| Game Name: | Liberty Bowl |
| Subheader: | 65th Liberty Bowl |
| Title Sponsor: | AutoZone |
| Date Game Played: | December 29 |
| Year Game Played: | 2023 |
| Football Season: | 2023 |
| Stadium: | Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium |
| City: | Memphis, Tennessee |
| Visitor School: | University of Memphis |
| Visitor Name Short: | Memphis |
| Visitor Nickname: | Tigers |
| Visitor Record: | 9–3 |
| Visitor Conference: | The American |
| Visitor Coach: | Ryan Silverfield |
| Visitor 1Q: | 19 |
| Visitor 2Q: | 3 |
| Visitor 3Q: | 14 |
| Visitor 4Q: | 0 |
| Home School: | Iowa State University |
| Home Name Short: | Iowa State |
| Home Nickname: | Cyclones |
| Home Record: | 7–5 |
| Home Conference: | Big 12 |
| Home Coach: | Matt Campbell |
| Home 1Q: | 0 |
| Home 2Q: | 13 |
| Home 3Q: | 7 |
| Home 4Q: | 6 |
| Mvp: | Seth Henigan (QB, Memphis) |
| Odds: | Iowa State by 8.5[1] |
| Referee: | Matt Loeffler (SEC)[2] |
| Attendance: | 48,789 |
| Us Network: | ESPN ESPN Radio |
| Us Announcers: | John Schriffen (play-by-play), Rocky Boiman (analyst), and Dawn Davenport (sideline) (ESPN) Jorge Sedano (play-by-play) and Orlando Franklin (analyst) (ESPN Radio) |
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 Iowa State from the Big 12 Conference and Memphis from the American Athletic Conference (The American). The game began at approximately 2:30 p.m. CST and was aired on ESPN.[3] [4] 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.
The bowl featured the Iowa State Cyclones of the Big 12 Conference and Memphis Tigers of the American Athletic Conference (The American). While the Liberty Bowl has a tie-in with the Southeastern Conference (SEC), 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.[5]
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.
See main article: 2023 Iowa State Cyclones football team. The Cyclones entered the game with a 7–5 record (6–3 in the Big 12), 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.
See main article: 2023 Memphis Tigers football team. The Tigers entered the game with a 9–3 record (6–2 in the American), having finished in fourth place in their conference.
This was Memphis' second Liberty Bowl, after the aforementioned 2017 game.