The Eagles are playing in their first bowl game in 29 years. The Monarchs are playing in their first bowl game ever. Not bad for a team that just started playing football again in 2009, after a 69 year hiatus.
Maybe in power 5 land bowl games are meaningless, but this game means quite a lot. On one side, it’s a reward for turning around a program, and on the other it’s a validation of a starting one.
The football will be good, too. Eastern Michigan has been all over the place this season. They are in the middle of the MAC in most team stats, but at times they have looked really good in every phase.