On Thursday, sports history was made. The GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit went to a record-setting six overtimes, where the Toledo Rockets beat the Pitt Panthers 48-46.
That’s a good level of excitement there from Schumacker, who kept his energy up into a sixth extra period. As ESPN PR’s Amanda Brooks noted, this marked the first time a bowl game had gone to six overtimes, plus season-long history in terms of six-overtime games:
Beyond that, as Ben Ross noted, this adds to a remarkable run of overtime bowl games:
There were some chances for this to end sooner, especially if Pitt had gone for the win in the second overtime rather than choosing to tie the game with a field goal. (For what it’s worth, ESPN analyst Dustin Fox was highly critical of that over the next sets of plays, drawing some social media backlash.) But the game didn’t end until the sixth overtime, and it made history in the process.
That’s just part of the wackiness we saw in the GameAbove Sports Bowl. It also featured a blocked extra point run back for two points (producing a much-questioned 6-2 score) and an immediate announcer jinx by Fox of Pitt’s redshirt freshman QB David Lynch, who threw a pick-six right after he was praised on the broadcast.
And there were other odd moments here, including another pick-six by Pitt’s replacement QB Julian Dugger from 310-pound Toledo lineman Darius Alexander late in regulation.
The game does speak to the overall value of college football, and of bowl season. That’s especially true for those of us who enjoy college football weirdness, which often features great moments from teams like Toledo and their #MACtion counterparts. Those teams sometimes don’t even make ESPN highlight packages despite big wins.
[Awful Announcing on X]