Who won the East-West Shrine Bowl Offensive MVP? Looking at college football's postseason matchup

The East-West Shrine Bowl was played on Thursday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The East dominated the game, leading 22-0 at halftime and winning 25-0 for the first shutout since 1969.

So, who was named the Offensive MVP of the game, which several NFL scouts attended ahead of the scouting combine?

Who was the Shrine Bowl MVP?

Arizona Wildcats running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt was named the Offensive MVP of the East-West Shrine Bowl game. He tallied 97 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns.

During the presentation of his Shrine Bowl MVP trophy, Croskey-Merritt gave an interview to Yahoo Sports revealing his view of the game and his teammates' support.

"It's a blessing just to be up here," Croskey-Merritt said. "I wanna thank God first, thank my coaches for just teaching us the small details of the game, man. I'm just excited. It's amazing, we all came here for one reason and just to show scouts that we can do this and just happy for one another.

"We were like that all weekend, just practicing, and it was all good to see those guys excited."

Croskey-Merritt missed a huge chunk of the 2024 college football season for the Wildcats due to eligibility issues stemming from his freshman season for the Alabama State Hornets. The NCAA investigated claims of the running back playing eight games rather than the four allowed to claim redshirt status.

The 5-foot-10, 208-pound Croskey-Merritt entered the transfer portal from the New Mexico Lobos and committed to the Ole Miss Rebels before flipping his commitment to the Arizona Wildcats, where he ran into trouble with the NCAA.

In an interview with "The Star" last year, the Shrine Bowl MVP discussed his eligibility issues and how they resurfaced after he was cleared by the NCAA to play in the 2024 season.

"There were a lot of confusing things going on,” Croskey-Merritt said. “I can’t really say what was happening, but there were a lot of people talking that I didn’t know about. It was a lot of stuff,” he said then. “I don’t really want to get into the details, but people blow things up that shouldn’t have been blown up. A lot of people and schools were talking to each other.”

Jacory Croskey-Merritt is definitely out of eligibility, and his stellar performance in the Shrine Bowl could act as a springboard for the running back to boost his draft stock ahead of the 2025 NFL draft.