Football

C-USA notebook: Division races to be solved this weekend

Even though UH has been eliminated from contention for the Conference USA West Division title, there remains much to be settled.

East Carolina (6-5, 5-2 C-USA) will host SMU (6-5, 5-2) at 1 p.m. Friday in Greenville, N.C. If SMU wins, it will advance to the championship game against Central Florida on Dec. 4 in in Orlando, Fla.

But if the Mustangs lose and Tulsa (8-3, 5-2) beats Southern Miss (8-3, 5-2), Tulsa will compete for the conference championship. Tulsa and Southern Miss play at 5:30 p.m Friday.

UCF (8-3, 6-1) plays Memphis (1-10, 0-7) at 11 a.m. Saturday. If the Knights lose and Southern Miss beats Tulsa, Southern Miss will advance to the title game because it holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over UCF. If ECU wins and both UCF and Southern Miss lose, the Pirates will reach the championship.

In games Saturday, Tulane (4-7, 2-5) plays Marshall (4-7, 3-4) at 11 a.m. UAB (4-7, 3-4) will come to town to play Rice (3-8, 2-5) at 2:30 p.m.

For the second straight week, the UH defense allowed the opposing quarterback to become C-USA Player of the Week. Southern Miss’ Austin Davis was announced as the winner of the award Monday after compiling six total touchdowns on 293 yards passing and 111 rushing yards.

3 Comments

  • "If ECU wins and both UCF and Southern Miss lose, the Pirates will reach the championship." – This isn't true. If UCF loses and ECU wins, both teams will have a 6-2 conference record. Since UCF holds a tiebreak over ECU, UCF would still go on to the conference championship. The only team that could usurp UCF and go to the championship is USM, and that only happens if UCF loses and USM wins.

    • In this instance ECU, UCF, and USM would all be tied at 6-2. UCF beat ECU but USM beat UCF and ECU beat USM. First tiebreaker in this 3-way tie is inter-division record. ECU would hold the edge with only one loss. So ECU would get the nod. Crazy but true. Fear not, Memphis can't beat UCF and ECU likely can't beat SMU.

  • I'm a Pirate fan to my core, but there is no way the Pirates deserve to even be in the championship picture this year. Our defense is literally the worst in the entire nation. The offense is fun to watch, but I am pretty sure I could start for our defense (and that is NOT a good thing).

    UCF would have to fall all over itself to lose to Memphis. Tulsa v. Southern Miss should be a great one. I'm hoping the two divisions send their best teams to the championship game, since that will put the whole conference in the best light. That means UCF against Tulsa. Winner would likely be 10-3, and be a good candidate to actually win the Liberty Bowl this year.

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