When somebody asks, ‘Why do you love college football so much?,’ how do you respond? It’s a bizarre sport with a landscape featuring 136 different programs at the top level, with astronomical variances
in geography, prestige, budgets, and fan support.
The 2020s are an unprecedented era of the sport where NIL spending, the transfer portal, revenue sharing, and conference realignment are the hot topics, providing more disruption and change than the sport had ever seen. And one casualty of this is the regionality the sport was built on. We’re deprived of the Bedlam Series between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. The Iron Skillet between SMU and TCU just played its final matchup for the foreseeable future. The nation’s oldest non-conference rivalry between Cincinnati and Miami (OH) is no more after 128 meetings dating back to 1888.
But if somebody asks, ‘Why do you love college football so much?,’ you can simply point to Saturday’s Battle of I-75 rivalry between Bowling Green and Toledo. Deep hatred is shared between the two Ohio-based universities that lie a hair over 25 miles apart. Toledo’s campus is famously equipped with a 2,000-pound rocket, that, if launched, would land directly at the 50-yard line of Bowling Green’s Doyt Perry Stadium. Meanwhile, Bowling Green spent the week covering up every ‘T’ with orange tape on the signs and campus buildings to embrace its disdain for its arch nemesis.
Best of all, the all-time series prior to Saturday stood at 43-42-4, in favor of Toledo — showing how tight-knit of a series the Battle of I-75 truly is. The rivalry transpires on an annual basis, but Saturday’s edition hosted by Bowling Green was especially memorable.
The Falcons already had the largest attendance boost in the FBS prior to Week 7, flipping an average 2024 attendance of 13,358 to 21,244 prior to Toledo entering the building. Several factors contributed to Bowling Green’s sudden rise, including the marketing of the program by first-year head coach Eddie George — a former Heisman Trophy winner who enjoyed a successful NFL career with the Tennessee Titans. The university also saw a record enrollment number of 4,000 for its freshman class. But perhaps the most random boost Bowling Green received was due to the long snapper’s pet cat.
Pudge the Cat became an unofficial mascot of Bowling Green after wide receiver Finn Hogan posted the cat on TikTok during fall camp. The 3-year old exotic shorthair Persian belongs to long snapper George Carlson, who brought the cat into the locker room to provide uplifting support for injured players. Pudge is now a viral sensation who travels to games — even posing with Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell during Bowling Green’s trip to Louisville. The community rallying around the beloved cat is another reason fans are flocking to Bowling Green.
Bowling Green generated a sellout crowd of 24,000, filling Doyt Perry Stadium to the brim. It marked the Falcons’ first sellout since hosting College GameDay for a ranked vs. ranked matchup against Northern Illinois in 2003. Except this crowd wasn’t here because Bowling Green was winning. The Falcons were 2-3 entering Saturday’s Battle of I-75. Instead, this crop of Bowling Green fans wants to be the reason they start winning, and they were.
Bowling Green looked as lifeless as possible to start the highly-anticipated game, getting out-gained 162-5 in the first quarter. The Falcons faced some obvious disadvantages as veteran quarterback Drew Pyne was sidelined, donning a jersey with no pads and a walking boot. Thus, Lucian Anderson III was slated for his first collegiate start in front of 24,000 hopeful the 10.5-point underdog Falcons could pull off the upset.
Bowling Green trailed 21-0 looking for a sign of life. But there is quietly one rule of the Battle of I-75, which makes it a fantastic rivalry. That rule is — no lead truly matters. In 2022, Toledo erased a 21-0 deficit and captured a lead in the final minute. However, Bowling Green ensured its moment wouldn’t be stolen, completing the game-winning 42-yard touchdown pass to Ta’Ron Keith with nine seconds remaining. The following year, Toledo exacted revenge, storming back from an 18-point second half deficit to silence Doyt Perry Stadium with a 32-31 victory.
Thus, the game wasn’t over for Bowling Green. It was just beginning. A screen from Anderson to Cameron Pettaway traveled 45 yards to the end zone right before half, giving the Falcons initial hope. Then by forcing an eternal string of Toledo punts, they were able to chip away. In the late third quarter, Anderson delivered a strike to Jacob Harris in the corner of the end zone to trim the deficit to 21-14. And every great college football game involves trickery, and that’s how Bowling Green truly gained momentum. Anderson faked a handoff to Pettaway and then flipped the ball to wide receiver RJ Garcia II in the backfield. Pettaway briefly stopped and then entered a full sprint to gain separation downfield. Garcia perfectly delivered the ball to the running back for a 61-yard touchdown.
The Falcon flurry wouldn’t stop there. Toledo started the ensuing possession on its own 4-yard line and the Rockets fumbled on the 1. That’s when Chris McMillian punched in the go-ahead touchdown to complete a 28-0 run, and Toledo never responded.
“I’m just really proud of our boys and how we handled adversity. We talk a lot about guts, ethos, having faith, built for the fourth quarter, you know?” Bowling Green head coach Eddie George said. “I grind those kids for moments like that. It wasn’t pretty, it was not pretty at all in the beginning. You kind of think, going in front of a sellout home crowd, are we going to get boat-raced here? But, we settled down, we continued to believe, we stayed positive on the sidelines, and we had to overcome adversity. It’s toughness through adversity and that’s where I watched the team grow up today. I watched them evolve. I watched them come to life today. Because you have to be able to win games like that.”
Bowling Green officially knotted the crosstown rivalry series at 43 apiece when Anderson sprinted 23 yards backwards for a safety on the final play of the game, mobbed by teammates and even Pyne for the guts he displayed in a game that meant everything to the fanbase.
“Coming in, Lucian had to battle just to get to the opportunity at second string,” George said. “He never was down on himself. I could see him in the back. He’s kind of taking mental reps during the course of the week when Drew’s in there. He’s going over it because I told him, you never know when the time is going to come. It’s all about the power of the unit and we rallied around it. We knew he was going to get a start. We knew it was going to be a tough road. In a game like this, this is a tough one. It’s our toughest game of the year. Whether this game is played here or is played in Toledo, it’s going to be tough. So, for him to take that on and not get down or
upset, to stay the course — he didn’t go into a tank. He just kept making plays, kept leading, kept trusting. That just speaks to what these guys are doing day in and day out. The culture that we’ve started to create, and it’s been strengthened by a win today.“
The students then stormed the field in celebration of the thrilling comeback and unforgettable rivalry win, as everybody decked in orange danced to the same beat on the turf at Doyt Perry Stadium.
“This was my first year, so obviously this is my first time playing Toledo, and I didn’t know what the emotions would be like coming in,” Bowling Green defensive end Isaiah Thomison said. “Just seeing the team and the fanbase come together after the game was amazing. The emotions were high and it was a great win to send the seniors out on.”
What more could you ask for? If somebody asks why you love college football, it’s not all about national championships or who’s going to qualify for the ever-expanding College Football Playoff. Here’s a too good for Hollywood script written about a local rivalry, a passionate fanbase, a cat, an unthinkable comeback, an unlikely hero preserved the annals of the rivalry’s history, and a field storm that all created a memorable Saturday for an entire university.
Perhaps Toledo rebuttals for its moment at the Glass Bowl next year, or Bowling Green tells a different story. But the Battle of I-75 is one of college football’s greatest treasures and Saturday’s matchup truly embodied what this sport is about.
