Tagged: Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

In a season when Kentucky may not have much March Madness representation, a team from Kentucky will play a team with strong Louisville ties Monday night for an NCAA Tournament berth.

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and the Florida International Golden Panthers tipoff at 7 p.m. Eastern in an unlikely Sun Belt Conference Tournament Championship game. The winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Outwardly, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers' 34-14 victory over McNeese State was a cause for big-time celebration for WKU President Gary Ransdell.

The Toppers won the 2002 Division I-AA national championship.

Inwardly, the championship stirred another reaction. The playoffs for the I-AA division -- now known as the Football Championship Subdivision -- had cost WKU money. The first-round playoff game drew just 3,300 people to Bowling Green's Smith Stadium. The title game had no payout.

Bobby Petrino is back in the college football coaching ranks, on the familiar turf of Kentucky. The newly hired Western Kentucky Hilltoppers coach was already among the sport's most divisive figures before he was fired from the University of Arkansas for misleading administrators about an extramarital affair with a staff member.

Western Kentucky football coach Willie Taggart has accepted the same job at South Florida, just weeks before the Hilltoppers' first bowl appearance since becoming a member of college football's top level in 2008, ESPN.com is reporting Friday night.

Taggart, a Florida native, has coached the Hilltoppers for three season. Western Kentucky was winless the season before he arrived and won just two games his first season.