sports

GameAbove Sports Bowl at Ford Field canceled ahead of 2026 season

Bowl season is over in Detroit, at least for now.

The GameAbove Sports Bowl, held annually at Ford Field in Detroit, has been canceled, first reported by by On3's Brett McMurphy on Tuesday, Feb. 10.

Detroit's annual bowl game started as the Motor City Bowl in 1997 with a 34-31 Mississippi win over Marshall at the Pontiac Silverdome. The game moved to Ford Field in 2002 and continued until 2008, before being rebranded as the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.

The bowl was reborn once again as the Quick Lane Bowl in 2014 and then renamed the GameAbove Sports Bowl in 2024. The 2024 edition of the bowl game was arguably the most exciting, with Toledo beating Pitt 48-46 in a six-overtime thriller, the longest bowl game in college football history.

The most recent edition of the bowl game was less eventful, with Northwestern beating Central Michigan 34-7 on Dec. 26, 2025. Despite that game featuring a team from Michigan, it officially drew 27,857 fans. The bowl game has suffered from sagging attendance since the 2020 edition was not played due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The best-attended Detroit bowl game was the 2007 Little Caesars Pizza bowl between Purdue and Central Michigan, where more than 60,000 fans watched Purdue squeak through a 51-48 win over the Chippewas.

It is not clear if a replacement bowl will come to Detroit for 2026.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit canceled for 2026 season

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