FRISCO, Texas - Sam Houston State welcomes Western Illinois to Bowers Stadium in Huntsville Thursday night in the Southland Conference Television Network Game of the Week. The football game will kickoff at 6 p.m., CDT.

The Bearkats begin their 94th football season and are 51-38-4 in season openers. Sam Houston was 4-6 overall and 2-5 in the Southland Conference in 2008 after suffering two losses in overtime and another in the closing seconds of regulation. Head coach Todd Whitten is back for his fifth season in Huntsville and must replace quarterback Rhett Bomar, a fifth-round draft pick by the New York Giants. Bomar finished his career as the school's leader in passing (5,564 yards) and total offense (6,160). The Bearkats have won three Southland Conference titles since joining the league in 1987 and have four berths in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs in their history.

Western Illinois, members of the Missouri Valley Conference, is playing its 107th season of football. The Leathernecks have appeared in the FCS playoffs eight times, most recently in 2003. Western Illinois returns 12 starters and 32 lettermen from a team that was 6-5 overall and tied for fourth in its conference. Coach Don Patterson is from nearby Corsicana, Texas and graduated as valedictorian from Blooming Grove High School. Patterson, who is a 1973 graduate of the United States Military Academy, is in his 11th season at Western Illinois. The Leathernecks are 55-46-4 in the first game of the season, but have won their season opener on the road only 16 times.

This will be the eighth meeting between the schools. Sam Houston holds a 4-2-1 advantage in the series, though Western Illinois handed the Bearkats a 41-13 defeat in Macomb, Ill. Making their fourth visit to Bowers Stadium, the Leathernecks are looking for their first win in Huntsville. Their previous trips were in 1987, 1992 and 2001.

The broadcast marks this season's debut for the network, which is now in its second year. The 2009-10 slate includes 11 football games, 16 men's and women's basketball games and championship games of the soccer, volleyball, softball and baseball conference tournaments. The same broadcast team is back this year. Doug Anderson will handle play-by-play duties, while LaDarrin McLane will serve as the color analyst.

Currently, there are 10 affiliates in the three-state network, including KARZ-TV in Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Conway, Ark.; WBTR-TV in Baton Rouge, La.; WSTY-TV in Hammond, La.; KPXJ-TV in Shreveport, La. and Texarkana, Texas; KUIL-TV in Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas; MyTX 18 in Tyler, Longview, Nacogdoches and Lufkin; KTBU-TV in Houston Baytown and Sugar Land, Texas; Suddenlink Communications in Lake Charles, La.; Time Warner Cable in Arlington, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Killeen, Plano, San Antonio, San Marcos, Temple and Waco, Texas; and Grande Communications on the Texas State University campus in San Marcos, Texas.

Fox College Sports will also broadcast the games on a tape-delayed basis each week. Thursday's game between Western Illinois and Sam Houston State will be rebroadcast on Fox College Sports Central Friday at 6:30 p.m., CDT.

This week's game can also be seen live in Macomb, Ill. on Comcast Cable channel 3 and on the McDonough County Telephone Cooperative.

With this week's television game being played on Thursday, there were two programming conflicts with network affiliates. In Houston and the surrounding area, the broadcast moves to KNWS-TV, Ch. 51. That station can be seen in Huntsville on Suddenlink Cable, Ch. 22. In Little Rock, Ark., the game will be tape delayed on KARZ-TV Thursday at 10 p.m.

All Southland TV games will be streamed live to SLC NOW, the conference's live and on-demand video and audio channel on Southland.org. All SLC NOW programming is free to anyone who registers on the site.

For more information about Southland TV and SLC NOW, please visit the conference Web site.


Where to watch the game this week: