FB: C-USA Sending Eight Teams to Bowl Games

DALLAS – Conference USA will be sending eight schools to play in bowl games this holiday season. C-USA Champion Florida Atlantic leads the group of eight teams, joined in the postseason by West Champion UAB, Charlotte, FIU, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Southern Miss and WKU.

Florida Atlantic (10-3) heads to postseason play having won 10 of its last 11 games after capturing its second C-USA Championship in three years. The Owls will play in the familiar confines of FAU Stadium in the Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 2:30 p.m. EST/1:30 p.m. CST on ABC. Florida Atlantic will face SMU in the first meeting between the two schools. This will be the fifth time in the bowl’s six years that it has featured the Conference USA Champion.

UAB (9-4) will make its third consecutive bowl appearance when it plays in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. The Blazers will face Sun Belt Conference Champion Appalachian State (12-1) on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST on ESPN. UAB will be the seventh different current member of C-USA to play in the New Orleans Bowl.

The Charlotte 49ers (7-5), who rode a five-game win streak to bowl eligibility, have accepted an invitation to compete in the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl in the program’s first-ever bowl appearance. The game will kick-off the bowl season on Friday, December 20 (2 p.m. EST/1 p.m. CST). Charlotte will be meeting Buffalo (7-5), winners of five of its last six contests, for the first time.

For the first time in program history, FIU (6-6) will make a third straight bowl appearance. The Panthers will face Arkansas State (7-5) in the sixth annual Camellia Bowl, which kicks off on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 5:30 p.m. EST/4:30 p.m. CST on ESPN. This will be the ninth time that FIU will face Arkansas State, a former conference rival in the Sun Belt.

Louisiana Tech (9-3) will be in a bowl game for the sixth straight season when it participates in the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl on Thursday, Dec. 26 at 4 p.m. EST/3 p.m. CST on ESPN). The Bulldogs, who are joined by Wisconsin as the only FBS programs to have bowl wins the last five seasons, will face Miami in the 11th-oldest bowl game. LA Tech and Miami have met four times previously, including the 2003 season opener at Independence Stadium in Shreveport.

For the second straight year, Marshall (8-4) will represent C-USA in the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl on Monday, Dec. 23 at 2:30 p.m. EST/1:30 p.m. CST on ESPN. The Tampa Bay area bowl will feature the Thundering Herd and former C-USA member UCF (9-3) in its game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Marshall is 12-2 all-time in bowl games, including seven straight victories, and this will be its fourth appearance in this bowl since 2011.

Southern Miss (7-5) will make its 26th bowl appearance when it plays for the first time in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 11:30 a.m. EST/10:30 a.m. CST. The Golden Eagles will renew a long-standing rivalry with Tulane (6-6), as this will be the 31st all-time meeting, but the first since 2010. This will be the 12th time in the bowl’s 17-year history that Conference USA has placed a team in the game.

After a one-year absence, WKU (8-4) is back in the postseason, as the Hilltoppers will play in the SERVPRO First Responders Bowl in Dallas, Texas on Monday, December 30 at 12:30 p.m. EST/11:30 am CST. WKU will play in its sixth all-time bowl against Western Michigan (7-5) in a game played at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas. The teams met 15 times from 1923 to 1947, but this will be the first meeting in 72 years.

Conference USA is 30-18 (.625) over the past seven years in bowl games, which includes the best bowl record of all the conferences four times in the past eight seasons.

2019-20 C-USA BOWL SCHEDULE

MAKERS WANTED BAHAMAS BOWL (Nassau, Bahamas)