Sports

Bobcats Earn Fifth-Straight Bowl Appearance

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The Ohio Bobcats accepted a bid on Sunday to play in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla. against the East Carolina Pirates on Dec. 23, extending Ohio’s current bowl streak to five-straight.

East Carolina (9-3, 6-2 C-USA) finished second in the Conference USA-East standings behind Ohio rival Marshall. The Pirates feature a potent offense that ranked 11th in the nation with 40.4 points per game and boast victories over ACC in-state foes North Carolina Tar Heels and the North Carolina State Wolfpack.

The Bobcats’ bowl chances were put on life-support Friday night with the Northern Illinois Huskies’ loss to the Bowling Green Falcons in the Mid-American Conference Championship game. While many predicted that the Toledo Rockets would receive one of the MAC’s final bowl bids over the Bobcats, Ohio was offered the final bid to bump Toledo out of postseason action.

Ohio has appeared in five-straight bowl games and has won its last two. Most recently in 2012, the Bobcats won the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl 45-14 over the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks.

Bowling Green’s MAC Championship win earned them a spot in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, while Northern Illinois accepted a bid to the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

Other MAC schools that accepted bowl bids along with the Bobcats include the Buffalo Bulls in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and Ball State Cardinals in the GoDaddy.com Bowl.