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Conference USA Football 2022: Bowl Notes, Championship Game

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UTSA has won the 2022 Conference USA football championship. Now six teams venture on to bowl season, with the first game fast approaching.

Here are the reported matchups as of early Sunday afternoon:

Team Opponent Bowl Time Date
MTSU SDSU Hawaii Bowl 8:00 pm ET Dec. 24
North Texas Boise St. Frisco Bowl 9:15 pm ET Dec. 17
Rice Southern Miss Lending Tree Bowl 5:45 pm ET Dec. 17
UAB Miami (OH) Bahamas Bowl 11:30 pm ET Dec. 16
UTSA* Troy Cure Bowl 3:00 pm ET Dec. 16
WKU So. Alabama New Orleans Bowl 9:00 pm ET Dec. 21
*Won Conference USA Football Championship Game

Conference USA Championship results – Standings

For the second time in as many years, UTSA is the Conference USA champ. The Roadrunners blew past North Texas, 48-27 before a raucous crowd at the Alamodome. Quarterback Frank Harris took home MVP honors after completing 32-of-37 passes for 341 yards and a mind-boggling five touchdown passes. He added 49 rushing yards on 16 carries, too.

Coaching Changes

There have been three coaching changes in Conference USA this offseason. Charlotte hired former Michigan assistant Biff Poggi to replace Will Healy. UAB hired Trent Dilfer away from the high school ranks to replace interim coach Bryant Vincent. FAU moved on from Willie Taggart and brought in former Texas head man Tom Herman.

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Rice Football to play Southern Miss in Lending Tree Bowl

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For the first time since 2014, Rice football is going to a bowl game. The Owls will play Southern Miss in the Lending Tree Bowl.

Rice Football is back in the postseason. After finishing the regular season 5-7, the Owls qualified for bowl eligibility by way of Academic Progress Rate (APR), which rates programs based on their academic success. Rice will play Southern Miss, a familiar foe who clinched bowl eligibility in their final game of the regular season.

Up until this past season, Southern Miss was a member of Conference USA along with Rice. The Owls and Golden Eagles have split their 12-game history, 6-6 with Rice winning each of the last two games. This will be the first time the programs are meeting at a neutral site.

The Lending Tree Bowl is played on Saturday, December 17 at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

Liberty defeated Eastern Michigan in last year’s Lending Tree Bowl matchup. Georgia State (2020) and Louisiana (2019) are previous winners since Lending Tree took over the sponsorship rights. The bowl had previously been played under the following names: Dollar General Bowl, GoDaddy Bowl, GoDaddy.com Bowl, GMAC Bowl and the Mobile Alabama Bowl.

Rice Football Bowl History

Rice has played in 12 bowl games in program history and holds a postseason record of 7-5. Rice went 3-1 in four bowl games under previous head coach David Bailiff.

Season Bowl Opponent Result
1937 Cotton Bowl Classic Colorado W 28–14
1946 Orange Bowl Tennessee W 8–0
1949 Cotton Bowl Classic North Carolina W 27–13
1953 Cotton Bowl Classic Alabama W 28–6
1957 Cotton Bowl Classic Navy L 7–20
1960 Sugar Bowl Ole Miss L 6–14
1961 Bluebonnet Bowl Kansas L 7–33
2006 New Orleans Bowl Troy L 17–41
2008 Texas Bowl Western Michigan W 38–14
2012 Armed Forces Bowl Air Force W 33–14
2013 Liberty Bowl Mississippi State L 7–44
2014 Hawaii Bowl Fresno State W 30–6

Rice Football vs Southern Miss history

Season Location Result
2007 Hattiesburg, MS W, 31-29
2008 Houston, TX W, 45-40
2011 Hattiesburg, MS L, 48-24
2012 Houston, TX W, 44-17
2014 Hattiesburg, MS W, 41-23
2015 Houston, TX L, 65-10
2016 Hattiesburg, MS L, 44-28
2017 Houston, TX L, 43-34
2018 Hattiesburg, MS L, 40-22
2019 Houston, TX L, 20-6
2020 Hattiesburg, MS W, 30-6
2021 Houston, TX W, 24-19

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Rice Volleyball: Owls drop NCAA heatbreaker to Baylor, 3-2

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Rice Volleyball rallied to force a fifth set, but saw their NCAA Tournament trip come to an end in Waco, TX, falling to Baylor 3-2 in the Second Round.

