Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl Continues With New Year's Eve Date

April 17, 2009

Fort Worth, Texas -

For the third straight year, the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will "usher" in the New Year as the postseason college football game will be played on New Year's Eve at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, which is owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television (ERT), will be televised live on ESPN from Amon G. Carter Stadium on Thursday, December 31 with the kickoff time still to be determined. The seventh edition of the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will feature schools from Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference.

After four consecutive years of being played before Christmas, on December 23, the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl joined the New Year's Eve schedule in 2007. Schools from the Pacific 10 Conference and Conference USA have posted wins over Mountain West representative Air Force the past two years with both games attracting more than 40,000 fans each. Cal scored a 42-36 come-from-behind win over Air Force in 2007 before the Falcons dropped a 34-28 decision to Houston in 2008. The attendance figure ranked among the best in the 80-season history of Amon G. Carter Stadium.

"The New Year's Eve date has resonated well with our local fans this past year, and I'm extremely pleased that we will have another day game on that date again," said Tom Starr, Executive Director of the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl.

Schools from C-USA and Mountain West have met 12 times in post-season bowl games. C-USA schools lead 7-5 with Houston breaking an eight-game post-season losing streak by defeating the Air Force to capture the 2008 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl championship trophy. Prior to the 2008 bowl game, the Mountain West Conference had won three of the four regular-season meetings with Conference USA schools as Houston dropped a 31-28 decision to Air Force in Dallas at SMU September 13 followed by Colorado State's 28-25 win over the Cougars in Fort Collins.

Institutions from Conference USA will play in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl for the sixth time as the 12-school league has posted a 2-3 bowl mark at Amon G. Carter Stadium, including Cincinnati's 2004 win over Marshall. The Mountain West Conference is 1-2 as Utah beat Tulsa in the nine-school league's first appearance in 2006. In addition to the Pac-10's berth in 2007, other conferences that have played in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl include the Big 12, Mid-American and Western Athletic Conferences.

With Patriotic overtones featuring all five branches of the military, the 2008 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl included a fanfest area showcasing military hardware; a flyover; a demonstration by one of the top military skydiving teams; induction ceremonies on the field; a military band and honor guard; and the presentation of the "Great American Patriot Award." The 2008 GAPA award winner was Army General David Petraeus.

A Textron Inc. Company, Bell Helicopter agreed August 23, 2006, to the title sponsorship for the post-season college football game formerly known as the PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl (2003, 2004) and the Fort Worth Bowl (2005), which is now the Armed Forces Bowl. With those changes, the official name is the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. On December 6, 2007, Bell Helicopter exercised its option for title sponsorship of the game for 2008 and 2009.

Ticket prices for the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl are $50 for sideline seats, $40 for upper deck seats and $20 for end-zone tickets. Military veterans receive half off any $40 and $50 seat and active-duty personnel get in free via the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl corporate military ticket underwriting program. A portion of local ticket sales will go to designated military charities. Tickets for this year's game can be obtained by calling the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl office at 817/810-0012.

ESPN Regional Television/Event Ownership - The nation's largest syndicator of collegiate sports programming, ESPN Regional Television (ERT) annually produces more than 1,000 telecasts of sporting events. Programming includes football, basketball, NCAA events, golf and NHRA events accounting for more than 2,200 live and/or original hours of programming. In addition to event ownership, ERT is the production headquarters for ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network; syndication rights-holder and producer of national, regional and local shows for college conferences (e.g. - BIG EAST, Big 12, Mid-American, Sun Belt, WAC). ESPN Regional Television markets and/or owns several sporting events, including collegiate football events: the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas); New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque); Papajohns.com Bowl (Birmingham, Ala.); Las Vegas Bowl; Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl (Honolulu); St. Petersburg Bowl; the MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney (Orlando, Fla.) ; and The Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards; collegiate basketball events: the 76 Classic (Anaheim, Calif.); Charleston Classic (S.C.); Diamond Head Classic (Honolulu); Old Spice Classic (Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla.); O'Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off (San Juan); O'Reilly Auto Parts All-College Classic (Oklahoma City); SEC/BIG EAST Invitational; and the ESPNU BracketBusters; as well as the ESPN National Golf Challenge presented by Callaway. For more information, visit www.espnplus.com.

Bell Helicopter-Textron is an American helicopter (both commercial and military) and tiltrotor aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth. Bell Helicopter provides the various branches of service with the world's best military helicopters, including the V-22, the ARH-70A Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter and the AH-1Z and UH-1Y H-1 helicopters. A sister company, Textron Systems, produces the new M1117 Armored Security Vehicle, which is designed for speed and for deflecting rocket-propelled grenades and land mines.