C-USA Announces Three Additional Bowl Games

DALLAS – Conference USA has announced three more bowl games for this season, solidifying postseason destinations for Florida Atlantic, North Texas and WKU.

Florida Atlantic (5-3, 4-2 in C-USA) has accepted an invitation to play in the inaugural Montgomery Bowl, scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 23 in Montgomery, Alabama. The game is scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m. CT and will air on ESPN. The Owls will face the Memphis Tigers (7-3, 5-3 in the American), a team that FAU has met just once, also in a bowl game.

Florida Atlantic will enter the game with a stingy defense, led by senior LB Leighton McCarthy (league-high 9.0 sacks) and senior CB and Montgomery native Zyon Gilbert (39 tackles, 4 PBUs). Under first year head coach Willie Taggart, the Owls rank second in C-USA and ninth nationally in scoring defense, allowing 16.5 points per game.

North Texas has accepted an invitation to play in the inaugural edition of the Myrtle Beach Bowl on Monday, Dec. 21. The Mean Green (4-5, 3-4 in C-USA) will face Appalachian State (8-3, 6-2 in the Sun Belt) for the first time at Brooks Stadium on the campus of Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. The game will kick off at 1:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast live on ESPN.

This marks the fourth time in five seasons that head coach Seth Littrell has guided the Mean Green to a bowl game. North Texas concluded the regular season with one of the top offenses in the nation, ranking seventh in total offense (515.0 yards per game) and 24th in scoring (35.1 points per game). Senior WR Jaelon Darden concluded the regular season as the FBS leader in touchdown receptions (19). An All-America candidate and Biletnikoff Award semifinalist, Darden hauled in 74 catches for 1,190 yards and those 19 scores across UNT’s nine games, while setting new program records for career receptions (230), receiving yards (2,782) and receiving touchdowns (38) across his 48 games in Denton.

WKU has accepted an invitation to play in the LendingTree Bowl in Mobile, Alabama on Saturday, Dec. 26. The Hilltoppers will matchup against Georgia State (5-4, 4-4 in Sun Belt) at 2:30 pm CT on ESPN. This will be WKU’s second straight bowl under head coach Tyson Helton and the program’s sixth in the past seven seasons. WKU and Georgia State faced each other in the 2017 Cure Bowl.

The Hilltoppers defense is led by senior DE DeAngelo Malone, the 2019 C-USA Defensive Player of the Year. He ranks No. 1 in C-USA and No. 2 in the FBS with 65 total tackles as a defensive lineman, is second in C-USA with 11.0 TFL’s and third in the league with 6.0 sacks. WKU’s defense leads C-USA and ranks ninth nationally in passing defense, allowing 170.1 yards through the air per game. The Hilltoppers have allowed only 12 passing touchdowns in 11 games.

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