Military Bowl Tickets

Where and when the Military Bowl is played

The Military Bowl is played in Annapolis, Maryland, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, the home field of the U.S. Naval Academy. The 2026 edition, now called the Freedom Mortgage Military Bowl, is set for Monday, December 28, 2026, at 2 p.m. Eastern. The game has been played every December since 2008, apart from 2020, when it was canceled for lack of available teams.

The matchup for 2026 is a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) against a team from the American Athletic Conference (the American). Tie-ins (the contracts that assign conference teams to a bowl) are renegotiated in multi-year cycles, so the pairing has shifted over time: Army, Navy, Conference USA, the MAC, the Mountain West and others have all filled a slot in past years. The opponents are not known until the bowl selections that follow the conference championship games in early December, and that announcement is the moment demand for seats is set.

Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and where to sit

The stadium opened in 1959 and seats about 34,000 for football, though a 2023 Navy-Air Force game drew 38,803. It is a compact, open-air bowl where almost every seat is closer to the field than at a large NFL stadium. The field runs northwest to southeast, and the press box and the larger west-side structure sit along the southwest sideline. Thousands of memorial plaques on bench backs and walls honor Navy and Marine Corps service members, which gives the building a character few bowl venues share.

Best seats

• Sideline seats between the 30-yard lines give the clearest view of both offenses and are the first to draw demand once the teams are named.
• Upper rows on the sidelines are often the better buy in a stadium this size: the extra height shows formations and the whole field without putting you far from play.
• Club seating and suites, added during renovations, suit a group that wants indoor space on a cold afternoon.

Seats to think twice about

• Low end zone rows look close but flatten the view of anything happening at the far end of the field.
• The northeast sideline in the second half: with a 2 p.m. kickoff in late December, the low sun drops toward the southwest, behind the press-box side. Fans across the field can end up squinting into it, so pack sunglasses.

Late December in Annapolis is usually cold and can be windy off the Severn River and the Chesapeake Bay. A seat cushion, layers and a hat matter more here than the exact row.

How demand for Military Bowl tickets works

Most tickets on the resale market move after the matchup is announced. Two factors drive pricing more than anything else: how far the two schools are from Annapolis and how strongly their fans travel. Recent crowds show the range. Virginia Tech against Tulane in 2023 drew 35,849, while Duke against UCF in 2022 drew 17,974 and East Carolina against Pittsburgh in 2025 drew 17,016. A team within driving distance of the Mid-Atlantic, such as an ACC school from Virginia or North Carolina, tends to push demand up; a matchup of two distant schools usually leaves good seats available close to game day.

Sideline seats between the 20s carry a premium in almost any year, and the end zones and corners are the value areas. Because the stadium is small, even a good matchup does not leave many truly bad seats.

Bowl week: parade, Clydesdales and the stadium tailgate

The Military Bowl builds a short festival around the game, and the events are free to attend. The Military Bowl Foundation lists these for 2026, with times to be posted in the fall:

• Miracle in Annapolis (December 27): a street event on West Street with the Budweiser Clydesdales, food trucks, vendors and games.
• Pub crawl (December 27): a downtown Annapolis bar crawl the night before the game.
• Military Bowl Parade (December 28): the Clydesdales lead the parade through downtown Annapolis. In 2023 it stepped off at 10 a.m. from City Dock and finished at the stadium, about four hours before kickoff.
• Military Bowl Tailgate (December 28): a tailgate festival in the stadium parking lot with vendors, merchandise and local food.

If you want to see the parade and still make kickoff, park at or near the stadium first; recent bowl guidance opened one stadium gate early for parade viewers and RVs.

The Military Bowl Foundation and the sponsor names

The game is run by the Military Bowl Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that describes its purpose as operating events in the National Capital Region to benefit service members. Its causes include Patriot Point, a 294-acre retreat on Maryland's Eastern Shore for wounded, ill and injured service members, their families and caregivers. The foundation also operates the DC Touchdown Club. In earlier years the USO was a primary beneficiary.

The title sponsor has changed several times, which is why searches turn up so many versions of the name:

• EagleBank Bowl (2008–2009)
• Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman (2010–2019)
• Military Bowl presented by Perspecta (2020)
• Military Bowl presented by Peraton (2021–2022)
• Military Bowl presented by GoBowling.com (2023), then the Go Bowling Military Bowl (2024–2025)
• Freedom Mortgage Military Bowl (2026 onward, under a multi-year deal announced in May 2026)

The "Go Bowling" name refers to the sponsor, GoBowling.com; there is no bowling event connected to the game.

History and notable games

The bowl was created by the Washington, D.C. Bowl Committee and first played on December 20, 2008, when Wake Forest beat Navy 29–19 at RFK Stadium in Washington before 28,777 fans. It stayed at RFK through 2012 and moved to Annapolis for the 2013 game.

• Record crowd: 38,062 for Maryland's 51–20 win over East Carolina in 2010, at RFK.
• Closest finish: Toledo 42, Air Force 41 in 2011.
• Navy at home: the Midshipmen are 2–1 in the bowl, beating Pittsburgh 44–28 in 2015 and Virginia 49–7 in 2017.
• Highest single-team score: North Carolina's 55 points against Temple in 2019.
• Recent winners: Duke (2022), Virginia Tech (2023) and East Carolina in both 2024 and 2025.

Getting to Annapolis and parking for the game

Annapolis sits roughly between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and most visitors drive or fly into one of the region's airports and drive in. The stadium is at 550 Taylor Avenue, just off the Naval Academy grounds, within reach of downtown.

• Stadium lots: in recent years the bowl sold day-of parking at the stadium by credit card only, subject to availability, with oversized passes required in advance. Tailgating has been allowed on stadium property, with small gas grills permitted.
• Park and ride: a free shuttle has run from the Harry S Truman Road Park and Ride, with paid satellite lots at nearby schools.
• Accessible parking: recent guidance routed placard holders through Gates 2 or 6.
• Bags: the bowl has adopted a clear-bag policy (bags must be transparent plastic, vinyl or PVC).

These details come from the bowl's most recently posted guidance; check the Military Bowl parking and shuttle page before you go, since lots, hours and rules can change each year. Every GoodSeats order is backed by a 100% guarantee.

Sources

• Military Bowl (official site)
• Military Bowl – 2026 game set for December 28
• Military Bowl – Fan Events
• Military Bowl – Parking and Shuttles
• Military Bowl – Clear bag policy
• Bowl Season – Freedom Mortgage named title sponsor
• Wikipedia – Military Bowl
• Wikipedia – Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium
• WJLA – 2023 Military Bowl parade