Dallas, Texas — As the third-ranked team in the country, the Youngstown State bowling team will be the third seed in the inaugural Conference USA Bowling Championship that will be contested this weekend at Colonials Lanes in Harahan, La. The conference office revealed the bracket on Wednesday, and the Penguins’ third seed is the highest in program history.
YSU’s matches at the double-elimination tournament will start on Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern, and each round of the Conference USA Bowling Championship will be streamed live on ESPN+.
This will be the first edition of the Conference USA Championship after the conference absorbed all eight teams from the Southland Bowling League after the 2022-23 season. Conference USA also added first-year program Jacksonville State as a ninth member, and those nine teams will compete for the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Seeding for the Conference USA Championship is based on the NCAA’s RPI that was released on March 19, and the conference was, without question, the strongest from top to bottom throughout the 2023-24 campaign. All nine teams rank in the top 17 of the RPI, and there are six teams in the top 10 of the RPI. Youngstown State ranks third in the RPI, and it is the third seed in the conference bracket.
The Penguins had their best regular season in program history, and they will open the conference event against sixth-seeded Sam Houston. It will be the third time in the last four seasons that they will compete against the Bearkats in their first match. The previous two encounters came with YSU as the fourth seed.
Jacksonville State will be the top seed in the tournament, and Arkansas State is the second seed. After Youngstown State, Vanderbilt is the fourth seed, Louisiana Tech is fifth, and Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Tulane and Valparaiso are sixth through ninth. Tulane and Valpo will bowl in a play-in match on Thursday to narrow the field for the double-elimination format that begins on Friday.
Youngstown State will compete against either Arkansas State or Stephen F. Austin in its second match, which will be at 2 p.m. Eastern on Friday.
