The race is on for participation in the 2017 Bahamas Bowl - the fourth edition of the event, set for Friday December 22, once again at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium, starting at 12:30 p.m. It will be broadcasted live on ESPN.
The two participants - selected from among bowl-eligible teams in Conference USA (C-USA) and the Mid-American Conference (MAC) - will be announced by the bowl, ESPN Events and conference partners once finalized.
The third week of the collegiate football season gets underway this weekend. Some of the games that could have a bearing on what happens in The Bahamas in December including Louisiana Tech visiting Western Kentucky University (WKU) in a rematch of the 2016 Conference USA Championship Game, Middle Tennessee visiting Minnesota in a game that is a reunion of the 2015 Bahamas Bowl head coaches, Rick Stockstill (Middle Tennessee) and P.J. Fleck (Minnesota/former Western Michigan head coach), and Central Michigan (2-0) taking on Syracuse.
In the 2016 Conference USA Championship Game between Louisiana Tech and WKU, Western Kentucky won 58-44 in the highest scoring conference title game in Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) history. In the regular season, Louisiana Tech won at home 55-52.
The 2017 Bahamas Bowl will be contested between Conference USA and the MAC. The MAC leads the season series, 2-1, and teams from the two conferences will play each other four more times this season.
Also noteworthy is that 2016 Bahamas Bowl Champion Old Dominion University (ODU) leads the FBS with 15 sacks, nearly halfway to its 2016 season total of 34. The ODU Monarchs have the top three individuals in C-USA in sacks - Miles Fox (five), Bunmi Rotimi (four) and Pat Toal (three).
One of the 2016 Bahamas Bowl participants Eastern Michigan got a solid performance from quarterback Brogan Roback in their 16-13 win at Rutgers. He completed 19 passes for 260 yards and a touchdown without an interception. He completed passes to nine different receivers.
Conference USA quarterbacks have the two longest active streaks in the FBS in consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass - Marshall's Chase Litton (23 games) and Middle Tennessee's Brent Stockstill (18). As far as the MAC is concerned, the streak has been extended to 12 consecutive seasons in which a MAC team has a regular-season victory over a team from the Big Ten Conference. During the streak, MAC teams have defeated 11 different teams and have 25 victories.

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