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Ball For Boca Raton Bowl Delivered By Parachute (Video)

Dec 23, 2014; Boca Raton, FL, USA; Detail photo of the Boca Raton Bowl logo before a game between the Northern Illinois Huskies and Marshall Thundering Herd at FAU Football Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 23, 2014; Boca Raton, FL, USA; Detail photo of the Boca Raton Bowl logo before a game between the Northern Illinois Huskies and Marshall Thundering Herd at FAU Football Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports

The inaugural Boca Raton Bowl at FAU Stadium couldn’t kick off without a ball. Fortunately, the delivery was on time, even two days before Christmas.

The Boca Raton Bowl is one of this year’s first-time bowls and even before kickoff, the game had put on a show.

The game ball was delivered by a member of the Frog-X Parachute Team, described by its website as “a group of the most elite skydivers and canopy pilots in the world.”

The delivery came off without a hitch:

The game pitted Marshall from Conference USA and Northern Illinois from the Mid-American Conference.

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It is the second straight bowl bid for the Thundering Herd (12-1), who won the Military Bowl last season.

The Huskies (11-2) are in a bowl for the seventh straight year, but haven’t won since the GoDaddy.com Bowl after the 2011 season. Northern Illinois lost the Orange Bowl after the 2012 season and also fell in last year’s Poinsettia Bowl.

The Huskies have won at least 10 games for five straight seasons.

Not counting the College Football Playoff championship game, there are 38 bowls this season—76 of the 120 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision “earned” a postseason bid.

The total of 38 bowls is double the 19 that were played 20 years ago after the 1994 season.

Maybe what the powers that be in college football can do for their next trick is to eliminate bowl eligibility requirements and just stage 60 bowl games—one for every team.

It would be like a participation ribbon.

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