UNT to face ARMY in 2016 Heart of Dallas Bowl

The Mean Green, in their first year under rookie head coach Seth Littrell, made one of the biggest turnarounds in the nation, going from 1-11 in 2015 to 5-7 in 2016. Although North Texas was one win short of the six-win threshold for bowl eligibility, a lack of bowl-eligible teams across the country forced the NCAA to allow a handful of five-win teams to play in bowls, and the selections were based on Academic Progress Rate scores. Among the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision schools, North Texas is 10th in APR and is second among teams not bowl eligible.

Bowl-game tickets are on sale now through the North Texas Ticket Office.

This will be the ninth bowl game in North Texas history and the first since the 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl, when the Mean Green defeated UNLV, 36-14. It will be the sixth bowl game for NT in the last 16 years.

Littrell becomes the second Mean Green coach to take North Texas to a bowl game in his first year at the reins, and he does so on the 70th anniversary of the first rookie coach to lead NT to a bowl. In 1946, Odus Mitchell directed North Texas to the first bowl in school history and scored a 14-13 victory over College of the Pacific in the Optimist Bowl in Houston. Pacific was coached by the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg, who, along with men like Knute Rockne and Pop Warner, was one of the pioneers and great innovators of college football.

This will be the Mean Green's second game against Army this year. On Oct. 22, North Texas defeated the Black Knights in West Point, NY, 35-18. This will be the sixth meeting all-time between North Texas and Army, and the Mean Green are slated to host Army at Apogee Stadium in 2017.