The 2020 Conference USA Football Championship Game was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

game played on Friday, December 18, 2020, to determine 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). The game featured the East division champions

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 West division champions

UAB Blazers The UAB Blazers are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs that represent the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The school is one of the fourteen member institutions of Conference USA (C-USA) and participates in Division I of th ...

in the conference's 16th championship game. Sponsored by tax services and consulting firm

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, the game was officially known as the Ryan Conference USA Football Championship Game.

Previous season

The 2019 Conference USA Football Championship Game featured the East Division champion

Florida Atlantic Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-cam ...

against the West Division champion UAB. The Owls defeated the Blazers by a score of 49–6.

Teams

The 2020 Conference USA Football Championship Game was contested by the

, East Division champions, and the

, West Division champions. The teams had met 10 times previously, with the Thundering Herd holding a 8–2 edge in the series. The teams' last meeting was played in

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; Marshall won, 23–18. The game was the teams' first meeting between the two in the Conference USA Football Championship Game.

Marshall

Marshall clinched its spot in the championship game on December 9 following the cancelation, due to the

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, of their final scheduled game against

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

. The cancelation of the game prevented Marshall from winning the division outright on the field; however, according to Conference USA's special tie-breaking criteria for the season, Marshall would win the title even if

won their final game and had a higher

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

in conference games. The need for a tie-breaker was rendered moot when Florida Atlantic lost their final game to

Southern Miss The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

on December 10, confirming the Thundering Herd's position in the title game. This was the Thundering Herd's third appearance in the conference title game and first since 2014.

UAB

UAB clinched its spot to represent the west division in the championship game on December 12, after defeating

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, 21–16. The Blazers won their third straight division title and became the first team in the conference to play in three consecutive conference championship games.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2020 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 UAB Blazers football games

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 regul ...