Air Force and Toledo will meet in the Dec. 28 Military Bowl at RFK Stadium, the bowl announced Sunday.
It will be the first meeting ever between the schools, neither of which originally had contractual tie-ins to the fourth-year bowl.
The Military Bowl’s deals were with Navy and the ACC. But Navy (4-7) won’t qualify for the postseason even with a victory Saturday over Army, and the ACC didn’t have enough eligible teams to fulfill all of its tie-ins after Virginia Tech was selected for the Sugar Bowl to give the conference two teams in the BCS.
Military Bowl executive director Steve Beck expressed interest in Air Force (7-5) this week, hardly a surprise given the Falcons’ military connection. Air Force, a member of the Mountain West, is making its fifth straight postseason appearance and the 22nd in school history. The Falcons visited the Washington area earlier this year, upending Navy 35-34 in overtime in Annapolis.
Meanwhile, Toledo (8-4) became the the second Mid-American Conference team to accept a bid in the D.C.-based game in the last three years, joining Temple in 2009.
• Patrick Stevens can be reached at pstevens@washingtontimes.com.
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