Indiana Accepts Bid to Play In New Era Pinstripe Bowl

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana (6-6, 2-6 B1G East) will face Duke (7-5, 4-4 ACC Coastal) in the 2015 New Era Pinstripe Bowl, it was announced Sunday afternoon. The game will be held at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 26, with a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC.

“All of us at Indiana University are delighted that our football team has earned a well deserved bowl berth, which reflects the strong performance and hard work of our players and coaching staff, the dedication and support of our fans, and the very encouraging progress our program has made this season,” said IU President Michael A. McRobbie. “We’re excited to be playing in New York City and at hallowed Yankee Stadium, which will certainly make for a most memorable holiday season experience for our many Hoosier alumni and friends residing in the region. And we’re particularly pleased to be competing against a fellow member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), which has as members the nation’s 60 leading research universities.”

The 2015 New Era Pinstripe Bowl will be the second game in the Bowl’s history to feature teams from the Big Ten and ACC. Each respective conference has entered into multi-year agreements with the New York Yankees and the New Era Pinstripe Bowl to have a representative school play in the game.

“I’m happy and pleased for our players and excited for the opportunity to continue to improve our program” Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson said. “We are looking forward to playing an outstanding opponent in Duke. It will be a great trip for our kids and nice to play in front of our large alumni base in the New York City area.”

The Hoosiers will be making their 10th bowl appearance and their first at the Pinstripe Bowl. IU last made a postseason appearance in 2007 when it went 7-6 and faced Oklahoma State in the Insight Bowl.

“Our team has earned this great opportunity to play in the Pinstripe Bowl,” IU Vice President and Director of Athletics Fred Glass said. “This will showcase our team in one of the world’s truly iconic sporting venues against a high quality opponent in the Duke Blue Devils. We are excited to bring Hoosier Nation to the Big Apple for the holidays as ‘Candy Stripes go Pinstripes’ on December 26th. Coach Wilson and I just told the team and they are very excited.”

IU closed out the season with consecutive road conference road wins to reach six victories for the first time since 2007.

Indiana won its final two games for the first time since 2001, its final two road games for the first time since 1982 and its final two games with both being on the road for the first time since 1946.

The Hoosiers had not won back-to-back Big Ten games since 2012, two Big Ten road games in the same year since 2001, back-to-back Big Ten road games since 1993 and three road games in a single season since 1994.

Indiana and Duke have met three times previously. The Hoosiers lead the series 2-1 with 31-21 (Oct. 4, 1980) and 15-10 (Sept. 10, 1983) victories in Bloomington and a 31-24 defeat (Sept. 8, 1984) on the road.