The 2013 Armed Forces Bowl was an American 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 ...

that was played on December 30, 2013, 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 ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

. The eleventh edition of the Armed Forces Bowl (which was originally known as the Fort Worth Bowl), it featured the

Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders are the men's and women's athletic teams at Middle Tennessee State University, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. MT athletic teams participate in NCAA Division I ( Bowl Subdivision in football) in Conference USA. MT ...

of Conference USA against the Navy Midshipmen, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

team. It began at 10:45 a.m. CST and 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 ...

. It was one of the 2013–14 bowl games that concluded the 2013 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by

Bell Helicopter Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft at facilities in Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, as well as commercial helicopters in M ...

and was officially known as the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. Navy defeated Middle Tennessee by a score of 24–6. The Midshipmen accepted their invitation after earning a 6–4 record in their first ten games of the season, while the Blue Raiders accepted their invitation after earning an 8–4 record in theirs.

Team selection

Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

The Blue Raiders' first season as a member of Conference USA saw them continue their winning ways as they finished 8–4 overall and 6–2 in conference play (tied with the East Carolina Pirates for second in the C-USA East Division). At season's end, bowl director Brant Ringler extended an invitation to the Blue Raiders to play in the game. This was Middle Tennessee's first Armed Forces bowl.

Navy Midshipmen

In April 2009, organizers announced that they had reached a deal with Navy to play in the 2013 edition of the Armed Forces Bowl. After defeating the

South Alabama Jaguars The South Alabama Jaguars represent the University of South Alabama in NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics. USA competes in the Sun Belt Conference; it is the conference's only remaining charter member from its inception. USA's athletics t ...

for their sixth win of the season on November 16, bowl director Brant Rigler extended an invitation to play in the game. This was Navy's first Armed Forces Bowl, making them the last of the FBS' three service academies to reach 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 ...

reached the bowl in 2007,

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, 2009 and

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, with Army reaching the bowl in 2010).

Game summary

Scoring summary

References

{{Navy Midshipmen bowl game navbox Armed Forces Bowl Armed Forces Bowl Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football bowl games Navy Midshipmen football bowl games December 2013 sports events in the United States Armed Forces Bowl 2010s in Fort Worth, Texas