The 2019 Cotton Bowl Classic was a college football

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 Subdivi ...

played on December 28, 2019, with kickoff at 12:00 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. local CST) on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

. It was the 84th edition of the

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its namesake stadium i ...

, and was one of the 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 FBS football season. Sponsored by the

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tire manufacturing company founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling and based in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, S ...

, the game was officially known as the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.

Teams

The participants were selected by the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

selection committee on December 8, 2019. This was the first meeting between the Memphis and Penn State programs.

Memphis Tigers

Memphis entered the game with a 12–1 record (7–1 in conference), ranked 15th in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broad ...

. The Tigers tied with

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

for first place of the West Division of the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

(AAC). Due to their win over Navy during the regular season, Memphis advanced to the AAC Championship Game, where they 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 ...

, 29–24. Memphis was selected to the Cotton Bowl as the highest-ranked team from the

Group of Five conferences In college football, the Group of Five are five athletic conferences whose members are part of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The five conferences are the American Athletic Conference (American), Conference USA (C-USA), Mid-Am ...

, a spot they secured by winning the AAC championship. This was Memphis' first Cotton Bowl Classic, as well as their first

New Year's Six The New Year's Six, sometimes abbreviated as NY6, is an unofficial but commonly used term used to describe the following NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) bowl games: the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl ...

game overall. At the time the Tigers received their bowl invitation, the status of head coach

Mike Norvell Michael Kelly Norvell (born October 11, 1981) is an American college football coach who is currently head coach at Florida State. Norvell was previously the head coach at Memphis. He has coached at Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, and Central A ...

was unclear, as he had accepted an offer to become the new head coach of the Florida State Seminoles. On December 9, Norvell announced that he would not coach Memphis in the bowl, allowing interim head coach Ryan Silverfield to do so. On December 13, it was announced that the interim tag would be removed and that Silverfield was being hired as the new head coach of Memphis.

Penn State Nittany Lions

Penn State entered the game ranked 13th in the AP Poll, with a 10–2 record (7–2 in conference). The Nittany Lions finished second in the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

's East Division. They split their four games against ranked opponents, defeating

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

and

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

while losing to

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

and

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. Penn State was selected to the Cotton Bowl as the highest-ranked team not already selected to a New Year's Six bowl. This was Penn State's fourth Cotton Bowl Classic; the Nittany Lions have a 2–0–1 record in the game, most recently their 1974 team winning the 1975 Cotton Bowl Classic over Baylor, 41–20.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

*
Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Penn State Nittany Lions bowl game navbox

Cotton Bowl Classic

Memphis Tigers football bowl games Penn State Nittany Lions football bowl games