The 2023 Camellia Bowl was a 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 ...

played on December 23, 2023, at the

Cramton Bowl Cramton Bowl is a 25,000-seat stadium located in Montgomery, Alabama. Cramton Bowl opened in 1922 as a baseball stadium and has been home to Major League Baseball spring training and to minor league baseball. Today, however, its primary use is f ...

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

. The 10th annual Camellia Bowl featured the

Arkansas State Red Wolves The Arkansas State Red Wolves are the athletic teams of Arkansas State University. They are a member of the Sun Belt Conference in all sports except women's bowling, a sport not sponsored by that league, competing at the National Collegiate Athleti ...

from the Sun Belt Conference and the

Northern Illinois Huskies The Northern Illinois Huskies are the athletic teams that represent Northern Illinois University (NIU). The Huskies are a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The athleti ...

from the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

(MAC). The game began at approximately 11:00 a.m. CST and was aired 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 ...

. The Camellia Bowl was one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season.

Camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controv ...

is the state flower of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

Teams

Consistent with conference tie-ins, the bowl featured teams from the

(MAC) and the Sun Belt Conference. This was the ninth meeting between Arkansas State and Northern Illinois; entering the game, the Huskies led the all-time series 7–1, with the Red Wolves' lone victory coming in 1995. This was the second time that Arkansas State and Northern Illinois played each other in a bowl game, following the

2012 GoDaddy.com Bowl The 2012 GoDaddy.com Bowl the thirteenth edition of the GoDaddy.com Bowl, an American college football bowl game. Part of the 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and one of the 2011–12 NCAA football bowl games, it took place on January 8, ...

which saw the

Huskies Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...

defeat the

Red Wolves The red wolf (''Canis rufus'') is a canine native to the southeastern United States. Its size is intermediate between the coyote (''Canis latrans'') and gray wolf (''Canis lupus''). The red wolf's taxonomic classification as being a separate sp ...

by a score of 38–20.

Arkansas State Red Wolves

Arkansas State entered the game with a 6–6 record (4–4 in the Sun Belt), tied for second in the Sun Belt's West Division. The Red Wolves started their season with losses to Oklahoma and

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

, losing by an aggregate score of 110–3. They won their next three gams, and went on to become

bowl eligible Bowl eligibility in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level is the standard through which teams become available for selection to participate in postseason bowl games. When a team achieves this state, it is described as "bowl-eligible". ...

with a 77–31 rout against

Texas State Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

in their final home game of the season. This was the 11th bowl appearance in Arkansas State program history, and their third Camellia Bowl—they previously lost the 2017 edition and won the 2019 edition.

Northern Illinois Huskies

The Huskies entered the game with a 6–6 record (5–3 in the MAC), finishing second in their conference's West Division. After losing four of their first five games, the team recovered to win five of their final seven games. This was Northern Illinois' first appearance in the Camellia Bowl.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Northern Illinois Huskies bowl game navbox Camellia Bowl Camellia Bowl Camellia Bowl Camellia Bowl Arkansas State Red Wolves football bowl games Northern Illinois Huskies football bowl games