2023 Armed Forces Bowl
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| 2023 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 21st Armed Forces Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 23, 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Amon G. Carter Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Fort Worth, Texas | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Emmanuel Michel (RB, Air Force)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | James Madison by 3.5[2] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Nate Black (AAC)[3] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 30,828 | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Anish Shroff (play-by-play), Andre Ware (analyst), and Paul Carcaterra (sideline) | ||||||||||||||||||
The 2023 Armed Forces Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 23, 2023, at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. The 21st annual Armed Forces Bowl featured the Air Force Falcons of the Mountain West Conference and the James Madison Dukes of the Sun Belt Conference. The game begin at approximately 2:30 p.m. CST and was aired on ABC.[4][5] The Armed Forces Bowl was one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season. The game was officially named the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl after its corporate sponsor Lockheed Martin.
James Madison Dukes
The game featured the James Madison Dukes from the Sun Belt Conference and the Air Force Falcons from the Mountain West Conference.
This was the first time that James Madison and Air Force played each other.
The Dukes entered the game ranked 24th in the AP poll with an 11–1 record (7–1 in Sun Belt games), having finished atop their conference's East Division. Because this was the final year of a two-year transition from the Football Championship Subdivision, James Madison was not originally bowl-eligible,[6] with waiver requests denied by the NCAA in August[7] and November.[8] However, because of an insufficient number of bowl-eligible teams available to fill all bowl games, the Dukes were ultimately granted a berth.
This was the first bowl game in James Madison school history.
Air Force Falcons
The Falcons entered the game with an 8–4 record (5–3 in Mountain West games), tied for fourth place in their conference. They started their season with eight consecutive wins, culminating with a win over Colorado State, which was ranked 19th in the AP poll, but then lost their final four games of the regular season.
This was Air Force's seventh Armed Forces Bowl, extending their record for most appearances in the game. Entering the game, the Falcons had a 2–4 record in prior editions of the game, having most recently appeared in the 2022 edition, which they won.