Armed Forces Bowl
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2011) |
| Armed Forces Bowl | |
|---|---|
| Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl | |
| File:Armed Forces Bowl.png | |
| Stadium | Amon G. Carter Stadium |
| Location | Fort Worth, Texas |
| Previous stadiums | Gerald J. Ford Stadium (2010–2011) |
| Previous locations | University Park, Texas (2010–2011) |
| Operated | 2003–present |
| Conference tie-ins | American (2014, 2018) MWC (2015, 2019) Army (2014, 2017) Big Ten (2015, 2017, 2019) Big XII (2016, 2018) Navy (2016) |
| Payout | US$1,200,000 (As of 2011[update])[1] |
| Sponsors | |
| Former names | |
PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl (2003–2004) Fort Worth Bowl (2005) Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (2006–2013) | |
| December 2015 matchup | |
| Houston vs. Pittsburgh (Houston 35–34) | |
| January 2015 matchup | |
| California vs. Air Force Falcons (California 55–36) | |
The Armed Forces Bowl (officially the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl for sponsorship purposes) is an annual postseason college football bowl game.
The contest is one of 11 bowls produced by ESPN Regional Television (a/k/a ESPN Plus) and has been televised annually on ESPN since its inception. Armed Forces Insurance is the official Insurance Partner of the Armed Forces Bowl and has sponsored the Great American Patriot Award, presented at halftime at the Bowl, since 2008.
The game is played in the 44,008-seat Amon G. Carter Stadium on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, featuring teams from a variety of collegiate football conferences; in addition, the D-I independent United States Military Academy (Army) is also eligible to participate.
History
The bowl game was inaugurated in 2003 as PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl, reflecting the sponsorship of PlainsCapital Bank. The bank's sponsorship ended in 2004, and the 2005 game was without corporate sponsorship.
In 2006, Fort Worth based Bell Helicopter Textron took over sponsorship, and thus the game became officially known as the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. The Bell sponsorship ended in 2013. During this time, the 2010 and 2011 Armed Forces Bowl were held at Gerald J. Ford Stadium on the campus of Southern Methodist University in the Dallas enclave of University Park, while Amon G. Carter Stadium was undergoing a major renovation. The game returned to Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth in 2012 after construction on that stadium was completed.
Originally Alltel was to assume the title sponsorship and naming rights to the game beginning in 2014, which would have been titled the Alltel Wireless Bowl to promote its mobile division, but the deal fell through. Instead, Lockheed Martin became the game's sponsor. The company has a major presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: the company's Lockheed Martin Aeronautics division is based in Fort Worth while its Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control division is based in nearby Grand Prairie, Texas.
Conference Tie-Ins
The bowl's partnership with the Big 12 Conference ended with the 2005 season. From the 2006 through the 2009 playings of the game the Mountain West Conference was signed to provide a team to face either a team from the Pacific-10 Conference or Conference USA (depending on the year; Pac-10 teams would play in odd number years while C-USA teams would play in even numbered years). As such, the 2006 and 2008 games featured Conference USA teams Tulsa and Houston, respectively, whereas California represented the Pac-10 in 2007. The Pac-10 was unable to send a representative to the game in 2009, so Conference USA sent Houston to the game for a second consecutive year. In 2010, since the Mountain West did not have enough eligible teams and Army was bowl eligible, they played SMU in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Following the 2013 football season, the Armed Forces Bowl signed multi-year agreements with the American Athletic Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Mountain West Conference, Army and Navy to set bowl match-ups for the next six seasons (Navy would later join the American Athletic Conference).
