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 January 4, 2020, with kickoff at 11:30 a.m. EST (10:30 a.m. local CST) 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%). The ...

. It was the 17th 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 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 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

The game featured the

Southern Miss Golden Eagles The Southern Miss Golden Eagles and Lady Eagles (also known as Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and Lady Eagles) are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), located in Hattiesburg, Missi ...

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

(C-USA) against the

Tulane Green Wave The Tulane Green Wave are the athletic teams that represent Tulane University, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tulane competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the American Athletic Conference (The American). There are 14 Green Wave interco ...

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). This was the 31st all-time meeting between the two programs; the Golden Eagles entered the game leading the all-time series, 23–7. This was the first Armed Forces Bowl appearance for both programs. From 1996 to 2013, Southern Miss and Tulane were both in C-USA as charter members, before Tulane left to join the American in 2014. Their regular season rivalry is set to resume in 2022. Since 1999, a bell trophy has been awarded to the winner of their rivalry game, making it the

Battle for the Bell The Battle for the Bell is an American college football rivalry game played by the Marshall Thundering Herd football team of Marshall University and the Ohio Bobcats football team of Ohio University. It is a regional rivalry, with the universi ...

; the bell was also on the line in this Armed Forces Bowl.

Southern Miss Golden Eagles

Southern Miss entered the game with a 7–5 record (5–3 in conference). They finished in third place in the West Division of C-USA. The Golden Eagles also lost to the only ranked opponent they faced,

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

. Southern Miss was 7–3 before losing their final two regular season games.

Tulane Green Wave

Tulane entered the game with a 6–6 record (3–5 in conference). They finished in fourth place in The American's West Division. The Green Wave lost to the only ranked opponent that they faced,

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

. After starting their season 5–1, Tulane went 1–5 in the second half of their regular season.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

*
Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2020 Armed Forces Bowl (01)

Armed Forces Bowl

Southern Miss Golden Eagles football bowl games Tulane Green Wave football bowl games