Pitt will play Eastern Michigan in the 2019 Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit, Michigan on Dec. 26, 2019.
The game will be played at Ford Field, the home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions, and kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. on the night after Christmas.
The 7-5 Panthers fell into the third tier of ACC bowl selection by losing their final two regular-season games. Three teams that finished 6-6 were picked ahead of the Panthers in the bowl selection order.
Coastal champions Virginia will play in the Orange Bowl as the conference’s automatic qualifier after 13-0 Clemson was selected for the College Football Playoff. Notre Dame took the place of an ACC school in the first-choice Camping World Bowl.
Louisville (7-5) will play in the Music City Bowl, Virginia Tech (8-4) will play in the Belk Bowl, Florida State (6-6) in the Sun Bowl and Wake Forest (8-4) in the Pinstripe Bowl.
Of the Tier III selections, the Military Bowl chose North Carolina (6-6) and the Independence Bowl took Miami (6-6) before Pitt was chosen for the Quick Lane Bowl.
Pitt has never appeared in the Quick Lane Bowl, which has been played annually since 2014, but the game is the spiritual successor to the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, which was played from 1997-13 at Pontiac Silverdome and then Ford Field.
Pitt played in the final Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in 2013, beating Bowling Green, 30-27. That was Pitt’s last bowl victory, as the Panthers lost the 2014 Armed Forces Bowl, 2015 Military Bowl, 2016 Pinstripe Bowl and 2018 Sun Bowl and were not bowl eligible in 2017.
The Big Ten Conference was contracted to supply the ACC’s opponent for this year’s Quick Lane Bowl, but did not have enough bowl-eligible teams. The bowl has a secondary arrangement with the Mid-American Conference, which had a surplus of bowl-eligible teams this season.
Eastern Michigan finished the season 6-6 and 3-5 in MAC play. The Eagles scored a major upset of Illinois on Sept. 14. They also had non-conference victories over Coastal Carolina and Central Connecticut State and also lost at Kentucky.
In MAC play, the Eagles lost at Central Michigan and Toledo and to Ball State, Buffalo and Kent State at home. They defeated Akron, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan and finished in last place in the MAC’s West Division.
Pitt and EMU have faced each other just twice, with the Panthers winning both contests. Pitt won 27-3 at Heinz Field in 2007 and 66-30 at Pitt Stadium in 1995.
Eastern Michigan is located in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with is about 40 miles to the east of Detroit. Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke was the athletic director at Eastern Michigan from 2013-17.
Wow that’s a major disappointment and clearly a slap in the face to Pitt.
The ACC announcers ridicule Pitt during the games, the ACC refs screw us on calls all season and now this crap bowl in De toliet?
LOL get out of the ACC it’s a joke
The Panthers are screwed byACC good old boy chauvinist network. I hope Heather takes them on.
We deserve what we get how can anyone say we deserve better
Pitt has no one to blame but themselves for being in this type of bowl game. Win one more game and they were guaranteed to be in a Tier One Bowl.
The ACC doesn’t pick the teams, the bowls do.
They’re not leaving the ACC and nor should they. Do you realize the annual check they receive from being in the ACC?
This is the All Carolina Conference telling Pitt get rid of Narduzzi. They don’t like anyone criticizing them.
The ACC doesn’t pick the teams, the bowls do.
Has nothing to do with that.
It is a game they should win. A bowl win is a good thing. They also knows other than the loyal fans that they will not travel well. The bowl reps are just money hungry maggots. The bowl system needs to go away. It has lost its usefulness.
Not any different than all of the rest of college sports.
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying Eddie. The bowl system is a joke but it is what it is.
If you finish the way we did this is what you get. Want respect, win.
Bingo
Way to go pat 5yrs on the job and this is the best you can do, absolutely amazing after another poor finish to the year he’s still our coach and i can hear everyone next yr at this time after another 6-6 or 7-5 record that he deserves 1 more year but hey we got stability,
Doing a solid to yr old school is fine with me. All the lower tier bowls suck. We might as well pick one we should win and an area we recruit in somewhat
I’m actually glad it’s on prime time so I can watch
It will definitely give me something to watch the day after Christmas!!
I watched that mess against Stanford because I was hole up in my bedroom with the flu. I might clean out my sock drawer instead of watching this one. That’ll be less painful.
But hey Rob we have stability that’s all that matters
If Narduzzi loses to this team, he can stay in Detroit.