Pinstripe Bowl debuts at Yankee Stadium on Dec 30, to be televised on ESPN

Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium on Dec 30

NEW YORK — The first Pinstripe Bowl will be played at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 30 and will be televised by ESPN.

The game will include the No. 3 team in the Big East and the No. 6 school in the Big 12, excluding Bowl Championship Series participants.

“I think no matter what the sport, every kid who grows up wants to play at Yankee Stadium,” Yankees president Randy Levine said Tuesday.

If the bowl had been played last season, the Yankees said Rutgers and Texas A&M would have been the participants. If one of the conferences cannot fill its bowl slot, Notre Dame could be considered.

ESPN agreed to a six-year contract to televise the first bowl in the Northeast since the 1981 Garden State Bowl at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. This will be the first bowl game at Yankee Stadium since Nebraska defeated Miami 36-34 at the old ballpark on Dec. 15, 1962.

“It does give us instant credibility and instant recognition,” Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said.

New Era Cap Co. Inc., known primarily as the supplier of major league caps, agreed to a four-year deal to be the title sponsor in its most notable venture outside baseball.

Big East commissioner John Marinatto didn’t think the bowl schedule was too crowded.

“Bowls, like everything else, are a function of the marketplace,” he said.

Future games will be played no earlier than Christmas and no later than New Year’s Day. The first football game at the new $1.5 billion stadium will be Nov. 20, when Notre Dame plays Army.