Big 12 Football: Armed Forces Bowl Preview

Bowl season is underway. This year there are 42 games, including the National Championship Game. The first games started on December 16. Eight teams from the Big 12 will be playing bowl games.

Two of those teams will play in one of the NY6 Bowls. As Big 12 champs, No. 9 Kansas State will play No. 5 Alabama in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on December 31. And, of course, the No. 3 TCU Horned Frogs will make their first appearance in the College Football Playoffs on December 31 in the Fiesta Bowl against No. 2 Michigan.

Other Big 12 teams to make a bowl include Baylor (Armed Forces Bowl, December 22 versus Air Force), Oklahoma State (Guaranteed Rate Bowl, December 27 versus Wisconsin), Kansas (Liberty Bowl, December 28 versus Arkansas), Texas Tech (Texas Bowl, December 28 versus Ole Miss), Texas (Alamo Bowl, December 29 versus Washington), and Oklahoma (Cheez-It Bowl, December 29 versus Florida State).

This article previews the Armed Forces Bowl.

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl - Baylor (6-6) vs. Air Force (9-3)

Thursday, December 22, 6:30 p.m. CT, ESPN
Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth
Line: Baylor -3.5; over/under – 43

Baylor, last year’s Big 12 Champions, had high hopes of continuing their momentum from last season, but that was not the case for the Bears. Instead, they enter bowl season with a 6-6 record, having lost three in a row (Bazooka on the Brazos!). On the other hand, Air Force ended the regular season with a 9-3 record and won its last four games. A win by the Falcons would give them ten wins in back-to-back seasons.

This will be the fourth meeting between the two teams. Baylor holds a 3-0 series lead, but the two have not met since 1977. Baylor has outscored Air Force 79-17 in those three meetings.

Baylor may be the more physical team and may have better talent. But Air Force may be more motivated. It’s an armed services branch playing in the Armed Forces Bowl. Air Force has won three straight bowl games. And there’s the fact that Baylor is disappointed with the bowl they got. Sure, it’s got to be hard to only travel 90 miles for a bowl game that happens to be in your archrival’s stadium while the rival is preparing for its playoff appearance.

Baylor went 2-1 in its nonconference play this season, with the one loss being a road loss to then-No. 21 BYU. The Bears went 4-5 in Big 12 play with wins over Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. Baylor lost to Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Kansas State, TCU, and Texas – only West Virginia was unranked when Baylor played them.

Air Force went 4-0 in its nonconference schedule with wins over Northern Iowa and Colorado, plus over both other service academies – Navy and Army. They finished second in the Mountain division of the Mountain West and went 5-3 in conference play. They had wins over Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico, Colorado State, and San Diego State. Their conference losses were to Wyoming, Utah State, and Boise State.

Season Leaders

Passing Yards

Baylor – Blake Shapen – 222-345, 2,602 yards, 16 touchdowns, ten interceptions

Air Force – Haaziq Daniels – 36-76, 733 yards, six touchdowns, two interceptions

Rushing Yards

Baylor – Richard Reese - 190 carries, 962 yards, 14 touchdowns

Air Force – Brad Roberts - 308 carries, 1,612 yards, 15 touchdowns

Receiving Yards

Baylor – Monaray Baldwin - 33 receptions, 565 yards, four touchdowns

Air Force – David Cormier - 13 receptions, 384 yards, four touchdowns

The pick: Air Force – 19-17

Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the Killer Frogs message board community today!

Follow KillerFrogs on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest TCU news! Follow KillerFrogs on Facebook and Instagram as well. Download the KillerFrogs app on Google Play or in the Apple App Store.