The 2013

Conference USA Football Championship Game The Conference USA Football Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the season champion of Conference USA (C-USA) since 2005. History The championship game from 2005–2021, showcased the C-USA East Division regu ...

, which determined the

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champion of

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

(C-USA), was played at noon

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(11 am

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

and 1700 UTC) on December 7 at Rice Stadium in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. The game featured the winners of the conference's East division, the

Marshall Thundering Herd The Marshall Thundering Herd is the intercollegiate athletic collection of teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in the Sun Belt Conference, which are membe ...

, and the winners of the West division, the

Rice Owls Rice University athletic teams are known as the Rice Owls. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates in NCAA Division I athletics. A member of Conference USA, Rice sponsors teams in seven men's and seven women's NCAA sanctio ...

. Under C-USA rules, the championship game would be played at the home stadium of the team with the best record in conference play. Since Marshall and Rice both finished with 7–1 records in conference play, and did not play one another in the regular season, the site was chosen based on the BCS rankings on December 1. Although only 25 teams are explicitly ranked, the ranking formula can be used to determine the relative rankings of any two teams in the

Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

. Accordingly, Rice received home-field advantage. Rice represented C-USA in the 2013 Liberty Bowl on December 31 in

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after defeating Marshall by 17 points.

History

In the 2012 Championship Game

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defeated former conference member

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(University of Central Florida) in overtime, 33–27 in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

. After the 2013 Conference USA realignment, C-USA added six new members for the 2013 season after losing four members, including UCF, to the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

. After the 2013 season, the ninth C-USA championship game was played in Houston, Texas for the third time since

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, when the

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hosted the

Southern Miss Golden Eagles The Southern Miss Golden Eagles and Lady Eagles (also known as Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and Lady Eagles) are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), located in Hattiesburg, Missi ...

Robertson Stadium John O'Quinn Field at Corbin J. Robertson Stadium (often referred to as simply Robertson Stadium) was a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, located on the campus of the University of Houston. It was the home of the Houston Cougars football and wome ...

. It was the first time that Rice Stadium hosted the Championship game series after Rice became the winner of the West Division.

Teams

West Division Champions

Rice came into the championship with a non–conference record of 2–2 after losing to Texas A&M and former C-USA member Houston and beating

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and New Mexico State. Rice was second in the West Division behind

Tulane Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

until Rice lost to North Texas, falling into third place. Tulane lost their two conference games in November, which moved Rice back up to second behind North Texas, until North Texas lost to UTSA. Rice then became ranked first in the division. At the end of the regular 2013 season, Rice had to defeat Tulane in order to be crowned the winners of the West Division, or Tulane or UTSA would have been crowned winners of the division. Rice defeated Tulane 17–13 to win the division. This was Rice's first appearance in Conference USA Championship series.

East Division Champions

Marshall came into the championship with a non–conference record of 2–2 after losing to Ohio and Virginia Tech and beating Miami(OH) and Gardner–Webb. Marshall was behind

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a teacher training school, East Carolina has grown from its orig ...

in second in the East Division standings until East Carolina lost to Tulane, moving Marshall up to first in the standings. Marshall then lost a close game to Middle Tennessee 49–51, which dropped Marshall behind East Carolina for the rest of the season until the East Carolina–Marshall game in late November. In order for Marshall to be crowned the winners of the East Division, Marshall. Marshall beat East Carolina 59–28 to win the East Division. This was Marshall's first appearance in the Conference USA Championship series.

Scoring summary

Statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2013 Conference USA Football Championship Game

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

Conference USA Football Championship Game Marshall Thundering Herd football games Rice Owls football games Sports competitions in Houston December 2013 sports events in the United States 2013 in sports in Texas 2013 in Houston