Big Ten and Lions team for new Detroit bowl game

The Big Ten and the Detroit Lions have announced a six-year agreement to play a bowl game at Ford Field, and a person familiar with the situation says the Atlantic Coast Conference will provide the opponent.

The new bowl will start in 2014 and it has not been named or sponsored.

The person familiar with the situation tells The Associated Press the game will be a matchup of Big Ten and ACC teams. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement was to come later. ESPN.com first reported the ACC would be part of the new Detroit Bowl.

The conferences will select the teams to play in the new game.

The new game could spell the end for the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, which has been played in Detroit and tried to match the Big Ten and Mid-American Conference. The Big Ten often would not have enough bowl eligible teams to send one to the Little Caesars Bowl. Only three times has a Big Ten team played in the game (Northwestern in 2003 and Purdue in 2007 and ‘11).

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl organizers have been trying to find a new home for their game — possibly Comerica Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers — or persuade Lions officials to hold two bowl games at Ford Field.

The Little Caesars Bowl has been held at Ford Field since 2002. The game was originally called the Motor City Bowl and held at the Silverdome.