2024 Boca Raton Bowl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 2024 Boca Raton Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11th Boca Raton Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Date | December 18, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | FAU Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Boca Raton, Florida | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Off.: JC Evans (QB, James Madison) Def.: DJ Barksdale (NB), James Madison) Special Teams: Ryan Hanson (P, James Madison)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Nolan Dumas (Mountain West)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 15,808 | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN ESPN Radio | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Chris Cotter (play-by-play), Mark Herzlich (analyst), and Coley Harvey (sideline) (ESPN) Chris Carlin (play-by-play) and Freddie Coleman (analyst) (ESPN Radio) | ||||||||||||||||||
The 2024 Boca Raton Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 18, 2024, at FAU Stadium located in Boca Raton, Florida. The 11th annual Boca Raton Bowl game featured the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers from Conference USA against the James Madison Dukes from the Sun Belt Conference. The game began at approximately 5:30 p.m. EST and aired on ESPN.[3][4] The Boca Raton Bowl was one of the 2024–25 bowl games concluding the 2024 FBS football season.
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
The game featured the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers against the James Madison Dukes. This was the first time that the two programs ever played each other.[5]
Western Kentucky finished their season with an 8–5 overall record and a 6–2 record in Conference USA play. Tied with Sam Houston for second place in the conference, the Hilltoppers' win over the Bearkats on October 16 gave them the tiebreaker and the berth in the 2024 Conference USA Football Championship Game, where they lost to Jacksonville State.
This was Western Kentucky's third Boca Raton bowl, the most appearances in the game to this point; the 2017 Hilltoppers won the 2016 edition over Memphis, and the 2021 Hilltoppers won the 2021 edition over Appalachian State.
James Madison Dukes
James Madison finished their season with an 8–4 overall record and a 4–4 record in SBC play, tied for third place in the East Division with archrival Old Dominion. This was James Madison's first Boca Raton Bowl. Starting quarterback Alonza Barnett was unable to play due to injury, resulting in backup Billy Atkins getting the start.[6] JC Evans split snaps with Atkins in the bowl game, winning Boca Raton Bowl Offensive MVP.[7]