Two of Conference USA's better turnaround stories, Southern Mississippi and Florida International, are in good shape to land in bowl games. Southern Miss could punch its ticket Saturday.
Meanwhile, Louisiana Tech and Rice meet in a Friday night game that will begin to sort out the West Division race.
Southern Miss (5-3, 3-1 C-USA) can become bowl-eligible for the first time since winning the 2011 league championship. To illustrate how tough life had become in Hattiesburg, consider this: The Golden Eagles have won more games this year then the previous three seasons combined (0, 1, 3).
A win over Texas-El Paso on Saturday will keep the Eagles tied in the loss column with the winner of the Louisiana Tech-Rice game, with three games left. They lost handily to Marshall and have handled three lesser lights (North Texas, Texas-San Antonio, Charlotte), and are looking for a quality win.
But it wasn't long ago that Southern Miss was the punching bag. The Eagles are on the verge of the breakthrough coach Todd Monken has been working toward.
UTEP (3-4, 1-2) was careening downward but beat Florida Atlantic (1-6, 1-3) 27-17 last week, following the return of quarterback Mack Leftwich.
FIU (4-4, 2-2) is favored to take one more step Saturday when it plays FAU in the 13th Shula Bowl at Boca Raton. It is a critical game for the Panthers, who finish the season with Marshall (7-1, 4-0) and Western Kentucky (6-2, 4-0).
FIU's Alex McGough-to-Jonnu Smith combination is in full swing. Against Old Dominion last week, McGough was 31 of 39 for 390 yards and three touchdowns, with tight end Smith catching 10 balls for 183 yards and two scores.
"I think the last couple of weeks he's been able to get free more," said coach Ron Turner. "They had to focus on different people and play their defense, and Jonnu took advantage of that."
Louisiana Tech and Rice met last year in the regular-season finale with the division title on the line and it got ugly - the Bulldogs rolled up a 76-31 victory. Most impressive: After a 35-yard Rice touchdown, the Owls trailed 28-24 before the Bulldogs scored the next 41 points in less than 20 minutes.
Rice (4-3, 2-1) is coming off a 38-31 win over Army, but Tech (4-3, 3-1) was perhaps more impressive in a 45-16 win over Middle Tennessee (3-5, 2-2). The Bulldogs jumped to a 35-10 lead at the half.
"I thought we went out and played a smart game," said Tech coach Skip Holtz. "It was one of our better third-down games (6 of 14). We had zero turnovers on offense; we created three on defense. We kept them out of the end zone for a big play."
East Division co-leaders Marshall (7-1, 4-0) and WKU (6-2, 4-0) have become bowl eligible. One theory: Those teams could face an American Athletic Conference team in the Miami Beach and St. Petersburg bowls.
With one game to win, Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss are near-locks. FIU needs to beat FAU and Charlotte (2-5, 0-4) to get its journey over with quickly; the schedule favors Rice, won or lose on Saturday.
Middle Tennessee has the week off and could lose to Marshall next week to fall to 3-6, but the schedule still favors the Blue Raiders. They finish with FAU, North Texas and UTSA (1-6, 1-2).
That's the "script" to give C-USA its seven guaranteed bowl spots. UTEP has a good chance to get to five wins but a sixth (over Southern Miss, Rice or Louisiana Tech) may be too much to ask.
Old Dominion has a favorable schedule but has as much chance of finishing 3-9 as it does 6-6. Charlotte, FAU and UTSA are gasping and North Texas (0-7, 0-4) is out.
n Louisiana Tech back Kenneth Dixon has scored a touchdown in 34 of 42 career games, four behind Florida's Tim Tebow. He now has 4,059 rushing yards and is fifth all-time in the NCAA with 73 overall TDs.
n The league has four players in the top 14 in passing yards in the FBS - WKU's Brandon Doughty third (3,034), Southern Miss' Nick Mullens ninth (2,613), MTSU's Brent Stockstill 13th (2,445) and Tech's Jeff Driskel 14th (2,409).
n Halloween will definitely be in vogue at Hattiesburg - Southern Miss will wear its usual all-black uniforms, while UTEP will break out all-orange outfits.
n FIU leads the Shula Bowl series 9-3, winning 38-10 last year.