A spot in the BCS will be on the line on Saturday afternoon in the Lone Star State, where the Houston Cougars will look to become an automatic BCS qualifier when they take on the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. Check out our Southern Miss vs. Houston keys to the game!

Conference USA Championship Game: Houston Cougars vs. Southern Miss Golden Eagles
Conference USA Championship Game Location: MM Roberts Stadium, Houston, TX
Conference USA Championship Game Date/Time: Saturday, December 3rd, 12:00 p.m. (ET)
Conference USA Championship Game Television Schedule: ABC

Key #1: Southern Miss has to keep Case Keenum off the field
It is brutally clear that Southern Miss cannot sit here in this game and just try to duke it out with the Houston offense. It simply isn’t going to happen. Keenum has not just five, but six years of experience in this offense, and he knows exactly what he is doing. He has 43 TD passes against just three picks on the year, and he just doesn’t make all that many mistakes. The Eagles can score, so don’t think that they have to play this game in the 40s or 50s to be victorious, but they are going to be better served making this as short of a game as possible. The team ranks No. 24 in the land in rushing at 207.8 yards per game, and this is the unit that really needs to step up to keep Houston’s potent offense off of the field.

Conference USA Championship Game Odds at Wager Web Sportsbook
Houston Cougars -13.5
Southern Miss Golden Eagles +13.5
Over/Under 72.5
Click Here to Bet on Your Conference USA Championship Game Picks!

Key #2: Keenum can play like a Heisman winner
We have already mentioned some of the remarkable numbers that Keenum has put up this year, as he has those 43 TDs against just three picks. This is one of the rare times that he is going to be playing in a nationally televised game, and though most Conference USA opponents don’t have defenses that are recognized as good enough for some merit, Southern Miss is probably one of the lone exceptions in the conference. Keenum needs 274 yards passing to reach 5,000 yard for the third time in his career, and he is two TD passes away from breaking a career high in that category. He will surely throw the ball at least 35 times in this game, and quite possibly a heck of a lot more than that, and he is averaging 10.1 yards per pass attempt. Simply put, that’s just awesome. There hasn’t been a defense in the country that can stop Keenum when he is on his game, and he has to prove that to be the case again on Saturday, not just for Houston to win this game and cover the number, but to keep his name in the hat for the Heisman Trophy as well.

Key #3: The Cougars cannot play this game like it is the end of the world if they lose…
… Though the truth of the matter is that it is the end of the world if they lose… Either way, Southern Miss knows that it is going to likely be in the Liberty Bowl against an SEC foe trying to become the second C-USA team to ever win that bowl game (last year, UCF beat Georgia). The Cougars though, have so much on the line, it isn’t even funny. Losing will not only take them out of the BCS all together, but it would drop them to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, a game that would likely cost the school money instead of giving it a seven digit payout. It would also be a killer in recruiting, and goodness knows that Houston needs every recruit it can get after this year to replace Keenum and his tremendous offense. If the Cougars play loose, they’ll be just fine. However, if the pressure starts to mount on them, they could have some serious, serious problems on their hands.

Click Here to get the best college football picks that you’ll find on the internet, including our Conference USA Championship Game picks and the NCAA football picks for the rest of the games on the Week 14 slate.