Army West Point Black Knights To Face Marshall in Independence Bowl

The Army West Point Black Knights will play the Marshall Thundering Herd in the Independence Bowl later this month.

Dec 6, 2024; West Point, NY, USA; Army Black Knights head coach Jeff Monken holds up the American Athletic Conference championship trophy after a 35-14 win against the Tulane Green Wave at Michie Stadium. / Danny Wild-Imagn Images

The Army West Point Black Knights learned their reward for an 11-win season and an American Athletic Conference championship — a trip to Shreveport, La.

The Black Knights (11-1) will play the Marshall Thundering Herd (10-3) in the Independence Bowl, which is set for Dec. 28 at Independence Stadium. Kickoff is set for 9:15 p.m. eastern.

This will be a matchup of conference champions. The Thundering Herd won the Sun Belt Conference championship game this weekend.

Army will play Navy on Saturday before beginning preparation for its bowl game.

Army is heading for a bowl game for the first time since 2021. The Black Knights have been bowl-eligible for the past two seasons at 6-6 but did not participate in a game.

The American has four primary bowl tie-ins — the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Md.; the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas; the Fenway Bowl in Boston; and the Independence Bowl.

Given that Army won the league crown, it appears clear the Independence Bowl had first selection.

The Black Knights have played in the Independence Bowl before, which happened in 1996 under coach Bob Sutton. Army lost to Auburn in that game. That also happened to be Army’s first 10-win season.

Army has played five of its last six bowl games in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, dating back to 2010. That includes four appearances in the Armed Forces Bowl and another in the Heart of Dallas Bowl (now the First Responder Bowl). The only other bowl game in that span was the Liberty Bowl.

Earlier Sunday, the Black Knights learned they were ranked No. 19 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 22 in the final College Football Playoff Top 25, making them the second-highest ranked Group of 5 conference team after Boise State. Army was ranked in the CFP Top 25 five out of six weeks.

Army was rewarded with a bump in both rankings after its 35-14 win over Tulane in the American Athletic Conference championship game on Friday night.

For Army (11-1), it wrapped up its first conference championship in the history of the program, dating back to its first season in 1891. The Black Knights were only members of a conference for seven years in Conference USA. Those seven seasons Army never won more than two league games in a season.

This has been a historic seasons for Army, as it won its first conference title in school history on Friday night. Earlier last week, Jeff Monken was named the AAC coach of the year and quarterback Bryson Daily was named the AAC offensive player of the year, among more than a dozen Black Knights that were honored with some sort of league honor.