The 2012 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl was a post-season American
college football
College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...
held on December 29, 2012, at
Amon G. Carter Stadium on the campus of
Texas Christian University
Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...
(TCU) in
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
,
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
in the United States. The tenth edition of the Armed Forces Bowl began at 10:45 a.m.
CST and aired on
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
. It featured the
Rice Owls
The Rice Owls are the sports teams representing Houston's Rice University in college sports. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates in NCAA Division I athletics. A member of the American Athletic Conference, Rice sponsors ...
from
Conference USA
Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas.
Mem ...
against the
Air Force Falcons
The Air Force Falcons are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the United States Air Force Academy, located in El Paso County, Colorado north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. Th ...
from the
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...
and was the final game of the
2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The regular season began on August 30, 2012, and ended on D ...
for both teams. The Falcons accepted their invitation after earning a 6–5 record in their first eleven games of the season, while the Owls advanced to the game per C-USA's bowl contingency plan after earning a 6-6 record.
This also marked the bowl's return to Amon G. Carter Stadium after a two-year absence because of renovations to the stadium. For
2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
and
2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
, the game was held at
Gerald J. Ford Stadium in
University Park on the campus of
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...
(SMU).
Teams
This was the seventh meeting between these two teams. Air Force leads the all-time record 7-2. The last time they played prior to this meeting was in 1998, when both schools were in the
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington.
Due to ...
(then a 16-team conference, now a non-football conference).
Rice
In a program not particularly known for football success, the Owls' season had an inauspicious start (2-6). Despite being one loss away from postseason ineligibility, Rice rallied to end the regular season at 6-6. Per Conference USA's contingency plan, the Owls were assigned the Armed Forces Bowl.
This will be the Owls' first Armed Forces Bowl.
Air Force
The Falcons' season thus far has been one of struggle; despite losing to both the
Army Black Knights
The Army Black Knights are the athletic teams that represent the United States Military Academy, located in West Point, New York.
The Black Knights compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a non-footb ...
and
Navy Midshipmen
The Navy Midshipmen are the athletic teams that represent the United States Naval Academy. The academy sponsors 36 varsity sports teams and 12 club sport teams.[Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...]
. After defeating the
Hawaii Warriors to bring their season record to 6–5, the Falcons accepted the third invitation of the
2012–13 NCAA Bowl season to the 2012 Armed Forces Bowl.
This will be the Falcons' fourth Armed Forces bowl; they had previously played in the
2007
2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year.
Events
January
* January 1
**Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
,
2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
*International Year of Planet Earth
*International Year of the Potato
*International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
and
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
games against the
California Golden Bears
The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...
and twice against the
Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
Cougars
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, '' KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild ...
, respectively. Although the Falcons lost to the Golden Bears in 2007 and the Cougars in 2008, they would rally to beat the same Cougars in the 2009 game, compiling an overall Armed Forces Bowl record of 1-2.
Game summary
Scoring summary
Statistics
References
{{Rice Owls bowl game navbox
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 ...
Armed Forces Bowl
Air Force Falcons football bowl games
Rice Owls football bowl games
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 ...
December 2012 sports events in the United States