Texas El Paso rolls to 35-17 win

Jordan Palmer passed for 447 yards and four touchdowns Friday night to lead Texas El Paso to a 35-17 Conference USA victory over Alabama Birmingham at Birmingham, Ala.

The Miners, 5-5 overall, 3-3 in Conference USA, ended a three-game losing streak. The Blazers (3-7, 2-4) lost their fourth in a row.

Texas El Paso finished with 456 yards, all but nine coming through the air. Palmer completed 24 of 38 passes and Johnnie Higgins had nine receptions for 173 yards. Higgins also had three touchdown receptions.

The Miners used big plays to pull away in the second half. Palmer threw a screen pass that Donald Buckram turned into an 80-yard scoring play to give the Miners a 22-10 lead.

Alabama Birmingham closed within 22-17, then Palmer connected with Higgins on a 79-yard touchdown. Palmer and Higgins connected again with 2:45 to play on a four-yard pass.

The Blazers totaled 360 yards. Willie Edwards caught six passes for 130 yards, but Alabama Birmingham was hurt by three turnovers.

The Blazers led, 10-9, but the Miners drove 80 yards in eight plays for the go-ahead touchdown and entered intermission leading, 16-10.

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Marcel Archer rushed for three touchdowns to propel Central Michigan to its first Mid-American Conference West Division title with a 31-7 win over Western Michigan at Mount Pleasant, Mich.

Central Michigan (7-3, 6-0) had a 10-7 halftime lead, then capitalized on three third-quarter turnovers by the Broncos (7-3, 5-2).

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The Louisville-Rutgers game drew ESPN’s second biggest audience ever for a Thursday night game.

ESPN said that Rutgers’ 28-25 victory was viewed by 4,642,000 households, based on a 5.0 rating.

The previous Thursday night high was Louisville’s 44-34 victory over West Virginia, seen by 4,916,000 households based on a 5.3 rating.