Inaugural Frisco Bowl to Feature Louisiana Tech and SMU

The first ever DXL Frisco Bowl, formerly the Miami Beach Bowl, will feature former WAC foes. The 7-5 SMU Mustangs from the American will welcome the 6-6 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs of Conference USA into the DFW area. The two schools have met four times previously when they were conference mates in the WAC from 2001-2004. La Tech leads the all time series 3-1, winning games in Shreveport, Ruston, and Dallas. SMU’s lone win over the Dawgs came in Dallas in 2002.

For Louisiana Tech, this extends their bowl streak to a school record four straight years. The Dawgs will have bowled in five of the past seven seasons, with trips to DFW in three of the past four. This also marks the second straight year Tech will face an American Athletic Conference team in DFW. This will mark La Tech’s 10th FBS/IA level bowl game. The Dawgs have a 5-3-1 record in bowl games, and a win this year would make it four straight years with a bowl win, and a winning season.

For SMU, this marks the Mustangs’ first trip to a bowl since joining the American Athletic Conference in 2014. This will be their 16th bowl appearance. They went to four straight bowls from 2009-2012, but haven’t been since until now. This will also be their seventh appearance in the DFW area.

The two red and blue teams will face off in Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. The home stadium of FC Dallas of the MLS, the 20,500 seat stadium has also hosted the FCS National Championship game since 2010. The small size of the stadium is a concern, so it will be interesting to see how they accommodate the crowd. SMU is 30 minutes away, while La Tech is under 4 hours away.

The game will be played on December 20 at 7:00 pm CT on ESPN.