By By Richard Dark/The Meridian Star
HATTIESBURG The Southern Miss football team ended plenty of postseason bowl speculation Tuesday by accepting an invitation to the second-annual GMAC Mobile Alabama Bowl.
The Golden Eagles, who fell out of the Top 25 rankings for the first time this season after last week's 27-24 loss to Conference USA foe Cincinnati, will be the opponent for the Texas Christian Horned Frogs. The loss, which saw USM leading the Bearcats 24-7 in the fourth quarter, cost them a share of their fourth Conference USA title.
TCU (9-1) is currently ranked No. 13 ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 15 in the AP rankings. The game will be played at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile on Dec. 20. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. and will be televised live on ESPN2. Payout for the bowl is $750,000. The Golden Eagles' usual bowl venue of the Liberty in Memphis has a payout of $1.25 million.
The game kicks off college football's annual bowl season, being the first one of the year.
Mobile is just 97 miles from Hattiesburg, a positive sentiment USM Director of Athletics Richard Giannini echoed.
There will be other events surrounding the bowl game, such as a block party and parade and an alumni buffet on game day.
Tickets for the game and surrounding events will go on sale starting on Wednesday, Nov. 22, at the USM Ticket Office.
Tickets for the game are $45 each and can be purchased by calling (800) 844-8425 or (601) 266-5418, faxing an order to (601) 266-6529, or via the Internet at www.southernmiss.com.
USM ends its regular season at home Friday against the East Carolina Pirates. Tuesday, ECU accepted a bid to CUSA's third bowl tie-in, the galleryfurniture.com Bowl, which will be played Dec. 27 in Houston. Payout for that inaugural bowl, formerly the site of the Bluebonnet Bowl, is also $750,000.
Richard Dark is a sports writer for the Meridian Star. E-mail him at rdark@meridianstar.com.