Conference USA renews deals with five postseason bowls

IRVING, Texas -- Conference USA renewed five college football bowl deals Tuesday, with the conference champion set to face a Southeastern Conference team in the Liberty Bowl under a four-year agreement that will start in 2006.

Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky also agreed to new deals with the GMAC, Hawaii, New Orleans and Fort Worth bowls.

"The conference feels that our winning teams deserve an opportunity to participate in the postseason and these agreements will afford us those opportunities, particularly given the more favorable BCS policies," Banowsky said.

"We are fortunate to have good football programs and great bowl partners. It is helpful that most of our bowls are within the footprint of our conference, allowing fans easy travel to support their teams. We are also pleased that our bowls will avoid conflicts with our student-athletes' final examinations."

Beginning in 2006, a Conference USA team will be eligible for the Bowl Championship Series if ranked in the final BCS top 12 or, in the BCS top 16 and ranked higher than a team that receives automatic qualification.

"On behalf of the C-USA athletic directors, I can say we are all pleased with these bowl agreements," said Richard Giannini, athletic director at Southern Miss and chair of the C-USA Bowl subcommittee. "We look forward to working with all the great folks at these bowls and know our teams will have a wonderful postseason experience."

The Fort Worth Bowl extended its agreement with Conference USA for four years through the 2009 season. The bowl earlier reached a deal with the Mountain West Conference for the 2006-09 seasons.

The Hawaii Bowl signed a four-year extension with Conference USA and the Western Athletic Conference. The deal, which runs through 2009, includes a scenario allowing the sixth-place team from the Pac-10 to play in next year's game.