Businesses Brace For Music City Bowl Matchup

Franklin American Music City Bowl

For the 18th consecutive year, Nashville will host the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl. With the current conference tie-ins, the Music City Bowl features a match-up between the closest geographic conferences, the SEC and the ACC. This year’s match-up will feature the Texas A&M Aggies and the Louisville Cardinals and will be played on December 30th at 6 PM.

Texas A&M finished this season 8-4, 4-4 in the SEC. The Aggies offense struggled later in the season with inconsistent quarterback play, but has been able to still finish 5th in the SEC in offense in total yards. While the Aggies offense has sputtered, A&M’s defense has improved with former Tennessee and LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis. The Aggie defense has the SEC’s leading sack artist, Myles Garrett with 11.5 sacks, and one of the conference’s interception leaders, Donovan Wilson with 5.

The Cardinals are making their first trip to the Music City Bowl. The Cardinals have used a powerful defense and opportunistic offense to push them to a 7-5, 5-3 in the ACC. Louisville coach Bobby Petrino, who is on his second stint with the school, struggled early to get his high-powered offense adapted with the previous staff’s power offense, but has gone 7-2 after slipping out of the gate. The Cardinals defense has created turnovers and havoc in opponents’ backfields this season, forcing 24 turnovers and having 33 sacks this year.

For local businesses, this match-up is one of the best they could ask for. Throughout the history of the bowl, the SEC team has traditionally sold substantially more tickets than their opponent. This year, having the closest ACC team to Nashville playing in the game makes it an easy trip for the Louisville faithful. On the other side, the Texas A&M fanbase is known as one of the largest and most passionate in the country. The 12th Man is known for filling up stadiums and their loud chants ringing throughout the stadiums they are playing in. After last year’s large crowd for LSU and Notre Dame, this year will likely bring a similarly large crowd to celebrate New Year’s in Nashville.

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