HOUSTON -- Rice will make its first bowl appearance since 1961 after accepting a bid to play in the New Orleans Bowl.
The Owls, representing Conference USA, will play the Sun Belt Conference champion Dec. 22 at the Superdome in the first bowl game there since Hurricane Katrina. Troy will be Rice's opponent if it beats Florida International this week. A loss would give Middle Tennessee the berth.
Rice (7-5, 6-2 C-USA) made a stunning turnaround from last year's 1-10 season, winning seven of its last eight games after an 0-4 start.
The Owls lost to Kansas in the 1961 Bluebonnet Bowl.
The New Orleans Bowl, sponsored by R+L Carriers, was played in Lafayette, La., last season after Katrina swamped the city around the start of football season. Full story
Cal locks down Holiday Bowl
SAN DIEGO -- California will play in the Holiday Bowl for the second time in three seasons.
The 21st-ranked Golden Bears (8-3) lost 45-31 to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl in 2004 after they were leapfrogged in the final Bowl Championship Series standings by Texas.
Cal finishes the regular season at home Saturday against Stanford in the Big Game.
This is the first time Cal has made four straight bowl appearances, a streak that also includes the 2003 Insight Bowl and the 2005 Las Vegas Bowl.
Beavers are Sun Bowl bound
EL PASO, Texas -- Oregon State, the only team to beat USC this season, accepted a bid to play in the Sun Bowl.
The Beavers took third place in the Pac-10 with a narrow win over Oregon in the annual Civil War rivalry game Friday. Oregon State (8-4, 6-3 Pac-10) has won six of its last seven games.
Oregon State, which finishes the season at No. 24 Hawaii on Saturday, will face either Missouri, the fifth-place team in the Big 12, or the second-place team from the Big East.
The Gator Bowl will determine Oregon State's opponent. After the Gator picks a team from either the Big 12 or Big East, the Sun Bowl gets a team from the conference that wasn't chosen.
Sun Devils are Hawaii bound
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Arizona State will play No. 24 Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24 in coach Dirk Koetter's last game with the Sun Devils.
Koetter was fired Sunday one day after Arizona State beat rival Arizona 28-14 to clinch a third consecutive postseason berth. He agreed to stay on and coach the team in its bowl game.
This will be the seventh meeting between the Warriors (10-2) and the Sun Devils (7-5). ASU holds a 5-1 edge in the series.
Wolfe, NIU to play in Poinsettia
DEKALB, Ill. -- Northern Illinois, featuring the nation's leading rusher in Garrett Wolfe, accepted an invitation to play TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 19.
Northern Illinois (7-5) will be playing in its second bowl in three years. The Huskies beat Troy in the 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl.
NIU has seven straight winning seasons under coach Joe Novak. It clinched a winning record this year with a 27-0 win over Eastern Michigan last Friday in its regular-season finale.
Wolfe, the offensive player of the year in the Mid-American Conference, rushed for 1,900 yards this season with 19 touchdowns. During his career, Wolfe has gained 5,136 yards rushing, scored 57 TDs and had 22 100-yard rushing games.
W. Michigan in first Int'l Bowl
KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- Western Michigan has accepted a bid to play in the inaugural International Bowl, to be held Jan. 6 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
The 2007 International Bowl will be the first bowl game played outside the United States since the 1937 Bacardi Bowl in Havana. Western Michigan, a member of the Mid-American Conference, will play an undetermined Big East Conference team.
The Broncos (8-4, 6-2 MAC) finished second in the conference's West Division, behind Central Michigan.
Western Michigan boasts the sixth-best rushing defense on Division I-A, limiting opponents to 71.9 yards per game. The team leads the nation with 22 interceptions.
Tulsa headed for Armed Forces
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Tulsa accepted a bid to represent Conference USA in the Armed Forces Bowl against Utah.
Tulsa (8-4) will make its third bowl appearance in four seasons under coach Steve Kragthorpe, and play in its 14th bowl overall, in the Dec. 23 game on the TCU campus against Utah (7-5). The Utes, from the Mountain West Conference, are in their fourth straight bowl.
Before Kragthorpe became their coach, the Golden Hurricane hadn't played in a postseason game since the 1991 Freedom Bowl and had been to only three bowls the previous 37 seasons.
Tulsa ended its regular season with a 38-3 victory over Tulane on Friday that snapped a three-game losing streak.
C. Michigan to participate in Motor City
DETROIT -- Central Michigan accepted a bid to play in the Motor City Bowl, becoming the first Michigan team to participate in the decade-old postseason game.
The Chippewas (8-4) will be making only their third Division I-A bowl appearance and first since they played UNLV in the 1994 Las Vegas Bowl. They are 0-2.
Central will play an undetermined team from the Big Ten Conference.
The Motor City Bowl will be played Dec. 26 at Ford Field, a venue with which Central will be familiar, considering it is the site of Thursday night's Mid-American Conference championship game between the Chippewas and Ohio.
E. Carolina accepts bid for PapaJohns.com
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- East Carolina accepted a bid to play in the inaugural PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., the first bowl game for the Pirates since 2001.
The Dec. 23 game will match the Pirates (7-5) against a team from the Big East Conference, which will send its fourth- or fifth-place team to the game. The most likely candidates are South Florida or Cincinnati.
The Pirates will be making their 13th bowl appearance, but their first since losing 64-61 in double overtime to Marshall in the 2001 GMAC Bowl.
Longhorn Bill 
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