The Tribune

THE bowl season will begin in the Bahamas this year as the 2019 Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl has been set for 2pm ET on Friday, December 20.

The longest-running international bowl game in college football history will play its sixth edition once again in Nassau’s 15,000-seat Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, and the game will be broadcast in the United States for the sixth consecutive year by ESPN.

For the fourth straight year, the game date falls on a Friday at the start of a long holiday period in the Bahamas.

“We are proud to be the opening game of the bowl season during the celebration of 150 years of college football in 2019,” said Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl executive director Richard Giannini.

“Keeping our game on Friday allows more Bahamians and their families to attend as the starting event of the holidays, and the later kickoff time will also give more people an opportunity to attend. Our bowl is now a fixture on the Bahamas sporting calendar, it has provided exciting competition in a great Bahamian gameday atmosphere for our fans in attendance, and it continues to be a yearly showcase of the Bahamas on ESPN. Thanks to the assistance of Elk Grove Village and Makers Wanted, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and the Atlantis, we know that the 2019 bowl will let everyone know why ‘‘Bowl Games are Better in The Bahamas’.”

Each year, thousands of American football fans travel to Nassau to see their universities play in the only current bowl game played outside the United States.

The inaugural bowl game in 2014 saw WKU beat Central Michigan 49-48 in a memorable offensive shootout. In 2015, Western Michigan beat Middle Tennessee 45-31, Old Dominion held off Eastern Michigan 24-20 in the 2016 game, Ohio beat UAB 41-6 in 2017 and FIU rallied to beat Toledo 35-32 in last year’s game.

As with the first five editions, the 2019 Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl will feature teams from Conference USA and the Mid-American Conference.

For more information on the 2019 Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl, visit MakersWantedBahamasBowl.com. The game is one of 15 postseason bowl games owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN.