Bowl Season Gets Started Tonight

At midseason, the prospects for a bowl game looked bleak for North Texas and Cincinnati.

But North Texas won its last six games to defend its Sun Belt Conference title. Cincinnati, meanwhile, won five of its last six to tie Texas Christian for first place in Conference USA.

The Mean Green (7-5) and the Bearcats (7-6) play tonight in the New Orleans Bowl, the first of 28 bowl games to be played in an 18-day span.

Although their records aren’t impressive, the participants view the game as a meeting between two conference champions who got on a roll when they had to.

“I would think that elevates the status of our game -- maybe in our own minds -- but the fans who come to the game will know they’re seeing two champions play,” Cincinnati Coach Rick Minter said.

Minter said he’s happy to be in New Orleans but wonders whether his Bearcats, who beat TCU, should have replaced the Horned Frogs (9-2) in the Liberty Bowl -- a game that traditionally features the Conference USA champion.

“In our case, we got penalized for taking on stronger non-conference opponents” such as Ohio State, West Virginia and Hawaii, Minter said.

North Texas also won the Sun Belt last year, which gave it an automatic berth to the first New Orleans Bowl. But because North Texas had lost all of its non-conference games and was 5-1 in the conference, the Mean Green came in at 5-6, the only losing team to get a bowl bid. North Texas then lost, 45-20, to Colorado State.

“It’s really big for us. We want to let them know that we can compete with other conferences,” said North Texas defensive lineman Brandon Kennedy.

*

Police are looking for two suspects in the shooting death of North Carolina defensive lineman Carl Smalls, who was killed at a fraternity party at Columbia, S.C., on Dec. 7.

Smalls, 22, was shot three times at a private club the fraternity had rented for the party. Jeroid Price, 20, and Ryan Brooks, 19, both of Columbia, were charged with murder, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said Monday.

Price and Brooks were identified as suspects based on witness accounts, police said. No motive for the shooting has been established.

*

Miami of Ohio defensive coordinator Jon Wauford pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge that he knocked down a Marshall fan after a game. Wauford did not appear in the Huntington, W.Va., court. Magistrate Patty Spence said it would be a few weeks before a trial date is set.