HONOLULU (AP) — Conference USA has signed an agreement to send one of its teams to this year’s Hawaii Bowl.

The runner-up in the C-USA championship game or another selection will be invited to take on a Western Athletic Conference team in the Dec. 24 game. Hawaii automatically secures a berth if it is bowl eligible.

The seventh bowl-eligible school from the Pac-10 was to participate this year, but because the conference only had five bowl-eligible teams last year all parties agreed to void the Pac-10 selection for 2009.

Hawaii athletic director Jim Donovan says the possibility of not having an eligible Pac-10 team was very real and that in the long run it would be better for the Warriors to be matched up against a high-placed C-USA team than an at-large team.