2023 Liberty Bowl
The 2023 Liberty Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 29, 2023, at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. The 65th annual Liberty Bowl featured [2023 2023 Iowa State Cyclones football team|Iowa State Cyclones football team|Iowa State] from the Big 12 Conference and [2023 2023 Memphis Tigers football team|Memphis Tigers football team|Memphis] from the American Athletic Conference. The game began at approximately 2:30 p.m. CST and was aired on ESPN. The Liberty Bowl was one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by automotive retailer AutoZone and was officially known as the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
Teams
The bowl featured the Iowa State Cyclones of the Big 12 Conference and Memphis Tigers of the American Athletic Conference. While the Liberty Bowl has a tie-in with the Southeastern Conference, the SEC did not have enough bowl-eligible members to supply a team.This was the second meeting between Iowa State and Memphis; the teams previously met in the 2017 Liberty Bowl, won by Iowa State, 21–20.
While Iowa State was the designated home team for the game, it was a de facto home game for Memphis, as Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, the site of the Liberty Bowl, is also the Tigers' home field.
Iowa State Cyclones
The Cyclones entered the game with a 7–5 record, tied for fourth place in their conference.This was Iowa State's fourth Liberty Bowl; the Cyclones were 1–2 in prior editions of the game, their sole win coming in the aforementioned 2017 game, along with losses in the 1972 edition and 2012 edition.
Memphis Tigers
The Tigers entered the game with a 9–3 record, having finished in fourth place in their conference.This was Memphis' second Liberty Bowl, after the aforementioned 2017 game.