Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced Tuesday the conference has secured an agreement with the 2013 Military Bowl to face an opponent from the ACC.
Next season’s bowl will be played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md., on Dec. 27 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern and televised by ESPN.
“We are excited to be a part of the Military Bowl in a great destination like Washington, D.C.,” Banowsky said. “We are also pleased to have the opportunity to face an opponent from the ACC in a great game day setting like Annapolis.”
Since its inception in 2008, the Washington-area’s college football bowl game (called the EagleBank Bowl in its first two years) had been played at RFK Stadium. For the first time in its history, in 2012 the Military Bowl hosted a ranked team as San Jose State beat Bowling Green en route to finishing the season ranked No. 21. A bowl-record crowd of 38,794 saw Maryland beat C-USA member East Carolina in 2010. This year will mark first time a bowl has been played ay Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
“This move puts our game into a facility that honors the men and women who have served in our armed forces,” DC Bowl Committee President & Executive Director Steve Beck said.
The agreement with the Military Bowl gives Conference USA six primary bowl agreements for the 2013 season. The league also has commitments with the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Beef `O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla., Heart of Dallas Bowl, R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl and Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl. These partnerships include opponents from six different conferences.
It is important to note that a Conference USA champion may qualify for the Bowl Championship Series if ranked in the final BCS Top 12 or, in the BCS Top 16 and ranked higher than a team which receives automatic qualification.