With only three weeks left in the college football regular season, Conference USA has many close races to determine the seven bowl spots allocated to the conference.
The first bowl is the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl which features a member from C-USA and the champion of the Sun Belt conference. The University of Louisiana-Lafayette looks to be the front-runner in the Sun Belt conference at 8-2 and will most likely face Marshall, who is tied for fifth in Conference USA with East Carolina.
Marshall and East Carolina play in the final week of the season and the loser will likely represent C-USA in “The Big Easy.” The winner will go to the Beef O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl and probably face Syracuse at Tropicana Field. June Jones is poised to return to Honolulu again and hopefully lead SMU to a win similar to the 45-10 victory over Nevada on Christmas Eve in 2009. The hometown Rainbow Warriors of Hawaii will most likely return to the bowl game to attempt to take down the Mustangs.
The main obstacle for the Mustangs is their Nov. 19 matchup in Houston against the undefeated, 11th ranked Cougars. With an upset over the Cougars, SMU could find themselves in a later bowl game. Tulsa, who SMU recently fell victim to, will do a bowl switch with SMU as they will be replaced in the Hawaii Bowl by SMU and they will replace SMU in the Armed Forces Bowl. Brigham Young University, after gaining bowl eligibility this past week, have locked in their spot in the game. The Golden Hurricane face a similar obstacle as SMU but a week later and at home.
If the Cougars fall to Tulsa, Tulsa will find themselves in the C-USA Championship for the first time since 2008, when they lost to East Carolina 27-24 at home. If they don’t find themselves into a BCS bowl, the 11th ranked Houston Cougars, barring any regular season losses or a loss in the C-USA Championship, will face Mississippi State in the Autozone Liberty Bowl.
The Cougars have two extremely tough games to close out the season against SMU and Tulsa and Houston’s clock might strike midnight and their Cinderella, undefeated season could be over. Finally, 22nd ranked Southern Miss, accoring to Bleacherreport.com, will be traveling to Dallas to face Iowa in the TicketCity Bowl. The Eagles have a easy road to the C-USA Championship.
Although the bowls are still to be determined, one thing that is apparent is that Conference USA is making a name for themselves from the success of schools like Tulsa, SMU, Houston and Southern Miss.
Josh Yonis is a freshman majoring in sports management and journalism with a minor in psychology. He can be reached for comment at [email protected]