Another historic Rice volleyball season ends in a crushing NCAA defeat, this time at the hands of Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. It was the Owls’ third trip to the second round in program history and following a 3-1 victory over Colorado on Thursday, the first time in program history the Owls have won an NCAA match in back-to-back seasons.

Rice volleyball fought to the fifth and final set on Friday in Waco, TX, but was unable to add any other line items to that historic run. The Owls fell 3-2 (25-16, 22-25, 23-25, 25-14, 15-11).

In the games they won, Rice was dominant, but they weren’t able to mount a comeback in the final frame after falling behind 4-0 out of the gate.

Rice hit .289, edging Baylor who managed just .243. Anota Adekunle led all players with 22 kills, tying the record for kills in an NCAA Tournament match, also reached the day prior to Sahara Maruska against Colorado. Carly Graham led all players with 56 assists. Adekunle led all players with 22.5 points.

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Rice Women’s Basketball staves off TCU, stays perfect

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Rice women’s basketball continues its early-season success, staving off a late rally from TCU to move to 7-0 on the year.

Rice women’s basketball couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start on Friday night against TCU. The Owls shot a blazing 58.3 percent from the floor, jumping out to a 17-8 lead. Ashlee Austin led the way with an austere 4-for-4 start and a team-high nine points, setting the tone for the team moving forward.

TCU got their feet underneath them in the second quarter, but Rice continued to hold them at bay. The Frogs trimmed their deficit to five points to start the frame before the Owls’ rocketed their advantage back to 10.

The margin wiggled a little bit to each side throughout the period, but Rice always seemed to have an answer for every TCU basket, never allowing more than two consecutive scores without a response.

Things really wouldn’t escalate until the final minutes of the fourth quarter when TCU made a late run. Austin had just put Rice up by 11 when TCU mounted a 7-0 run, culminating in a three-pointer with 49 seconds on the clock to cut the Owls’ lead to four. Rice would tighten up, make their free throws and pull away, maintaining their perfect start and moving to 7-0 on the young season.

The 7-0 start is the best in program history, with that standard being raised further with each successive victory.

“I think this year can just be amazing, but we’ll take it one game at a time and the next one’s the most important [one] and we can’t get ahead of ourselves and we can’t think that we’ve arrived,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said.

“We got to keep fighting every single day and know now that that target is on our back even more than it already was. I’m really proud of that. Pressure is a privilege and they’ve worked really hard to have that target on their back and now we got to work even harder to keep it there.”

Spotlight | Team Depth

Five different players had four or more points in the fourth quarter, by far the most potent and diverse frame of the evening for the Owls in the most pressure-packed situation. Coach Edmonds mentioned that’s exactly how she wants this team to operate.

“[On] a different night, a different person can step up and when we are so balanced, it’s hard for opponents to scout against us. It’s hard to know who we’re going to go through. We have plays for everybody that we want to take advantage of. I think that’s our best attribute, how deep we are and how balanced we are,” she said.

Three starters finished in double figures and eight different players had at least three points with 10 Owls seeing the court in the 40-minute contest. Rice women’s basketball has depth and they continue to use it to their advantage.

Final Box | Rice 68 – TCU 58

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball has another important home game against a Lone Star State foe. After posting victories over Texas A&M and TCU, Rice hosts crosstown rival Houston on Saturday, Dec. 10. Tip-off for that game is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on ESPN+.

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Rice Football: Bloomgren, bowls and the latest from South Main

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Rice football faces a lot of uncertainty this week. From bowl possibilities to head coaching questions, here’s the latest from South Main.

It’s been a crazy couple of days on the Rice football front. There have, understandably, been lots of questions regarding the nuances of a five-win bowl berth and the latest on Mike Bloomgren after the team failed to reach six regular season wins.

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This update should shed some light on those pressing issues and hopefully set the stage for the weeks to come.

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