In April 2010, organizers announced that the NCAA had granted a four-year extension of the game's bowl certification.

The bowl selected the 6–6 East Carolina Pirates to serve as the Conference USA representative.

Coming off the 2009 season in which they were the Conference USA Champions and its representative in the Liberty Bowl the Pirates struggled a bit in 2010, losing four of their last five games.

Coming off a disappointing 2–10 season in 2009 Maryland returns to a bowl game to face East Carolina.

[4] This scenario was taken off the table on November 30, when the Armed Forces Bowl extended a bid to Army.