Football

Seven Sun Belt Football Programs Set for Bowl Season

BOWL SEASON CONFERENCE NOTES

NEW ORLEANS – Following the conference’s first year as a 14-team football league, a Sun Belt record seven teams will participate in Bowl Season—tied for the most among non-autonomy conferences and trailing only the SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Big 12. 
 
The Sun Belt once again captured national attention during the 2022 campaign with four victories over autonomy five foes, including a statement Saturday in Week 2 to become the first non-autonomy conference to knock off multiple Top 10-ranked opponents on the same day in nearly two decades (Sept. 20, 2003). 
 
The conference was home to the last two unbeaten teams and the last one-loss team from a non-autonomy conference this season and was the lone non-autonomy conference to have multiple teams reach 10 wins during the regular season. 
 
The Hercules Tires Sun Belt Football Championship Game—which Troy won 45-26 to claim its conference record seventh Sun Belt title—was the lone conference championship game to feature a pair of teams with two-or-fewer losses this season. 
 
The Sun Belt paces the FBS with a .649 bowl winning percentage since the dawn of the College Football Playoff (CFP) era in 2014, a mark its seven representatives will look to better during Bowl Season. 
 
Sun Belt champion No. 24 Troy (11-2, 7-1 SBC) is headed to the Duluth Trading Cure Bowl for its ninth bowl appearance and first since 2018. The Trojans will look to extend their 10-game winning streak and their four-game bowl winning streak in the postseason contest. No. 24 Troy will square off against Conference USA champion No. 25 UTSA (11-2, 8-0 CUSA) at 3:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. CT on Friday, Dec. 16, in Orlando, Fla. With Troy landing at No. 24 in the CFP Rankings on Dec. 4, the Sun Belt has had a team finish in the final CFP Rankings in each of the past four seasons.      

Southern Miss (6-6, 4-4 SBC) is bound for the LendingTree Bowl for its 27th bowl appearance and first since 2019. The Golden Eagles will take on Rice (5-7, 3-5 CUSA), which earned an at-large berth based on its APR score, at 5:45 p.m. ET/4:45 p.m. CT on Saturday, Dec. 17, in Mobile, Ala.
 
Marshall (8-4, 5-3 SBC) will make its sixth-straight bowl appearance and 19th all-time in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. The Thundering Herd will face FBS independent UConn (6-6) at 2:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. CT on Monday, Dec. 19, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. 
 
South Alabama (10-2, 7-1 SBC) is headed to the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl for its third-ever bowl appearance and first since 2016. The Jaguars will meet Western Kentucky (8-5, 6-2 CUSA) at 9:00 p.m. ET/8:00 p.m. CT on Wednesday, Dec. 21, in New Orleans, La. 
 
Louisiana (6-6, 4-4 SBC) will make its fifth-straight bowl appearance and 10th all-time in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl. The Ragin’ Cajuns will take on Houston (7-5, 5-3 AAC) at 3:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. CT on Friday, Dec. 23, in Shreveport, La. 

Georgia Southern (6-6, 3-5 SBC) is bound for the Camellia Bowl for its fifth all-time bowl appearance and fourth over the past five seasons. The Eagles will face Buffalo (6-6, 5-3 MAC) at 12:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. CT on Tuesday, Dec. 27, in Montgomery, Ala. 
 
Sun Belt East Division champion Coastal Carolina (9-3, 6-2 SBC) will make its third all-time and third-straight bowl appearance in the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl. The Chanticleers will square off against East Carolina (7-5, 4-4 AAC) at 6:45 p.m. ET/5:45 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Dec. 27, in Birmingham, Ala. 

Each of the Sun Belt’s conference record seven bowl games will be nationally televised on ESPN. 
 
