Mountain West to cut ties with Armed Forces Bowl after 2013 season

The Armed Forces Bowl was initially reported to stay with the Mountain West from 2014-19, but that is not the case as the 2013 version of the bowl game will be the last year that the Mountain West will be sending a representative there.

While the Armed Forces Bowl will no longer be affiliated with the Mountain West, commissioner Craig Thompson emphasized at Mountain West media days that the league will be partnering soon with a sixth bowl in the Southeast part of the country:

"It will probably be a situation where two of six years we will go to one site, one of six another site and three of six a third site," Thompson said of the plan (bowl agreements most often are on six-year contracts). "We'll move them around. And that sixth bowl will in all likelihood be in the Southeast. ESPN's talking about starting a new bowl in Montgomery, the New Orleans Bowl, the Independence Bowl in Shreveport (La.)."

The Mountain West did have a previous tie-in to the Independence Bowl for a few seasons. Thompson also mentioned that he expects the Mountain West champion to be part of the playoff in the New Year's Six which includes the semifinal games plus the two other big money bowl game, and that would give the league seven bowl games almost every year.

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