Future Armed Forces Bowl matchups
| Season | Team 1 | Team 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | American | Big XII |
| 2017 | Army | Big Ten |
| 2018 | American | Big XII |
| 2019 | MWC | Big Ten |
Game results
| Date played | Winning team | Losing team | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 23, 2003 | Boise State[2] | 34 | TCU | 31 | notes | |
| December 23, 2004 | Cincinnati | 32 | Marshall[2] | 14 | notes | |
| December 23, 2005 | Kansas | 42 | Houston | 13 | notes | |
| December 23, 2006 | Utah | 25 | Tulsa | 13 | notes | |
| December 31, 2007 | California | 42 | Air Force | 36 | notes | |
| December 31, 2008 | Houston | 34 | Air Force | 28 | notes | |
| December 31, 2009 | Air Force | 47 | Houston | 20 | notes | |
| December 30, 2010 | Army | 16 | SMU | 14 | notes | |
| December 30, 2011 | BYU | 24 | Tulsa | 21 | notes | |
| December 29, 2012 | Rice | 33 | Air Force | 14 | notes | |
| December 30, 2013 | Navy | 24 | Middle Tennessee | 6 | notes | |
| January 2, 2015 | Houston | 35 | Pittsburgh | 34 | notes | |
| December 29, 2015 | California | 55 | Air Force[3] | 36 | notes | |
MVPs
| Date played | MVP | Team | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 23, 2003 | Ryan Dinwiddie | Boise State | QB |
| December 23, 2004 | Gino Guidugli | Cincinnati | QB |
| December 23, 2005 | Jason Swanson | Kansas | QB |
| December 23, 2006 | Louie Sakoda | Utah | P/K |
| December 31, 2007 | Kevin Riley | California | QB |
| December 31, 2008 | Bryce Beall | Houston | RB |
| Jared Tew | Air Force | FB | |
| December 31, 2009 | Asher Clark | Air Force | RB |
| Tyron Carrier | Houston | WR | |
| December 30, 2010 | Stephen Anderson | Army | LB |
| Darius Johnson | SMU | WR | |
| December 30, 2011 | Cody Hoffman | BYU | WR |
| Dexter McCoil | Tulsa | DB | |
| December 29, 2012 | Jordan Taylor | Rice | WR |
| Austin Niklaas | Air Force | LB | |
| December 30, 2013 | Keenan Reynolds | Navy | QB |
| T. T. Barber | Middle Tennessee | LB | |
| January 2, 2015 | Kenneth Farrow | Houston | RB |
| Chad Voytik | Pittsburgh | QB | |
| December 29, 2015 | Jared Goff | California | QB |
| Karson Roberts | Air Force | QB |
Most appearances
| Rank | Team | Appearances | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Air Force | 5 | 1–4 |
| 2 | Houston | 4 | 2–2 |
| T3 | California | 2 | 2–0 |
| T3 | Tulsa | 2 | 0–2 |
| T5 | Army | 1 | 1–0 |
| T5 | Boise State | 1 | 1–0 |
| T5 | BYU | 1 | 1–0 |
| T5 | Cincinnati | 1 | 1–0 |
| T5 | Kansas | 1 | 1–0 |
| T5 | Navy | 1 | 1–0 |
| T5 | Rice | 1 | 1–0 |
| T5 | Utah | 1 | 1–0 |
| T5 | Marshall | 1 | 0–1 |
| T5 | Middle Tenn | 1 | 0–1 |
| T5 | Pittsburgh | 1 | 0–1 |
| T5 | SMU | 1 | 0–1 |
| T5 | TCU | 1 | 0–1 |
Results by conference
| Conference | Wins | Losses | Pct win |
|---|---|---|---|
| Division I FBS Independents | 3 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Pac-12 | 2 | 0 | 1.000 |
| The American | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Big 12 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| WAC | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Mountain West | 2 | 4 | .333 |
| C-USA | 3 | 7 | .300 |
| ACC | 0 | 1 | .000 |
| MAC | 0 | 1 | .000 |
Notes
- ^ "Schools to Receive Combined Team Payout of $281.8 Million for 2011–12 Bowl Season" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-06-07.
- ^ a b Received a bid because the Big 12 did not have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all of its allotted bowl slots.
- ^ Received a bid because the Big 10 did not have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all of its allotted bowl slots.
External links
