What's at stake in the New Orleans Bowl between Georgia Southern and Sam Houston?

Georgia Southern and Sam Houston will meet Thursday in the 2024 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, which will, once again, pit a team from Conference USA against a team from the Sun Belt.

Fans of the bowl will be thrilled to see some fresh blood in the game with Sam Houston making its first ever trip to a bowl of any kind after going 9-3 in its second season as an FBS program. This will be Georgia Southern’s second trip to the New Orleans Bowl after beating Louisiana Tech in 2020.

Georgia Southern, which finished third in the Sun Belt at 8-4, is riding a two-game winning streak into the New Orleans Bowl. Another win for the Eagles would match the second-best total in program FBS history.

It would also give them their first bowl win since that 2020 win and first since Clay Helton took over as head coach in 2022. Helton has lost four straight bowls dating back to his time at USC, including the Camellia Bowl his first year at Georgia Southern and the Myrtle Beach Bowl in 2023.

Sam Houston was also a third-place team this year, and the Bearkats have plenty of momentum entering the New Orleans Bowl after winning four of their last five games, including a win over Liberty in the regular season finale. However, their six-win improvement over last season helped head coach K.C. Keeler land the head coach job at Temple, so they’ll be playing with offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen as interim coach.