Following its 59–49 loss to Temple at home, Houston fell to second in the AAC West division behind SMU.
The loss puts UH, which is sitting at 4–2 in the AAC, at risk of not making the conference championship game this season.
Houston will have to hope for a win against third-place Tulane Thursday and against 3–3 Memphis Nov. 23 if it expects a berth in the championship game.
On top of that, SMU needs to lose to either Memphis or Tulsa, its last two opponents of the season that happen to be part of the bottom three in the West.