GOIN’ BOWLING: CUSA teams find out postseason destinations, opponents

East Carolina and Memphis get shots against BCS foes

Prior to the final week of the regular season, it looked as though Conference USA may have trouble filling all of its bowl slots due to the parity in its East Division. However, Southern Miss and Memphis notched wins over West Division opponents in their season finales to become eligible for postseason play with 6-6 records.

While the league was unable to produce its first BCS-buster—despite having a couple of hopefuls in Tulsa and East Carolina, it does have plenty of opportunities to validate its improvement during the bowl season.

League champion East Carolina and East division brother Memphis get a chance to line-up versus BCS competition.

The Pirates (9-4) are headed to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, where they will face the SEC’s Kentucky Wildcats (6-6) on January 2 at 5:00 p.m. on ESPN. They are making their first trip to Memphis since going back-to-back in 1994 and 1995. East Carolina is in a bowl game for a third consecutive season.

Tommy West will take his Memphis Tigers (6-6) to St. Petersburg, FL where they will meet former CUSA and current Big East member South Florida (7-5) in the inaugural St. Petersburg Bowl on December 20 at 4:30 on ESPN2. Memphis is going bowling for the second time in as many years and fifth in the last six.

Those are the only games against the BCS, but there other intriguing match-ups.

Southern Miss (6-6) struggled to a 2-6 start under first-year coach Larry Fedora, but the Golden Eagles won their final four games—including a 21-3 victory over CUSA champ East Carolina—to attain bowl eligibility. USM will travel to New Orleans where it will play Sun Belt champion Troy (8-4) on Sunday, December 21st at 8:15 p.m. on ESPN in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.

Rice (9-3) will be staying home for the holidays. They’ll square off against MAC foe Western Michigan (9-3) in the Texas Bowl in Houston’s Reliant Stadium on December 30 at 8 p.m.. The game will be televised on the NFL Network. The Owls qualified for their first bowl under second-year coach David Bailiff and are in a bowl for the second time in three years after not playing in the postseason in 45 years.

Cross-town rival Houston will get a re-match with Air Force in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth. The game, which will be televised at noon on ESPN, will be played on December 31 at TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium. The Cougars (7-5), who lost a chance to play for the league title by dropping a 56-42 decision at Rice in their final game, were on the short-end of a 31-28 final in the first contest with the Falcons (8-4). That game was played at SMU’s Ford Field due to Hurricane Gustav.

League runner-up Tulsa is headed to Mobile and the GMAC Bowl for a second year in a row under Todd Graham. The Golden Hurricane (10-3) has a chance to top last year’s 10-4 mark when they play MAC runner-up Ball State. The Cardinals (12-1) lost their first game of the season when they fell to Buffalo in the MAC title game. This game, which is the next to last bowl of the season, will be broadcast on ESPN at 8 p.m. on January 6.

CUSA-Fans.com will have previews for each of these six contests, so keep checking back for the latest bowl coverage.