference USA 23–16. It was played on December ...

. Boston College was the first Big East team to play in the Motor City Bowl and was playing in its fourth straight bowl game. The bowl game MVP was Boston College quarterback

Brian St. Pierre Brian Fuller St. Pierre (born November 28, 1979) is a former American football quarterback who is currently the head football coach of St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts. He was originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Steeler ...

, who completed 25 of 35 passes for 342 yards, a personal career high. Boston College scored on its first six possessions, and its 51 points set a Motor City Bowl record which would later be tied in the

2007 Motor City Bowl The 2007 Motor City Bowl, part of the 2007-08 NCAA football bowl games season, occurred on December 26, 2007 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The Central Michigan Chippewas, who won their second straight Mid-American Conference ...

when the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname is also used as colloquial designation ...

defeated the

Central Michigan Chippewas The Central Michigan Chippewas are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Central Michigan University (CMU), located in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The school fields sixteen men's and women's intercollegiate teams that compete at the N ...

51–48. On a sour note two Toledo players were ejected during the game; one for throwing a punch and another for a late hit out of bounds on St. Pierre.

References

{{Toledo Rockets bowl game navbox

Motor City Bowl The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (known as the Motor City Bowl until 2009) was a post-season college football bowl game that was played annually from 1997 to 2013. The first five games (1997–2001) were played at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, ...

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl Boston College Eagles football bowl games Toledo Rockets football bowl games