Bowl eligibility is a tricky thing. Well, it's not that tricky. You just have to win six games.

But in the Sun Belt Conference, winning six games could be a tricky proposition.

Louisiana-Monroe, Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette are all in the running for the conference's automatic berth in the New Orleans Bowl. Middle Tennessee, while out of the running, can still become bowl-eligible. But if any of them make it to a bowl game, they'll do it by just scraping by.

Louisiana-Monroe (4-5, 4-1), coming off a thrilling 34-31 win over Middle Tennessee (3-5, 2-3), is in control of its own destiny. If the Indians win their final two games against North Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette, they'll finish conference play at 6-1, and 6-5 overall, giving them the SBC crown and the New Orleans Bowl berth. But it's all or nothing for the Indians. If they lose one of those games, they're eliminated, because they can't make the bowl game with just five wins.

Arkansas State (5-4, 4-2) defeated Troy, 9-3, on Saturday, putting them one win away from bowl eligibility. The Indians can become bowl-eligible with a win over either Army or North Texas. In addition, they would win the SBC crown, and take the NO Bowl berth, if they beat North Texas, and La.-Monroe loses one of its two remaining games. Any head-to-head tiebreaker goes to ASU, which beat La.-Monroe on Oct. 13.

Louisiana-Lafayette (5-5, 4-2), which beat Florida International 28-7 Saturday, could host the NO Bowl, which is in Lafayette, La., due to hurricane damage at the Louisiana Superdome. For that to happen, the Ragin' Cajuns must beat Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 26, and North Texas must defeat Arkansas State. That would make La.-La. the only bowl-eligible team in the conference. Any head-to-head tiebreaker with ASU goes to ASU.

And, there's Middle Tennessee. The Blue Raiders cannot win the conference title, because they cannot have a conference record better than 4-3. But they can become bowl-eligible if they win their final three games against North Carolina State, Troy and Florida International. But don't count on it. Even if MT can win all three games, a Sun Belt Conference team has never secured an at-large bowl berth.

Also Saturday, Florida International defeated North Texas 26-23, ending the Mean Green's hopes of a fifth straight Sun Belt title.

Southern Miss had a hard row to hoe this week. A Tuesday game, followed by a rare Sunday game with Houston, rescheduled due to Hurricane Rita.

Houston, in dire need of a win, took the contest, 27-24, keeping its bowl hopes alive and, in the process, possibly ending Southern Miss' hopes of an East Division title.

Houston (5-4, 3-3 West) got two fourth-quarter touchdown passes from Kevin Kolb, and a career-high 144 yards rushing from Ryan Gilbert in the contest, as the Cougars crept to within one win of bowl eligibility.

For the Golden Eagles, the loss was heartbreaking. At 5-4, 4-2 in the East, they're one win away from bowl eligibility. More importantly, they fell out of their first-place tie in the East with Central Florida, paving the way for the Golden Knights to go from winless in 2004 to the inaugural Conference USA title game in 2005.

UCF (7-3, 6-1 East) took advantage of four Alabama-Birmingham turnovers in a 27-21 win. Matt Prater kicked two field goals for UCF in the game's final five minutes, lifting the Golden Knights to victory.

With just one remaining conference contest against Rice on Saturday, all the Golden Knights need is to win to be declared the East Division champion and secure the divisional berth in the C-USA title game, most likely against Texas-El Paso out of the West. That game would be in El Paso on Dec. 3.

Rice (1-8, 1-5 West) snapped its national-worst 14-game losing streak with a 42-34 win over vagabond Tulane on Saturday.

John Wall rushed for 156 yards and three touchdowns as Rice rolled up 392 yards on the ground. Both teams are out of the postseason hunt.

UTEP (8-1, 5-1 West) limited I-AA Texas Southern to 146 yards of total offense in a 45-0 shutout of the Tigers on Saturday in the Sun Bowl.

The Miner defense registered its third goose-egg in the last two seasons, and its first in 2005.

UTEP (8-1) won its ninth straight game in the Sun Bowl and moved closer to making an appearance in the top-25 polls for the second straight season. The Miners were 27th in both the Associated Press and USA Today polls last week.

The Miners will host UAB (4-5) on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. MST, needing just one victory in their last two games to clinch a spot in the Dec. 3 Conference USA Championship Game.

