2007 Champs Sports Bowl


The 2007 Champs Sports Bowl was the 18th edition of the college football bowl game. It was part of the 2007-08 NCAA football bowl games season, and was played on December 28, 2007 at the Citrus Bowl stadium in Orlando, Florida. The game pitted the Boston College Eagles of the Atlantic Coast Conference against the Michigan State Spartans of the Big Ten Conference.

Background

Boston College won their first eight games of the season while rising from unranked to #2 in the polls before a match-up with Florida State. A 27-17 loss dropped them to #8 and a loss to Maryland the following week dropped them to #17, though they won their last two games to win the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference. In the ACC Championship Game, they faced off against #5 Virginia Tech, who beat them 30-16. This was the eighth bowl game of the decade for the Eagles. In Mark Dantonio's first season with Michigan State, he led them to their first winning season since 2003. They won their first four games of the season, but went 1-5 to begin conference play, before wins over Purdue and #22 Penn State righted the ship, though they finished tied for 5th with Purdue and Indiana in the Big Ten Conference. This was the fourth bowl game of the decade for the Spartans.

Game summary

Jamie Silva had 10 tackles, 7 solo while also having 2 interceptions and 4 punt returns for 37 yards en route to being named MVP.

Aftermath

The Eagles went to two more bowl game in the decade while Michigan State began a streak of 9 straight bowl appearances under Mark Dantonio.
Both quarterbacks went on to lengthy NFL careers.