There's no Utah this year. No one from the five non-power conferences to crash the New Year's Day party. But Conference USA certainly showed its overall strength as a conference, and set a conference record, after bowl bids were announced on Sunday.

C-USA earned a record six bowl bids, the most among the five non-power conferences - C-USA, Mountain West, Western Athletic, Sun Belt and Mid-American conferences. C-USA has five bowl ties, and even earned an at-large bid.

Fireworks were the order of the day during this week's Mid-American and Conference USA Championship games. The four teams combined to scored more than 125 points, and one game came right down to the end.

In Detroit, if you gave up on the Akron Zips, you were rewarded with a fine bowl of crow. The Zips, an unlikely divisional champion in the MAC, rallied with a brilliant, Elway-esqe final drive to defeat Northern Illinois, 31-30.

Naturally, I get through praising a team and they go out and lay an egg.

That's what No. 16 Fresno State did on Saturday, falling to Nevada, 38-35 as the Wolfpack earned a share of the Western Athletic Conference title with Boise State.

The Wolf Pack (8-3, 7-1) are done for the regular season and are awaiting a bowl invitation that is sure to come. Robert Hubbard rushed for146 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Wolf Pack to its best record since the 1996 season, when they went 9-3. It's also Nevada's first conference championship of any kind since the 1997 Big West title.

When Arkansas State (6-5) finished off North Texas in a 31-24 win Saturday night, it had to wait until Louisiana-Monroe lost to Louisiana-Lafayette to celebrate.

The Indians, with their win and La.-Monroe's loss, put ASU in the postseason for the first time since the 1987 Division I-AA playoffs as the Sun Belt Conference's New Orleans Bowl representative.