W. Michigan - Rice

the Texas Bowl Tuesday, December 30th, 8:00pm Houston, Texas

Western Michigan (9-3)______MAC______167.71 Wk Opp oPts Score 1 Nebraska 152.75 L, 24-47 2 Northern Illinois -31.83 W, 29-26 3 Idaho -316.44 W, 51-28 4 Tennessee Tech -465.24 W, 41-7 5 Temple -96.01 W, 7-3 6 Ohio -164.35 W, 41-20 7 Buffalo 91.13 W, 34-28 8 Central Michigan 94.95 L, 28-38 10 Eastern Michigan -260.22 W, 31-10 11 Illinois -34.66 W, 23-17 12 Toledo -230.71 W, 27-17 13 Ball State 332.62 L, 22-45

Rice (9-3)______CUSA_____160.13 Wk Opp oPts Score 1 SMU -377.91 W, 56-27 2 Memphis -78.38 W, 42-35 3 Vanderbilt 23.15 L, 21-38 4 Texas 445.80 L, 10-52 5 North Texas -396.09 W, 77-20 6 Tulsa 180.52 L, 28-63 8 Southern Miss -33.64 W, 45-40 9 Tulane -317.47 W, 42-17 10 UTEP -94.41 W, 49-44 11 Army -273.81 W, 38-31 13 Marshall -148.36 W, 35-10 14 Houston 68.00 W, 56-42

Rice and Western Michigan have had pretty similar seasons, beating the teams that they should but losing to the good ones on their schedule. Both played relatively weak schedules, which doesn't help any here.

Stats Matchup
Team	Western Michigan	Rice
Points (rank)	167.71 (#31)	160.13 (#34)
Record	9-3	9-3
Opp. Points (rank)	-928.02 (#105)	-1,002.61 (#108)
Opp. Record	64-72	62-83
Points (% of Opp. Avg)	29.8 (104%)	41.6 (142%)
dPoints (% of Opp. Avg)	23.8 (87%)	34.9 (132%)
Rush Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	121.5 (69%)	144.4 (83%)
dRush Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	140.9 (102%)	192.9 (114%)
Pass Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	301.2 (140%)	327.8 (150%)
dPass Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	249.4 (111%)	273.8 (113%)
Tot Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	422.7 (110%)	472.3 (123%)
dTot Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	390.3 (104%)	466.8 (121%)
ST Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	127.7 (98%)	132.9 (103%)
dST Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	122.7 (100%)	153.1 (127%)
Penalties / Pen. Yds	6.3 / 46.9	4.7 / 40.7
TO's / TO Margin	1.8 / -3	1.3 / +13

The Owls usually gain more yards and score more points, but they give up more too. The Broncos fall behind a bit in penalties & turnovers... Good, even matchup we've got here. Playing in Houston should favor Rice - that might be the difference.

The Line: Rice -2.5

The Call: Rice by 7

The Result: Rice 38-14

Nice, Owls - that was some beatdown. I'm happy for you, and am optimistic that you can upset one of the big BCS schools that scheduled you as a cupcake next year.