The seventh edition of the Heart of Dallas Bowl, the game featured the Army Black Knights, an independent, and the North Texas Mean Green of Conference USA.
The game featured the Army Black Knights, an FBS independent, and the North Texas Mean Green from Conference USA.
North Texas achieved their first victory in the series in their fifth meeting, which came earlier in the regular season on October 22, 2016.
After a disappointing 2–10 campaign the year prior,[5] Army looked to return to winning ways in head coach Jeff Monken's third season.
[12] The following week, they matched up with eventual bowl game foe North Texas, to whom they lost by seventeen points.
[21] North Texas entered 2016 under the leadership of new head coach Seth Littrell, who was brought in to lead the program after the Mean Green finished 2015 with a record of 1–11.
Faced with two remaining regular season games, UNT needed to win both in order to become bowl eligible.
[32] Needing a win in their last regular season game against UTEP, North Texas fell behind 7–31 in the second quarter and was never able to recover, losing 24–52.
[33] The result of this, as a post-game Associated Press report put it, was that North Texas was "knocked...out of bowl eligibility.