The Battle for the Bell is an American

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 in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

game played by the

Marshall Thundering Herd football The Marshall Thundering Herd football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports program of Marshall University. The team represents the university as a member of the Sun Belt Conference East Division of the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

team of

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges ...

and the Ohio Bobcats football team of

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subse ...

. It is a regional rivalry, with the universities' campuses located about 80 miles (130 km) from each other, with a bell awarded as the trophy for the winner of the game. While Marshall and Ohio first played in 1905, they did not start playing for "The Bell" until 1997 when Marshall rejoined 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 t ...

. With Marshall's move from the MAC to

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are ...

in 2005, the rivalry game was on hiatus for several years. The series unexpectedly resumed in 2009 when the Herd and Bobcats faced off in the

2009 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl The 2009 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl was an NCAA-sanctioned bowl game (previously the Motor City Bowl game) played at 1:00 PM EST on December 26, 2009, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan and aired on ESPN. The game was the 13th installment of the ...

, which Marshall won 21–17. A six-year contract between the schools began in 2010. The six-year series contract between the two schools was not renewed following the 2015 season. The rivalry resumed in the 2019 season, with additional games scheduled for the 2025 and 2027 seasons. Ohio leads the all-time series over Marshall 33–21–6.

Series overview

Game results

References

;Sources

External links

Ohio to play MU in 2010

All-Time series History
{{Sun Belt Conference football rivalry navbox College football rivalries in the United States Marshall Thundering Herd football Ohio Bobcats football

Series overview

Game results

See also

References

External links