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NY Pony wrote:CUSA will screw us and put us wherever they feel like, assuming we're bowl eligible.

SMU 86 wrote:Last year USM went to the Hawaii Bowl after winning the conference. And since this is June's last year to go to the Hawaii Bowl (unless the BE forms an alliance with the Hawaii Bowl) I think we do it. But we have the team to win CUSA regardless of the bowl.

CalallenStang wrote:USM went to Hawaii Bowl because Liberty Bowl exercised their contractual option to take a Big East team instead of a CUSA team. Had Liberty Bowl wanted to take a CUSA team, USM would have gone there. Since they didn't, USM chose the bowl that the coaches felt was most rewarding to the players amongst the remaining CUSA bowls.

Hilltopper wrote:

CalallenStang wrote:USM went to Hawaii Bowl because Liberty Bowl exercised their contractual option to take a Big East team instead of a CUSA team. Had Liberty Bowl wanted to take a CUSA team, USM would have gone there. Since they didn't, USM chose the bowl that the coaches felt was most rewarding to the players amongst the remaining CUSA bowls.

I didn't think it was the Liberty Bowl's choice. I thought the Liberty Bowl invited USM, which in turn chose Hawaii over Memphis. My understanding is that the C-USA champion is not contractually obligated to go to Memphis, but is qualified to do so and always has until last year.

C-USA not likely to have team in Liberty Bowl
11/29/2011 2:36 PM CST

It appears likely that Conference USA will not have a team in the Liberty Bowl for the first time since the league’s inception as a football conference in 1996.
A bowl provision states that C-USA must vacate the Liberty Bowl if the bowl’s other conference tie-in, the SEC, has nine bowl-eligible teams.
“Right now, we’re at that number nine,” C-USA associate commissioner Alfred White said today. “That number calls for us to vacate the Liberty Bowl in favor of the game in Birmingham.”
That doesn’t mean that the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham will be the postseason destination for Southern Miss. C-USA features other tie-ins including:

* The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Dallas

* The Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla.

* The R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

* The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl

* The Ticket City Bowl in Dallas

* The league also has a conditional tie-in with the Military Bowl in Washington, D.C.

C-USA could still get a team into the Liberty Bowl if Georgia upsets LSU in the SEC title game on Saturday, putting potentially three SEC teams into BCS bowls.
White said that C-USA could also find a more favorable bowl destination for a team like Southern Miss (10-2) if other bowls outside of the league’s tie-ins are willing to do trade-offs.
Southern Miss plays at Houston at 11 a.m. on Saturday to determine the champion of Conference USA.
The Cougars (12-0) are essentially a lock for a BCS bowl bid if they beat USM.
For Southern Miss, its postseason destination is much more unclear with the Liberty Bowl probably off the table.

Hilltopper wrote:And as for having the team to win C-USA, why do you say that? I'm not saying we don't, but to me, there are too many questions left to be answered to make such predictions. Some of you who are close enough to see practices can offer some answers, but I don't see how anyone can know what we have at quarterback, on the offensive line, at receiver, in Banjo and Crawford's places in the secondary, at defensive line depth, etc. Everything PP has written has made it sound like Gilbert is the real deal, and if Lowe is a real SEC-caliber tackle, that makes the entire line better. As for the other positions, I don't know enough to have an educated opinion. I hope you're right and hope we do win the conference. But it seems early to say we SHOULD win it. Plus, what will the team's health and confidence be like after the non-conference games? What if we're 1-3 when the C-USA games start? I hope we're not, but it seems possible to me.
Lot of questions still left to answer.