The Cincinnati Bearcats — already 6-4 and possibly headed to the Dec.27 Motor City Bowl in Detroit — would remove any doubt about the postseason if they win Saturday.

        The foe is suitably impressive: No. 25 Southern Miss. Kickoff is 1 p.m. at Nippert Stadium.

        “We've got them at our house, we're undefeated at home, it's our last home game for 25 players (seniors) and we'd like to get that seventh win,” UC coach Rick Minter said. “Also, if we win Saturday, we at least have a share of second place (in the conference).”

        Out of the Bearcats' hands — but still a possibility if they win Saturday — is a tie for the conference championship. That would require outside help: the host Houston Cougars would have to upset league-leader Louisville.

        Minter would rather talk about any of these things than talk about the bowl picture.

        “Whether, in somebody's mind, we have or haven't got the bowl bid already, is a game we can't play on Saturday,” Minter said. “If we get caught looking ahead to (a bowl game), we're going to forget about the one in the present. We're going to be dealing all this week with Southern Miss.”

        UC won a huge game last Saturday at Memphis, 13-10 in overtime. UAB lost a huge game, 33-30 at home in double overtime, to Southern Miss.

        That made the muddled bowl picture clearer, because it meant that UAB (6-4, but only 2-4 in Conference USA) could not end the season with a winning league record. It also meant that UC (6-4, 4-2) could not end the season with a losing league record.

        Teams with overall winning records are called “bowl-eligible.”

        Teams with overall losing records can't go to bowl games.

        Some teams with 6-5 and 7-4 overall records are going to get edged out of bowl games.

        And one or two of those teams are going to be from C-USA.

        For example, UAB is already a bowl-eligible 6-4 and Tulane (5-5) likely will be after Saturday (the Green Wave play host to Memphis). One can imagine them getting aced out of bowls.

        Even if the Bearcats lose Saturday, one is hard-pressed to imagine the loss costing them a bowl bid.

        Why? Because four bowls are committed to Conference USA, and UC will finish the regular season with, at worst, the fourth-best conference record.

        Nothing requires that the bowls committed to C-USA have to look at conference records. But the criteria that were set forth before the season began said these bowls would give considerable weight to league records.

        That wasn't promised, Minter noted, but it was widely regarded to be a primary consideration.

        Only four C-USA teams are going to end the regular season with winning conference records: UL (5-1), Southern Miss (4-1), East Carolina (4-2) and UC (4-2).

        Here are the four bowls committed to C-USA:

        • The AXA/Equitable Liberty Bowl, which probably goes to the league champion or co-champion that has beaten the other co-champions in head-to-head competition. (Advantage, Louisville.) The game is Dec. 29 in Memphis.

        • The GMAC Mobile Alabama Bowl on Dec. 20. (Advantage, Southern Miss., close by.)

        • galleryfurniture.com Bowl on Dec. 27 in the Houston Astro dome. (Advantage, East Carolina, good traveling fan base.)

        • The Motor City Bowl on Dec.27 in the Pontiac Silverdome.

        That leaves UC the Motor City Bowl — a five-hour car trip north.

        It would be a stretch for the Motor City Bowl to skip over UC and choose UAB or Tulane, teams with losing conference records from the other end of the country.

        “After everything's settled down and the bowls know who their pool of teams are,” Minter said, “I'd like to think those bowls (that are committed to C-USA) will say, "OK, here's where the teams finished; how can we best place them to fit our regional needs?'”

Pirtle: Survivor and winner UC probably headed to Motor City Bowl UC ready to take next step in NCAAs

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