C-USA Football: Games for Week of 9-1-18


Conference USA began its 23rd football season last Saturday when Rice defeated Prairie View A&M, 31-28. It marked the second straight season that the Owls became the first C-USA school to play a game.

The other 13 schools begin play this week with UAB hosting Savannah State on Thursday, Aug. 30, WKU visiting nationally-ranked Wisconsin on Friday, Aug. 30 and 12 schools in action on Saturday, Sept. 1.

The first full Saturday schedule features defending champion Florida Atlantic playing at No. 7 Oklahoma and reigning West Division titleist North Texas hosting SMU. Three other Power 5 opponents are on the docket with FIU hosting Indiana, Middle Tennessee making the short trip to Vanderbilt and UTSA going to Arizona State. Rice welcomes city rival Houston, Marshall visits longtime foe Miami (Ohio), Louisiana Tech goes to South Alabama and Old Dominion is Liberty’s first opponent as an FBS school.

Three games take place against FCS opponents, with Charlotte hosting Fordham, Southern Miss welcoming Jackson State and UTEP playing Northern Arizona at the Sun Bowl.

Seven Conference USA teams will open the season at home and seven are on the road.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 30

Savannah State at UAB (ESPN+)                      8 pm

 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31

WKU at (4) Wisconsin (ESPN)                         9 pm

 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1

Florida Atlantic at (5) Oklahoma (FOX)       12 pm

Houston at Rice (CBSSN)                                12 pm

Marshall at Miami (Ohio) (ESPN+)                   3:30 pm

Fordham at Charlotte (ESPN+)                        6 pm

Old Dominion at Liberty (LFSN)                       6 pm

Indiana at FIU (CBSSN)                                  7 pm

LA Tech at South Alabama (ESPN+)                7 pm

Jackson State at Southern Miss (ESPN+)         7 pm

Middle Tenn. at Vanderbilt (SECNA)                 7:30 pm

SMU at North Texas (Stadium)                        7:30 pm

Northern Arizona at UTEP (ESPN3)                  7:30 pm

UTSA at Arizona State (FS1)                           10:30 pm

My takeaway - how does FAU get Indiana or Vandy on the schedule istead of Wisconsin or OU 😀

Kidding - as I know Kiffin wants to play the big boys.   But it would be cool to be playing a P5 team where the spread might actually be close.  And it would be really cool to pull-off a home-and-home with somebody like Indiana (especially if you get to do like FIU last year and pull-out of that game and then play UMass instead and still get the home game the following season!!!).

My other takeaway - Rice could have easily lost to Prairie View A&M yesterday.  So I am taking Houston big!

Houston at Rice?

So, a home game for both?

I wonder what the record is the least amount of travel for a NCAA football game?

Should that not go down as a neutral site game   - there WILL BE more Houston fans there than Rice! That will be an ugly game, Briles first game as OC for Houston and the fact that Prairie View A&M outscored Rice 28-3 in the middle of that game. A bad snap over the QB (sound familiar Owl fans! And of course - IN TEXAS!) turned that game for Rice.

owlsdad said

My takeaway - how does FAU get Indiana or Vandy on the schedule istead of Wisconsin or OU 😀

Kidding - as I know Kiffin wants to play the big boys.

This game has nothing to do with Kiffin.  This was scheduled 5+ years ago as a way to make money….just like next year's Ohio State game.  Hopefully we will be seeing less and less of these games scheduled in the future….not that beating Oklahoma wouldn't be fun…

fauowls44 said

owlsdad said

My takeaway - how does FAU get Indiana or Vandy on the schedule istead of Wisconsin or OU 😀

Kidding - as I know Kiffin wants to play the big boys.

This game has nothing to do with Kiffin.  This was scheduled 5+ years ago as a way to make money….just like next year's Ohio State game.  Hopefully we will be seeing less and less of these games scheduled in the future….not that beating Oklahoma wouldn't be fun…

Posted On: Aug 27th 2018, 9:12 AM #379703

The infamous "body bag"games lol.

d-owl said

fauowls44 said

owlsdad said

My takeaway - how does FAU get Indiana or Vandy on the schedule istead of Wisconsin or OU 😀

Kidding - as I know Kiffin wants to play the big boys.

This game has nothing to do with Kiffin.  This was scheduled 5+ years ago as a way to make money….just like next year's Ohio State game.  Hopefully we will be seeing less and less of these games scheduled in the future….not that beating Oklahoma wouldn't be fun…

Posted On: Aug 27th 2018, 9:12 AM #379703

The infamous "body bag"games lol.

Posted On: Aug 27th 2018, 10:39 AM #379706

Lol these were always so depressing, especially since we played the other schools that a lot of my friends went to. It was so depressing hearing all the crap about how bad we are while UF is winning championships.

We can blame Angelos for that. He set us back  big time, look at the 2006 schedule alone we didnt have a home game until Oct.   We came back to Boca outmatched, outscored and deflated.  FIU has gotten better deals to bring Power 5 teams to South Fl. on a 1-1 Home and Home type series.  We failed to get something like that done, except in 2007 when we had USF and Minnesota at home.  Playing at home gives the players more confidence to finish strong and to play at their highest peak.This helps with upsets, and moving forward if you don't win but play a hard fought game.  Even though FIU had these deals we are ahead of the curve because of what we accomplished 10 years ago and now. We needed the money more, thus playing the body bag games were the only option.  I think in the Future we should schedule a traditional Power 5 team and a mid tier Power 5 team.  We wont make headlines beating MAC teams.  Or we try to get into another conference.  If Kiffin stays and we beat bigger teams and have continuous winning streak and a NY6 berth and win it can look good into the eyes of the beholder.  Everything is what have you done for me lately, and if we are winning a lot lately we will be fresher in other conferences mind.  

I agree - schedule somebody who is probably going to be highly ranked, then add a beatable P5 program (Indiana, Vandy, Washington State, Texas Tech, etc.), hopefully in a home-and-home.

I think if we start beating P5 programs over the next 5 years, then we get invited to a weaker P5 conference, or a better G5 conference. I'd love to get to the AAC, but the Big 12 could be a good fit in the future, unless UCF goes there, and that opens a spot for us in the AAC.

Washington State - could imagine the press conferences and meme's between Kiffin and Leach?