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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

Make sure you’re subscribed to The Roost on Patreon for breakdowns of the matchup, practice reports and more as the 2022 Rice Football season marches onward for a few more weeks.

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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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Rice Football officially bowl eligible as top 5-7 team

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Despite the loss to North Texas, Rice football is bowl eligible. The 5-7 Owls will earn an invite to the postseason based on their APR score.

The hows and intricacies of the run-up to this moment were discussed in detail for subscribers this week, but the synopsis is this: Rice football is going bowling.

How does this work?

There aren’t enough six-win teams to fill out a complete field of 82 teams. That means the top 5-7 teams are eligible to take the open spots. Those invitations are given to teams with the highest APR (Academic Progress Rating) first and Rice sits atop that list of currently non-eligible teams.

Wins by Tennessee over Vanderbilt and Pitt over Miami ensured there’d be a spot for at least one 5-win team invited to the postseason. Should Buffalo lose to Akron next weekend, another spot would open.

There are currently some conflicting reports as to whether or not 6-6 App State (two FCS wins) would be invited over Rice with a waiver, but there’s still at least one spot remaining, even if that were to be the case.

When are bowls announced?

While UAB has already announced they are heading to the Bahamas, the majority of bowl games are typically announced the Sunday after conference championship games are complete. Rice football is most likely to find out where it’ll be heading that Sunday, although it’s always possible things get leaked or announced prior to that.

Will Rice football accept the invitation?

Technically, Rice could decline. But realistically, that seems farfetched. Rice has been to a bowl game since 2014 and set out with the expressed intent of doing that this year. Having them receive an invite under any circumstance and turn it down is extremely unlikely, regardless of anything else that might be going on with the program in the interim.

If for no other reason that rewarding the seniors and the classes that worked to get to this point, Rice football is expected to accept any invitation that comes there way.

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