The Bowling Green State University football team Sunday accepted a bid to play in the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman.
The Falcons will face No. 24 San Jose State in the bowl game, which will be played Thursday, December 27, at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
Click here to read a San Jose Mercury News story about the Spartans, talking about the day they received their bid to the Military Bowl.
Kickoff is set for 3 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.
"We are thrilled and honored -- it's a great reward for our program," BG coach Dave Clawson said. "We're really excited to be going to Washington D.C. to play in the Military Bowl. It's a great bowl -- the other MAC coaches that I've talked to have had great experiences there.
"Obviously we get to play a very high-quality opponent in San Jose State, which is 10-2 this year."
BG director of athletics Greg Christopher echoed those sentiments when he said, “We are thrilled to be headed to the Military Bowl. Bowling Green has a strong alumni base on the East Coast and Washington is accessible for our Ohio fans as well. Dave and the players have worked hard to earn this opportunity. We turned the corner this year and I look forward to celebrating a great season with thousands of Bowling Green alums in RFK Stadium.”
This will mark the second consecutive season a team from northwest Ohio played in the game. Last year Toledo claimed a 42-41 victory over Air Force in the contest.
Some Washington D.C. media asked Clawson if he had talked to UT coach Matt Campbell about his team's experience there last year, and the BG coach fired a zinger that many of the media probably didn't understand. "When you get good news, the first person you call generally isn't your rival," Clawson said.
Steve Beck, executive director of the Military Bowl, said the Falcons brought "a lot of energy" to the process of earning a bowl bid.
"I took calls from congressmen from Ohio [about Bowling Green], and I took a call from Kory Lichtensteiger, who plays with the Redskins and is from Bowling Green," Beck said. "Bowling Green was very proactive, and it was nice to feel wanted."
The Falcons were one of seven Mid-American Conference schools to receive a bowl bid, which is a record for the conference.
"Our commissioner, Jon Steinbrecher, did a great job," Clawson said. "He did a great job of coordinating this. And even though we compete against one another during the season, we want to see the MAC get as much exposure as possible. For a 13-team conference to get seven teams in is amazing -- it tells you about the caliber of play in this conference."
Steinbrecher said getting seven MAC teams into bowls was a process that started to take shape on Friday.
"About an hour before the MAC Championship game we made an agreement with the Military Bowl to take a MAC team, and that was huge, quite frankly," Steinbrecher said. "About 6 p.m. [Saturday] night we reached an agreement with the Independence Bowl to take one of our teams, and when Northern Illinois moved up into the BCS, things slid into place for us."
- UPDATE: Bowling Green now has information on tickets posted on their web site -- click here to view the purchase details for tickets and bowl apparel. You also can purchase tickets by visiting the Stroh Center box office or calling 877-BGSU TICKET.
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