Tulsa (6-4, 5-2 West) became the third bowl-eligible team in Conference USA with a 45-13 win over East Carolina (3-6, 2-4), and Memphis (4-5, 3-3 East) gave Tennessee everything it could handle, taking a 13-0 lead, before the Vols prevailed, 20-16. The Tigers did all this without all-everything back DeAngelo Williams, who was out with an injury.

Most of the big games in league action are during the week. But Ball State (4-6, 4-3 West) won its third game in a row, defeating Eastern Michigan (3-7, 2-5 West) 26-25 on Saturday. Joey Lynch's TD pass to Dante Love with 15 seconds left allowed BSU to prevail.

Buffalo (1-9. 1-6 East) won its first game of the season, defeating Kent State (1-9, 0-7 East) in a battle of the MAC's two worst teams. Jared Patterson had a touchdown run for the Bulls, who snapped a 10-game losing streak and won their first-ever conference road game. Earlier in the week, Buffalo announced it would fire head coach Jim Hofher at the end of the season. He is 8-48 in five seasons in Buffalo.

And Western Michigan (7-3, 5-2 West) captured a 31-24 win over Central Michigan (5-5, 4-3 West). That was a big win for WMU, which is a game behind Toledo in the West. WMU overcame CMU quarterback Kent Smith's 460-yard performance and rallied from 14 points down.

The MAC has three TV games this week. On Tuesday, Bowling Green (5-4, 4-2 East) faces Miami (6-3, 4-2 East) in a game that could very well decide the division title. Also Tuesday, Ohio (4-5, 3-3 East) is at Akron (4-5, 3-3 East). Then on Wednesday, West Division leader Toledo (7-2. 5-1) hosts Northern Illiinois (5-4, 4-2 West) in a big game for the Huskies. The Rockets need the win to stay one game ahead of Western Michigan.

Nevada and Louisiana Tech joined Fresno State and Boise State in bowl eligibility over the weekend. But the big news was FSU ending BSU's record winning streak.

The Bulldogs snapped the Broncos' 31-game WAC winning streak, as FSU quarterback Paul Pinegar threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns in front of a nationally televised audience. The Bulldogs won the game, 27-7, running their own WAC winning streak to 11 games and taking control of the WAC title chase. Of course, the Bulldogs will lose this weekend to Southern Cal, but it won't affect their inside track for the WAC title.

Nevada (6-3, 5-1) stayed in a tie for second place with Boise State and Louisiana Tech, as the Wolf Pack defeated New Mexico State, 48-24. Nevada's B.J. Mitchell rushed for 193 yards and two touchdowns, while NMSU's A.J. Harris caught three touchdown passes totaling 100 yards.

Louisiana Tech (6-3, 5-1) stayed in the hunt with a thrilling 41-38 win over Idaho. The Vandals (2-7, 2-4) came back from a 28-6 deficit before the Bulldogs held them off. Tech's Matt Kubik threw for 284 yards and three touchdowns. Idaho's Mike Barrow kicked a school-record five field goals, but he missed a sixth from 54 yards with eight seconds left that would have tied the game.

Hawaii (4-6, 4-4) finished the conference slate with a 50-23 win over Utah State (2-7, 1-5). Hawaii QB Colt Brennan threw for 386 yards.

Brigham Young and New Mexico picked up victories Saturday to become the second and third bowl-eligible teams in the conference, while TCU wrapped up its season with another victory and awaits its bowl game invitation.

BYU (6-4, 5-2) outlasted Wyoming 35-21 for its fifth win in the last six games. All that's left for the Cougars is to snap a three-game losing streak against Utah, which they play Saturday. The Utes (5-5, 3-4) are coming off a 31-27 loss to New Mexico, a loss that has the Utes on the verge of not being eligible for a bowl game.

Speaking of New Mexico, the Lobos are bowl-eligible at 6-4, 4-3 in league play.

Colorado State's stunning 30-10 loss to San Diego State (4-6, 3-4) took a bite out of the Rams' bowl hopes. They now need a victory to be bowl-eligible at 6-5.

And, TCU (10-1, 8-0) ended its first Mountain West season with a 51-3 rout of UNLV. The Horned Frogs now await a bowl invitation, which could come from the Liberty Bowl.