Southern Miss is one win away from bowl eligibility. Where could it go?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Southern Miss sits 5-2, one win from bowl eligibility under coach Huff.
- Sun Belt and ESPN hold primary placement power for USM's bowl destination.
- Projections favor Cure, Boca Raton or New Orleans Bowl matchups against G4 teams.
Southern Miss is one win away from reaching bowl eligibility for the first time since 2022.
The Golden Eagles were 4-20 in the two seasons after Frank Gore Jr had an NCAA bowl record 329 rushing yards in a Lending Tree Bowl win over Rice in Mobile.
First-year head coach Charles Huff has already put more wins on the board in 2025 than USM had in its two previous seasons combined.
Sitting at 5-2 and 3-0 in the Sun Belt Conference, the Eagles are tied atop the West division with Troy and poised to earn at least one extra game at the end of the year with three home games among their final five regular season contests.
It’s safe to begin asking the question: Where will the Golden Eagles go bowling in big 2025? The Sun Belt has direct ties with ESPN bowl events in Montgomery (Salute to Veterans Bowl), Boca Raton, Myrtle Beach, Frisco and Orlando (Cure Bowl).
The New Orleans Bowl and 68 Ventures Bowl have their own selections and the New Mexico Bowl and Potato Bowl are fallback options for the league.
Here’s the Sun Herald’s projection along with the predictions of several top media analysts.
Sun Herald projection: Cure Bowl vs East Carolina
There is no true bowl hierarchy in the Sun Belt. Instead, ESPN holds significant sway in where the league’s teams end up with its five options available to place any team it chooses with its allotted first choice.
If five different possible destinations isn’t a wide enough pool, ESPN can (and often does) place anyone in any of the other Group of Four bowl events it owns. With an assumption James Madison is shipped off to one of these outsider games, USM could find itself in a bowl the media conglomerate has frequently used to create attractive G4 matchups early in its selection process.
What others are predicting
ESPN: Boca Raton Bowl vs Liberty or New Orleans Bowl vs Western Kentucky
CBS Sports: New Orleans Bowl vs Western Kentucky
Athlon Sports: New Orleans Bowl vs Western Kentucky
College Football News: Myrtle Beach Bowl vs Eastern Carolina
Sports Illustrated: New Orleans Bowl vs Louisiana Tech