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
  • DULUTH TRADING CURE BOWL – The only bowl game to feature a pair of conference champions pits Sun Belt champion No. 24 Troy against Conference USA champion No. 25 UTSA. The Trojans are ranked in all three major polls for the first time in program history—and gave the Sun Belt a team in the final College Football Playoff rankings for the fourth-straight season. Troy’s defensive unit, which ranks eighth in the nation in scoring defense allowing just 17.5 points per game, will attempt to stop UTSA’s high-powered offense, which ranks 12th in the nation scoring 38.7 points per game, in the first-ever meeting between the two programs. The matchup will feature Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year Trojans senior linebacker Carlton Martial against Conference USA Most Valuable Player Roadrunners redshirt senior quarterback Frank Harris. Troy has won four-straight bowl games dating back to 2010 to improve to 5-3 all-time in Bowl Season. Both teams carry a 10-game winning streak into Bowl Season and the winner will emerge with the longest winning streak among teams from non-autonomy conferences. 
  • LENDINGTREE BOWL – The 13th all-time meeting between former conference foes Southern Miss and Rice will break the 6-6 tie in the all-time series. After five-straight losses to the Golden Eagles from 2015-19, the Owls won back-to-back games in 2020 and 2021 to even the all-time ledger. Sophomore running back Frank Gore Jr.—a First Team All-Sun Belt pick as an all-purpose player and a Second Team All-Sun Belt selection at running back—will be a key cog in the Golden Eagles offense. Gore Jr. rushed for 1,053 yards and seven touchdowns on the season and will attempt to lead Southern Miss, which is 11-15 all-time in bowl games, to its first bowl win since 2016. 
  • MYRTLE BEACH BOWL – For the sixth-straight year and ninth time in 10 seasons, Marshall is bowl bound. The Thundering Herd won four-straight games to close out the regular season and get bowl eligible. Marshall is 12-6 all-time in bowl games, including a 16-10 victory over UConn in the St. Petersburg Bowl in 2015—the lone prior meeting between the two programs. Behind First Team All-Sun Belt selection sixth-year running back Khalan Laborn, who rushed for 1,423 yards and 16 touchdowns this season, and a defensive unit that ranks among the Top 10 nationally in scoring defense (16.2 points allowed per game) and total defense (292.8 yards allowed per game), Marshall will aim to erase a three-game bowl skid. 
  • R+L CARRIERS NEW ORLEANS BOWL – After a five-year hiatus, South Alabama returns to Bowl Season for the third appearance in program history. The Jaguars are in search of their first-ever bowl win and will look to earn it against a Western Kentucky team that it defeated 31-24 in the lone prior meeting in 2013. Led by a pair of All-Sun Belt defensive backs sophomore Yam Banks (First Team) and senior Darrell Luter Jr. (Third Team), the South Alabama defense ranks among the Top 15 in the nation in total defense (302.8 yards allowed per game) and scoring defense (19.4 points allowed per game). First Team All-Sun Belt pick junior running back La’Damian Webb, who rushed for 1,015 yards and 13 touchdowns on the year, propels the Jaguar offense. 
  • RADIANCE TECHNOLOGIES INDEPENDENCE BOWL – Bowling for the program-record fifth-straight season, Louisiana will attempt to make it four-straight bowl wins in the sixth all-time meeting with Houston. The Cougars lead the series 3-2, though the Ragin’ Cajuns won the most recent matchup, 31-28 in 2006. Louisiana trailed only Sun Belt champion Troy with four First Team All-Sun Belt picks with a pair on defense—redshirt senior defensive lineman Zi’Yon Hill-Green and redshirt senior defensive back Bralen Trahan—and two on special teams—senior punter Rhys Burns and senior return specialist Eric Garror. 
  • CAMELLIA BOWL – While this will be the first-ever matchup of Georgia Southern and Buffalo, Eagles sixth-year quarterback Kyle Vantrease—who threw for 4,755 yards and 25 touchdowns in five seasons for the Bulls—will be extremely familiar with the foe on the opposing sideline. Vantrease nearly doubled his career numbers in one year at Georgia Southern with 3,901 yards and 25 touchdowns as the trigger man for head coach Clay Helton’s newly-installed high-powered offense. Vantrease ranks fifth in the nation in passing yards and 18th in passing touchdowns and will attempt to lead the Eagles to their fourth bowl victory in five appearances. 
  • TICKETSMARTER BIRMINGHAM BOWL – Coastal Carolina will make its third-straight and third all-time bowl appearance with a familiar man under center. In what could be the final game for three-time Sun Belt Player of the Year redshirt junior quarterback Grayson McCall in teal, the Chanticleers will take on East Carolina for the first time in program history. Coastal Carolina, which is 1-1 all-time in bowl games, can earn its third-straight 10-win season and give the Sun Belt three 10-win teams for the second-straight year with a win. The only other teams with three-straight 10-win seasons from 2020-22 are Alabama and Clemson.
 
WHERE TO WATCH
 
 Date  Game  Time  Broadcast
 Friday, Dec. 16  No. 24 Troy vs. No. 25 UTSA  2 p.m.   ESPN
 Saturday, Dec. 17  Southern Miss vs. Rice   4:45 p.m.  ESPN
 Monday, Dec. 19  Marshall vs. UConn  1:30 p.m.  ESPN
 Wednesday, Dec. 21  South Alabama vs. Western Kentucky  8 p.m.  ESPN
 Friday, Dec. 23  Louisiana vs. Houston  2 p.m.  ESPN
 Tuesday, Dec. 27  Georgia Southern vs. Buffalo  11 a.m.  ESPN
 Tuesday, Dec. 27  Coastal Carolina vs. East Carolina  5:45 p.m.  ESPN
 
All Times CT