The 2010 Armed Forces Bowl was the eighth edition of the college football

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

, and the first of two editions to be played at

Gerald J. Ford Stadium Gerald J. Ford Stadium is a stadium in University Park, Texas, with a Dallas mailing address. The stadium is owned by Southern Methodist University (SMU) and used primarily for games played by the SMU Mustangs football team. About Ford Stadiu ...

on the campus of

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

(SMU) in the

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

enclave of

University Park, Texas University Park is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States of America, in suburban Dallas. The population was 23,068 at the 2010 census. The city is home to Southern Methodist University. University Park is bordered on the north, east and we ...

. From the bowl's inception as the Fort Worth Bowl in 2003, it had been held at

Amon G. Carter Stadium Amon G. Carter Stadium is an open-air football stadium on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. It is the home stadium of the TCU Horned Frogs football team. It is named after Amon G. Carter, a prominent Fort Worth busin ...

on the campus of

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciple ...

, but a renovation project that began immediately after the 2010 regular season led to a temporary move to the SMU campus. The event returned to TCU in 2012. The game started at 12:00 PM US EST on Thursday, December 30, 2010. The game was telecast on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

and matched the

SMU Mustangs The SMU Mustangs are the athletic teams that represent Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, United States. The Mustangs were founded in 1911 and joined the Southwest Conference, competing against Baylor, Rice, Texas, Texa ...

from Conference USA, playing on their home field, with the Army Black Knights. Army's appearance in the 2010 edition of the game marked the fourth consecutive year that a

service academy A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...

played in the bowl.

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

competed in the contest in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Teams

Army Black Knights

Army officially accepted an invitation to the bowl on November 30, 2010. The Black Knights had a contingency agreement with the AF Bowl to compete in the game if Conference USA or the Mountain West Conference could not fill their bowl obligation. Since TCU was invited to a

BCS Bowl The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...

and the Mountain West only had 4 other bowl eligible teams to fill 5 bowl games, the spot opened up for Army to be invited. For Army, this was their first bowl appearance since 1996 when they played in the

Independence Bowl The Independence Bowl is a post-season National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-sanctioned Division I college football bowl game that is played annually each December at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Independence Bowl ...

against Auburn. The 2010 game was the first time Army played in the Armed Forces Bowl.

SMU Mustangs

SMU made their second straight bowl appearance after not appearing in a bowl game since 1984, before the program was devastated by scandal. The Mustangs entered the game with a 7-6 record and were co-champions of Conference USA's West Division. SMU defeated

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

in last season's

Hawaii Bowl The Hawaiʻi Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played in the Honolulu, Hawaii area since 2002. The game was originally held at Aloha Stadium in Halawa, Hawaii, a suburb of Honolulu, before moving to the Clarence T. C. Ching Ath ...

by a score of 45-10. This was SMU's first appearance in the Armed Forces Bowl. The game was played at the Mustangs' home stadium after the contest was moved to Gerald Ford Stadium due to construction on TCU's

Game summary

Scoring

Statistics

Game notes

Although both Army and SMU have been members of Conference USA, the teams have only played each other two previous times. This is mainly because their tenures in the Conference have not overlapped. Army was a member of the conference from 1997-2004 while SMU is a current member who started conference membership in 2005. Army has won the previous two meetings with the Black Knights winning a 14–13 decision at

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

in 1928 and picking up a 24–6 win at SMU in 1967.

References

{{SMU Mustangs bowl game navbox Armed Forces Bowl Armed Forces Bowl Army Black Knights football bowl games SMU Mustangs football bowl games Armed Forces Bowl Armed Forces Bowl