FAU Owls: Which bowl game will they land?
The potential destination for FAU’s bowl game is all over the map — with the Owls projected to play in a postseason game as far as Texas and as close as their own stadium in Boca Raton.
Florida Atlantic (5-3, 4-2 Conference USA) wrapped up its regular season with a loss to Southern Miss on Thursday and finished the year at second place in the conference’s East division.
While it remains a possibility that the Owls could play in the C-USA title game on Dec. 18 if Marshall — the top seed in the East — isn’t able to do so, speculation has already started regarding what bowl game FAU is likely to close out the year with.
There isn’t a consensus on what bowl game the Owls will end up playing in, even though playing one more game at FAU Stadium in 2020 is the most common projection for FAU.
Bleacher Report, Sporting News and one of ESPN’s bowl projections all have FAU matching up against UCF (6-3, 5-3 American Athletic Conference) in the Boca Raton Bowl at 7 p.m. on Dec. 22. The Owls beat the SMU Mustangs in last year’s Boca Raton Bowl and defeated Akron in the bowl game in 2017. FAU has a 4-0 record in bowl games.
The Knights accepted an invitation to play in the Boca Bowl on Monday. There’s an expectation that UCF will face off against an Atlantic Coast Conference team despite the bowl game having tie-ins to C-USA, the AAC and the Mid-American Conference.
ESPN’s other bowl-game projection for FAU has the Owls playing Georgia Southern (7-4, 4-3 Sun Belt Conference) in the Cure Bowl at noon on Dec. 26 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. That would be a rematch of FAU’s Dec. 5 game — a 20-3 loss to the Eagles in Statesboro. The Cure Bowl has tie-ins to the AAC, C-USA, the MAC and the Sun Belt.
Stadium projects for the Owls to play Appalachian State (7-3, 5-2 Sun Belt) in Myrtle Beach Bowl at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 21 at Brooks Stadium in Conway, S.C. The Myrtle Beach Bowl has tie-ins to C-USA, the MAC and the Sun Belt. The Owls and Mountaineers haven’t played each other before.
College Football News projects FAU to play Georgia State (5-4, 4-4 Sun Belt) in the inaugural Montgomery Bowl at 7 p.m. on Dec. 23 at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Ala. The Montgomery Bowl replaced the Fenway Bowl for this season only after it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with its debut pushed back to next year. Stadium reported that Memphis — an AAC program — will play in the Montgomery Bowl. FAU beat Memphis in the New Orleans Bowl in 2007 for the program’s first bowl win.
On Tuesday, USA Today projected FAU will play Nevada in the Frisco Bowl at 7 p.m. on Dec. 19 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. SMU accepted an invitation to the Frisco Bowl on Wednesday, with the bowl game’s organizers saying the Mustangs’ opponent will likely be from C-USA.
