Bowling Green Falcons to face New Mexico State Aggies in 2022 Quick Lane Bowl

For the first time in seven years, the Bowling Green Falcons (6-6, 5-3 MAC) are going bowling, accepting an invitation to the 2022 Quick Lane Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. Their opponent will be the FBS independent New Mexico State Aggies (6-6), who will be in their second bowl game since 1960.

The news was first reported by WTOL-TV’s Jordan Strack on Sunday afternoon.

BGSU qualified for their bowl game on the back of an impressive conference slate, going 4-1 in the first five games (with a lone loss to Buffalo) and playing their way into a three-team tie in the East division before ultimately taking two losses in the final two weeks to finish third.

Their appearance in the Quick Lane Bowl will be the program’s first since their MAC Championship campaign in 2015, where they lost to the Georgia Southern Eagles by a final score of 58-27 in the GoDaddy Bowl. It’ll be BGSU’s second time playing a bowl game in Detroit, having previously played in the 2013 Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl against Pittsburgh.

BGSU will seek their first bowl win since 2014, when they beat the South Alabama Jaguars in the Camellia Bowl by a final score of 33-28.

The New Mexico State Aggies, meanwhile, had a uniquely challenging season to claim their first bowl bid since the 2017 Arizona Bowl.

The Aggies, in their first season under new head coach Jerry Kill, started 0-4 and went through a flurry of personnel changes, then ended up finishing the season 5-1, with wins over Hawai’i, UMass, Lamar (FCS), Liberty and rival New Mexico.

A canceled game against San Jose State after the sudden death of a member of the football team greatly complicated their sudden resurgence, as they were 5-6 overall with one FCS victory. Thankfully for the Aggies, the NCAA granted them a hardship waiver after it was apparent the game would not be made up and multiple FBS teams turned down offers to play.

NMSU played a second FCS team, Valparaiso, this week to round out the schedule, winning by a final score of 65-3 to get to 6-6.

The Aggies will be looking for a fourth-straight bowl victory, a streak dating back to the 1959 Sun Bowl, when the Aggies took down what is now North Texas 28-8. NMSU is undefeated in five bowl appearances, going 3-0-1 in their four prior appearances.

The 2022 Quick Lane Bowl will kick off on Monday, Dec. 26, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, with a national broadcast on ESPN. Tickets can be purchased at the link embedded.