The Pinstripe Bowl is happening today! Actually, by the time you read this, it’s probably getting set to kick off. 7-5 Syracuse will face 7-5 Kansas State in the new Yankee Stadium’s first college football game. This also marks the first bowl game in the New York City area since the Garden State Bowl took place at Giants Stadium twenty-odd years ago, and the first at any iteration of Yankee Stadium since 1962. The excitement of having a bowl back in the area is not lost on Syracuse coach Doug Marrone nor his team of Orangebros:
Syracuse has 24 players on its roster from the state, and Marrone is a Bronx native and Yankee fan. The sentimental and strategic importance of having his team participate in the first bowl at the new stadium isn’t lost on the second-year coach. The old Yankee Stadium hadn’t hosted a bowl since the 1962 Gotham Bowl.
“When the announcement was made that a bowl game was going to be played in Yankee Stadium for the first time, my thought was that if we were not going to play in a BCS game, then how great would it be to play in the first college bowl game in Yankee Stadium in my first head coaching job?” Marrone said.
Wait, it used to be called the Gotham Bowl? That’s so much cooler. Never mind! Go watch some football! And if you’re not sure who to root for, this might help. Kickoff is at 3:20 on ESPN.