C-USA Bowl picture coming into focus

Following a 25-20 loss to East Carolina on Saturday, the entire Southern Miss football program is in a state of limbo while waiting to see what the bowl season holds.

Several options remain open to the Golden Eagles, who finished the regular season 7-5 overall and 5-3 in Conference USA play.

Bowls with Conference USA tie-ins include R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, La., Dec. 20), the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas, Dec. 31), the St. Petersburg Bowl (Tampa, Fla., Dec. 19), the Eagle Bank Bowl (Washington, D.C., Dec. 29) and the Sheritan Hawaii Bowl (Honolulu, Hawaii, Dec. 24).

The Autozone Liberty Bowl also has a contract with the conference to take the winner of Saturday’s conference championship game between East Carolina and Houston.

Bowl officials work closely with a conference mediator, in this case Southern Miss Athletic Director Richard Giannini, to ensure teams get bowl matchups to generate the most ticket sales and provide good competition.

Giannini said Monday it was too early to speculate how the bowl season will play out.

“There are just too many variables right now to say for sure,” Giannini said. “It’s safe to say (USM’s options) will either be the New Orleans Bowl or the Armed Forces Bowl, one of those two, but we have six bowls to fill and six bowl-eligible teams, and it’s still very early in the process.”

He also said Southern Miss may know where it’s headed before Saturday’s championship game.

Luckily for Conference USA, bowls with tie-ins are spread out enough to incorporate a sensible bowl for every bowl-eligible C-USA team.

Teams which have achieved bowl eligibility include Southern Miss, Marshall, East Carolina, Houston, SMU and Central Florida.

Central Florida makes sense for the St. Pete Bowl because of the location. Likewise with Marshall or East Carolina in the Eagle Bank Bowl in Washington, D.C.

SMU has a natural tie-in with the Hawaii Bowl because Mustang coach June Jones is one-year removed from being the head man at the University of Hawaii and has been lobbying for the bowl for weeks.

The loser of the C-USA Championship will likely be headed to the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, especially if that team is Houston.

ESPN.com college football experts Mark Schlabach and Bruce Feldman both project a berth for Southern Miss in the New Orleans Bowl, as does www.cbssports.com. Sports Illustrated writer Stewart Mandel projects the Eagles are headed to the St. Petersburg Bowl.

But there is at least one Golden Eagle who is opposed to a trip back to the New Orleans Bowl.

“As long as we don’t go to New Orleans, I’ll be all right,” DeAndre Brown said.

Brown broke his left leg in the second quarter of last year’s 31-28 win over Troy. The game was ranked fourth in ESPN’s most memorable bowl games list last season.

“The good news is that we’re headed somewhere,” Giannini said. “Coach Fedora has a chance to be the first coach in Southern Miss history to win eight games in his second season, so there’s a lot to be excited about.”