The Gridiron Classic was an annual post-season college football game played from 2006 through 2009. It featured the conference champions from the

Pioneer Football League The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a football-only conference. It has member ...

(PFL) and

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

(NEC), conferences within

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA. The game did not have a set location; it was hosted at the home stadium of one of the participants, alternating between NEC and PFL each playing.

History

The Gridiron Classic was announced in May 2006, initially with a two-year agreement between conferences. The initial playing was set for November 18, 2006, then later re-scheduled to December 2, 2006, so teams invited to the Division I FCS playoffs would be known. Structurally, the Gridiron Classic was a

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 ...

, even through it did not use the word "Bowl" in its name. At the time, it was the only bowl game at the FCS level. The Gridiron Classic matched up the PFL and NEC champions, unless one of the teams received an

at-large bid A wild card (also wildcard or wild-card and also known as an at-large berth or at-large bid) is a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that fails to qualify in the normal way; for example, by having a high ranking or winnin ...

to the playoffs, which did not happen during the seasons that the game was contested. Prior to 2010, the champions of the PFL and NEC did not receive automatic bids to the FCS playoffs. The NEC champion began receiving an automatic bid in 2010, and the PFL champion began receiving an automatic bid in 2013. Prior to the Gridiron Classic, the NEC had been tied to the ECAC Bowl, which ended in 2003. In 2010, with the NEC champion receiving an automatic playoff bid, initial plans were to continue the Gridiron Classic with the second-place team from the NEC. However, the game was cancelled by August.

Game results

host team

Most appearances

;Teams with multiple appearances ;Teams with a single appearance Won: Butler,

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

Lost: Central Connecticut,

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, Monmouth

Appearances by conference

Media coverage

References

External links

2008 Gridiron Classic Highlights - Albany 28, Jacksonville 0 (12/6/08)
via

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gridiron Classic (2006-2009) Defunct college football bowls 2006 in sports in California 2007 in sports in Ohio 2008 in sports in New York (state) 2009 in sports in Indiana