C-USA Football: Games for Week of 11-26-16


C-USA enters the final regular season weekend ready to crown an East Division champion, find out where the conference championship will be played, and try to get more teams bowl-eligible.

There are four teams with at least six wins and bowl eligibility – Louisiana Tech (8-3), WKU (8-3), Old Dominion (8-3) and Middle Tennessee (7-4). There are three teams with five wins and one win from bowl eligibility – North  Texas (5-6), Southern Miss (5-6) and UTSA (5-6).
 
West Division Champion Louisiana Tech will visit Southern Miss on Friday afternoon looking for a win that could allow the Bulldogs to host the 2016 Dynacraft C-USA Championship Game in Shreveport on Saturday, Dec. 3. The Golden Eagles need a victory in order to be bowl-eligible for the second straight season and the 20th time in the past 23 years.
 
WKU can claim the East Division crown for the second straight year with a victory at Marshall Saturday night, or with an Old Dominion loss to FIU earlier in the day.  If ODU wins and WKU loses, the Monarchs will take their first division title and a spot in the C-USA Championship Game.  Old Dominion has seen a three-win improvement from 2015 heading into Saturday’s contest.

If Old Dominion and Louisiana Tech are the division champions with the same record, those teams did not play in the regular season, eliminating the head-to-head tie-breaker, the second tie-breaker after conference record.  Therefore, the CFP ranking is the next tie-breaker. If neither team is in the top 25 of the CFP Rankings, average computer ranking would be used to determine host.
 
UTSA will host Charlotte, with the Roadrunners needing a win to become bowl-eligible for the first time in the program’s six-year history in the first year of the Frank Wilson era.
 
North Texas takes to the road, needing a victory at UTEP to reach bowl-eligibility for the first time since 2013. The Mean Green have increased their win total by four games thus far this season under first-year head coach Seth Littrell .
 
Middle Tennessee will host Florida Atlantic looking to post eight wins for the first time since 2012. The Owls are hopeful to tally four wins for the first time since 2013.
 
Rice will close out its season with a non-conference game at Pac-12 power Stanford.


FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25

LA Tech at Southern Miss (ESPN News) 3 p.m.
 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26

FIU at Old Dominion (ESPN3) 3:30 p.m.

North Texas at UTEP (CUSA TV) 4 p.m.

FAU at Middle Tennessee  (beIN) 5:30 p.m.

Charlotte at UTSA (CUSA TV) 7 p.m.

WKU at Marshall (ESPNU) 7 p.m.

Rice at Stanford (Pac-12 Networks) 8 p.m.


 

FINAL:

La Tech 24  Southern Miss 39

The Golden Eagles were 15.5 point underdogs on Friday and crossed the finish line with a 6-6 record, giving C-USA another Bowl eligible team.

FINAL:

FIU 28 at Old Dominion 42

FINAL:

North Texas 24 at UTEP 52

The Mean Green see their bowl hopes dashed by the Miners.

FINAL:

FAU 56 at Middle Tennessee 77

Three In A Row - FAU Owl's Nest

FINAL:

Charlotte 14 at UTSA 33

The Roadrunners are Bowling.

FINAL:

WKU 60 at Marshall 6

Doc Holliday may be available after this one.

FINAL:

Rice 17 at Stanford 41

The other Owls also close at 3-9.

WKU's 60-6 win at Marshall on Saturday night means that the Hilltoppers (9-3, 7-1 in C-USA) have repeated as East Division Champions and that they will host the 2016 Conference USA Football Championship Game on Saturday, December 3.

Louisiana Tech (8-4, 6-2 in C-USA) punched its ticket as West Division Champion back on November 12.

The C-USA Championship Game will be televised live on ESPN, beginning at Noon.

This will be the first time in league history that the game will be hosted by the same school in consecutive seasons.

If only we had a coach like Jeff Brohm...oh wait..