Conference USA ‘bonus play’ begins for Charlotte 49ers at Western Kentucky on Saturday

The Charlotte 49ers will open the “bonus play” portion of the Conference USA schedule Saturday at Western Kentucky.

The fourth-place 49ers (14-11, 8-6 C-USA) are included in the five-team first group of the league’s unique “bonus play” schedule, instituted to potentially increase the number of league teams who qualify for the postseason and improve their seeding by giving the top teams more quality games at the end of the season.

The 49ers’ matchup with the Hilltoppers (18-8, 13-3) will tip at 7 p.m. The remainder of the 49ers’ schedule has them facing Florida International (17-10, 8-6) at home on March 1 (2 p.m.), North Texas (18-9, 12-2) at home on March 4 (7 p.m.) and at Louisiana Tech (19-7, 10-4) on March 7 (7 p.m.).

The league’s other nine teams will face each other in similar formats in two other pods.

The 49ers are 1-3 against the other top-tier teams. They at first-place North Texas, 81-72, at second-place Western Kentucky, 80-63, and third-place Louisiana Tech, 72-59. They won at home against fifth-place FIU, 74-59.

The 49ers have lost their last two games, on the road Thursday against league-leader North Texas and at Rice on Saturday, 70-54. Charlotte 7-0 at home in conference play this season, 1-6 on the road.

The nature of how bonus play has fallen means the 49ers will play once a week for two consecutive weeks. By the time Charlotte plays FIU at Halton Arena on March 1, it will have been 20 days since they had last played at home.

Teams in the first group are guaranteed seeds of no lower than fifth in the conference tournament, which is scheduled for March 11-14 in Frisco, Texas.

This story was originally published February 16, 2020 at 1:46 PM.