Troy won’t have to leave the state of Alabama for the entire 2023 postseason, as it turns out.

Fresh off winning their second straight Sun Belt Conference championship over Appalachian State at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy on Saturday, the Trojans (11-2) will travel 150 or so miles north for the 76 Birmingham Bowl against Duke (7-5) at 11 a.m. on Dec. 23. Troy is the first Sun Belt team to face a Power 5 program in a bowl game, and one that will be nationally broadcast on ABC.

“I kid around sometimes with our games being on ESPN+, you know, before dodgeball and after cornhole,” Troy coach Jon Sumrall said. “ABC covers premier sporting events and it’s obviously connected with ESPN, but it’s an exciting opportunity for our kids. To play on one of the major networks in ABC and to play a Power 5 opponent — all those things — and to be able to play a little bit later (date) game compared to maybe what some of our teams get to play is nice.

“… I’m grateful that the selection process took us in enough consideration and rewarded our guys for their year with a really quality opportunity against them.”

Troy has certainly earned its stature in the bowl hierarchy, with not only its second straight conference title but 10 straight wins coming into the postseason. The Trojans have not lost since a defeat to James Madison on Sept. 16, their only home Sun Belt loss in two seasons under Sumrall.

You could argue that excitement over Troy football is at a near-unprecedented level in the program’s modern history, with the Birmingham Bowl bid coming on the same day chancellor Jack Hawkins announced that the school has earmarked $10 million to build a new indoor practice facility. Athletics director Brent Jones said he’s anticipating a highly-partisan atmosphere in Birmingham on the weekend before Christmas.

“This is a major reward, not only for Troy University, for coach Sumrall, for our players, but it’s also for our fans,” Jones said. “We really are going to make a huge push and effort to be able to take over that stadium. And that’s what we need to do. I think that’s one of the reasons why ESPN picked us with this bowl.

“… It’s in our home state, it’s where a lot of our student-athletes come from. We’ll be able to have the parents as well as family and friends be able to drive to this, as well as all of our fans. So it’s very convenient and we’re really looking forward to Trojan Nation taking it over.”

Troy didn’t officially learn its bowl opponent until late in the afternoon on Sunday, a few hours after most of them other bowl pairings had been announced. There was widespread reporting that the Trojans were set to play Georgia Tech, before some last-minute haggling within the ACC sent the Yellow Jackets to the Gasparilla Bowl to play Central Florida and brought the Blue Devils to Birmingham (Duke and UCF played in last season’s Military Bowl and officials from the two schools and their conferences apparently wanted to avoid a repeat).

Duke also has an interim coach in Trooper Taylor (a former Auburn assistant) after head coach Mike Elko left to take the Texas A&M job. In addition, quarterback Riley Leonard — a Fairhope native — has entered the NCAA transfer portal and isn’t likely to play in the bowl game.

Sumrall didn’t appear bothered by the opponent uncertainty, however.

“I’ll never forget one year as an assistant at another school,” Sumrall said. “They told us we were going somewhere and then some other team in our league didn’t like it, so we got sent somewhere else. You just never know the pecking order and how it all works for TV and conference rankings. I’m just glad we’re still getting to play football. … I think it’s great we get to play it in the state close to our fan base.”

The Birmingham Bowl will be the final game for a number of top Troy players, including quarterback Gunnar Watson and several key members of the defense. Safeties Dell Pettus and Irshaad Davis, cornerbacks Reddy Steward and O’shai Fletcher, defensive end Richard Jibunor, defensive tackles A.J. Pierce and Buddha Jones and linebacker Jayden McDonald are all seniors.

One player who is undecided about his future is junior edge rusher Javon Solomon, who leads the Sun Belt with 16 sacks this season. The 6-foot-2, 249-pound Solomon would be a candidate for the various pre-draft all-star games (such as the Reese’s Senior Bowl and East-West Shrine Bowl) should he elect to turn pro.

“As of right now, I’m just focused on this bowl game, just trying to just trying to take that next step,” Solomon said. “God’s been blessing me. So I’m gonna just take it day-by-day.”