2010 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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Date | December 30, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||
Season | 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||
Stadium | Gerald J. Ford Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
Location | University Park, Texas | ||||||||||||||||||
MVP | LB Stephen Anderson, Army | ||||||||||||||||||
Favorite | SMU by 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
Referee | Clair Gausman (WAC) | ||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 36,742 stadium record | ||||||||||||||||||
Payout | US$750,000 per team | ||||||||||||||||||
United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
Network | ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||
Announcers | Beth Mowins, Ray Bentley, and Jon Berger | ||||||||||||||||||
Nielsen ratings | 1.3 | ||||||||||||||||||
The 2010 Armed Forces Bowl was the eighth edition of the college football bowl game, and the first of two editions to be played at Gerald J. Ford Stadium on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in the Dallas enclave of University Park, Texas. From the bowl's inception as the Fort Worth Bowl in 2003, it had been held at Amon G. Carter Stadium on the campus of Texas Christian University, 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 and matched the SMU Mustangs 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 played in the bowl. Air Force competed in the contest in the years, 2007, 2008, and 2009.
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 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 against Auburn. The 2010 game was the first time Army played in the Armed Forces Bowl.