The 2020 Armed Forces Bowl was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

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 Subdivis ...

played on December 31, 2020, with kickoff at noon EST (11:00 a.m. local CST). It was the 18th edition of the

Armed Forces Bowl The Armed Forces Bowl, formerly the Fort Worth Bowl from 2003 to 2005, is an annual postseason college football bowl game. First played in 2003, the game is normally held at the 45,000-seat Amon G. Carter Stadium on the campus of Texas Christian ...

, and was one of the 2020–21 bowl games concluding the 2020 FBS football season. Sponsored by aerospace and defense company

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

, the game was officially known as the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl.

Teams

Following the cancellation of the

Las Vegas Bowl The Las Vegas Bowl is an NCAA Division I FBS annual post-season college football bowl game held in the Las Vegas area. First played in 1992, the bowl was originally held at the 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nevada before moving to the ...

, it had been announced that the game would feature its tie-ins with the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

and the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC). The presence of a Pac-12 team did not come to fruition, with the

Tulsa Golden Hurricane The Golden Hurricane are the athletic teams that represent the University of Tulsa. These teams are referred to as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (or variously as TU or Tulsa). Before adopting the name Golden Hurricane in 1922, the University of Tu ...

of the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

("The American") accepting a bid for the Armed Forces Bowl instead. This game was the first matchup between the two programs.

Mississippi State

Mississippi State of the SEC accepted their bid on December 20, 2020. The Bulldogs entered the bowl with an overall record of 3–7; they were

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

at number 16 in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

early in the season after defeating the defending national champions,

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

. This marked the second time in program history that Mississippi State had entered a bowl game with a losing record (the prior instance being the

2016 St. Petersburg Bowl The 2016 St. Petersburg Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game that was played on December 26, 2016 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The ninth edition of the St. Petersburg Bowl featured the 2016 Mi ...

). This was the Bulldogs' first appearance in the bowl.

Tulsa

Tulsa of The American accepted their bid on December 20, 2020. The Golden Hurricane entered the bowl with an overall record of 6–2 (6–0 in conference play); they were ranked at number 22 in the

entering the bowl. Tulsa was 0–2 in prior editions of the bowl, having lost in 2006 and 2011.

Game summary

Statistics

Emmanuel Forbes, cornerback for Mississippi State, set a school and Armed Forces Bowl record for the longest interception return (90 yards).

Post-game

Following the conclusion of the game, a brawl broke out between the two teams.

References

External links

*
Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2020 Armed Forces Bowl (12)

Armed Forces Bowl Brawls in team sports

Mississippi State Bulldogs football bowl games Tulsa Golden Hurricane football bowl games