The 2020 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl 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 January 3, 2020, with kickoff at 3:30 p.m. EST (1:30 p.m. local MST) 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 23rd edition of the

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, previously the Humanitarian Bowl (1997–2003, 2007–2010) and the MPC Computers Bowl (2004–2006), is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 1997 at Albertson ...

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

Idaho Potato Commission The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) is a marketing board that represents the potato growers of the U.S. state of Idaho. The group's main initiative is ''Grown in Idaho'' — a collective trade mark program for marketing Idaho-grown potatoes, product ...

, from which it gets its name.

Teams

The game matched the

Ohio Bobcats The Ohio Bobcats are the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio University, located in Athens, Ohio, United States. Ohio University is a charter member (1946) of the Mid-Ame ...

from the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

(MAC) and the

Nevada Wolf Pack The Nevada Wolf Pack are the athletic teams that represent the University of Nevada, Reno. They are part of NCAA's Division I's Mountain West Conference. It was founded on October 24, 1896 with football as the Sagebrushers in Reno, Nevada. Hi ...

from the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations ...

. This was the first meeting between the two programs.

Ohio Bobcats

Ohio entered the game with a 6–6 record (5–3 in conference). They finished in a three-way tie for second place in the MAC's East Division, and did not face any ranked FBS teams during the season. After starting the season 2–4, the Bobcats won four of their remaining six games to become

bowl eligible Bowl eligibility in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level is the standard through which teams become available for selection to participate in postseason bowl games. When a team achieves this state, it is described as "bowl-eligible". ...

. This was Ohio's second appearance in this bowl; their 2011 team won that season's

over Utah State, 24–23.

Nevada Wolf Pack

Nevada entered the game with a 7–5 record (4–4 in conference). They finished in third place in Mountain West's West Division. The Wolf Pack were 1–1 against ranked FBS teams, defeating

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

while losing to

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. This was Nevada's third Famous Idaho Potato Bowl; the Wolf Pack were seeking their first victory in the bowl after losses in the

2006 MPC Computers Bowl The 2006 MPC Computers Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game held on December 31, 2006 at Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho. The game featured tie-ins between the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) which was represented by the Miami Hurrica ...

(to

Miami (FL) Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the ...

) and the

2008 Humanitarian Bowl The 2008 Humanitarian Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game between the Maryland Terrapins and the Nevada Wolf Pack on December 30, 2008. It was the two teams' first meeting. The game featured two conference tie-ins: the University of ...

(to

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

), when the bowl operated under different names.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

*
Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2020 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (01)

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

Nevada Wolf Pack football bowl games Ohio Bobcats football bowl games