The 2013 Armed Forces Bowl was an 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 ...

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

Fort Worth, Texas 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 ...

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

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

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.independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

team. It 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 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, United States as well as commercial heli ...

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 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 army aviati ...

reached the bowl in

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 ...

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 ...

and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, with Army reaching the bowl in

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 ...

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