Bowl Preview - 8 Games Kick Start Bowl Season This Weekend

December 14, 2021 by Staff

The 2021 bowl season opens with a flurry this Friday and Saturday with eight bowl games on-tap. Four of those features teams that have never previously played each other.

The Bahamas Bowl, which was one of the multiple cancellation casualties of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, returns as the lead-off bowl game. This year's combatants - Middle Tennessee State and Toledo - have made previous trips to this game. MTSU lost 45-31 to Western Michigan in 2015, and Toledo fell 35-32 to FIU in 2018. This first-time matchup is slated for noon ET on Friday on ESPN. Teams from Conference USA and the MAC have played in every Bahamas Bowl and the series is tied at 3-apiece between the conference. Ironically, the MAC has won in every odd year while CUSA has taken home the trophy in every even year.

At 6 p.m. Friday on ESPN2, the Cure Bowl in Orlando will pit the MAC against the Sun Belt when Northern Illinois faces Coastal Carolina for the first time. This is one of three Orlando bowl games as the city also plays host to the Cheez-It and Citrus Bowls. Coastal Carolina played in this game a year, falling 37-34 to Liberty in overtime, while NIU is making its first trip. The Huskies staged a remarkable one-season turnaround, improving from 0-6 to 9-4 while going from first to last in the MAC West and winning the conference championship game over Kent State 41-23. The Chanticleers bring a 10-3 record to this matchup and are 21-4 over the last two seasons. Northern Illinois will be trying to end a 6-bowl losing streak (4-9) while Coastal Carolina seeks its first bowl win in its second-ever bowl appearance after moving up to the FBS in 2017.

The Boca Raton, New Mexico, Independence, Lending Tree, LA, and New Orleans Bowls all take place on Saturday.

Appalachian State will be looking to keep its perfect bowl record (6-0) intact when the Mountaineers meet Western Kentucky to start the day with an 11:00 a.m. ET kick-off in the Boca Raton Bowl on ESPN. For all who have never been to the city, Raton is pronounced with a long 'O' and NOT a short 'O'. And for those who have never been to the Appalachian mountains, the third syllable of Appalachian is pronounced with a short 'A' (latch) and not a long 'A'.  The game is sponsored by RoofClaim which is indicative of how lucrative the re-roofing industry is in Florida. The Boca Raton Bowl website incorrectly says these teams have not met, but they've faced-off three times previously as members of the FCS (1-AA) with their last encounter in the 2000 quarterfinal matchup with the Mountaineers winning 17-14. They also split meetings in 1972 and 1973 when Appalachian State was a 1-A program but WKU was a D2 school. The Mountaineers lead the series, 4-1. This season, the Hilltoppers (9-4) won 7 straight between a pair of losses to UTSA, the last of which came in the CUSA conference championship game at UTSA. Appalachian State (10-3) won 6 straight between a pair of road losses to Louisiana, the last of which occurred in the Sun Belt conference championship game.

The New Mexico Bowl follows the Boca Bowl on ESPN at 2:15 ET and features a Mountain West-Conference USA clash between Fresno State and UTEP. The Miners, who are making their first appearance in a bowl game since 2014, will be looking to a halt a 6-bowl losing streak that dates back to 1967 when they beat Ole Miss in the Sun Bow. UTEP's first 8 bowl appearances came at home in that postseason classic and won five of them. The Bulldogs are 12-13 in bowl games and are making their first bowl appearance since 2018.

At 3:30 ET, the Independence Bowl kicks off on ABC. This is the earliest date of this game since 1980 as the last 30 had been scheduled between December 26-31. The game has been stuck at the low-end of the team selection pole for awhile, and it takes place in the worst college football stadium we've ever been to. They've wasted a ton of money on attempted improvements when it should have been razed and rebuilt from the ground-up years ago. Nonetheless, the matchup is an interesting one as BYU (10-2) and UAB (8-4) meet for the first time. BYU is making its 39th bowl appearance while UAB is making its 5th. The Cougars are 16-21-1 in their bowl history while the Blazers are 1-3.

The Lending Tree Bowl follows the New Mexico Bowl on ESPN at 5:15 ET. This game in Mobile, Alabama moves from Ladd-Peebles Stadium (capacity 40,000) to Hancock Whitney Stadium on the University of South Alabama campus which holds 25,450. The game has undergone multiple name changes through the year due to sponsorship tie-ins. The combatants this seasons are Eastern Michigan from the MAC and Liberty, an independent. Sun Belt tams had won the last six Lending Tree Bowl games. The Flames are 2-0 in bowl games, qualifying each year of their eligibility as a FBS program. The Eagles are 1-3 in bowl games and hasn't emerged victorious from one of these postseason affairs since its first attempt occurred at the 1987 California Bowl. Liberty and EMU's last and only meeting on the football field came in 1989 when the Flames won 25-24 as a FCS school led by former Cleveland Browns HC Sam Rutigliano.

The L.A. Bowl follows the Independence Bowl on ABC with a planned start time of 7:30 p.m. ET and pits Oregon State (7-5) of the PAC-12 against Mountain West champion Utah State (10-3). The last of three previous meetings between these schools occurred in 1998 and the first was way back in 1904. The Beavers have won them all. This is Oregon State's first bowl appearance since 2013, but the school holds a .600 winning percentage in bowl games with its 9-6 record. The Aggies are just 5-8 in bowl games.  Both schools are completing dramatic one-year turnarounds as Oregon State was a 2-5 a year ago and Utah State was 1-5.

The New Orleans Bowl follows the Lending Tree Bowl on ESPN at 9:15, featuring Sun Belt champion Louisiana against Marshall from Conference USA in the first meeting between the two schools. The Herd went 5-2 down the stretch after a 2-3 start while Louisiana is riding a 12-game winning streak which is second in the country behind Cincinnati's 13. Marshall is 12-4 all-time in bowl games but has lost its last two. The Ragin' Cajuns are 6-2 all-time in bowl games and have won their last two.

2021 Conference Bowl Challenge Records