One record-setting season wasn’t enough. So Brandon Doughty is coming back to try for another.

Western Kentucky’s redshirt-senior quarterback was granted a sixth year of eligibility Tuesday by the NCAA. He and the WKU program announced the news Wednesday. An hour later, he was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2014 season by Conference USA.

It was quite a way to start the postseason.

“It’s been a crazy day,” Doughty said. “Having this day is a really special day me and for my family.”

Doughty threw for 4,344 yards and 44 touchdowns this season – both program records – and holds the record for career TD passes by a WKU quarterback with 58. He’s 1,252 yards away from becoming the program’s all-time leader in passing yards.

After the 2011 season, a season in which Doughty tore an ACL, the Davie, Fla., product tried to return to full health during 2012. He aggravated the injury, and he and WKU tried to prove to the NCAA that he deserved another year at full strength and requested a medical hardship waiver.

He got it.

“Obviously, to get this news is tremendous for us, tremendous for Brandon, it’s tremendous for our team and university and we couldn’t be more excited,” WKU coach Jeff Brohm said. “Anytime you get the chance to come back and enjoy playing the game, first and foremost, and have fun doing that, and at the same time you get continue to get better and work on your craft, and then continue to get an education, and then probably the fourth thing is to be around your teammates another year, I think that’s always a special thing to do. This whole team loves Brandon and we’re definitely excited to have him back.”

If that excitement wasn’t enough Wednesday, the Hilltoppers (7-5) also turned their attention to the Bahamas Bowl. The team is scheduled to begin practice at 2:20 p.m. today for the Dec. 24 game against Central Michigan.

It’s the program’s second postseason appearance since becoming a full-time member of the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2009.

This trip will be drastically different than the first – a game in Detroit in 2012 that WKU competed in with an interim coach.

“It’s cool that we got a bowl,” Doughty said. “That was a goal going into the season, to be bowl-eligible and get into a bowl. As a team, we’re real excited. We’re real excited about going on the field even (today).”

WKU athletic director Todd Stewart explained Wednesday that the school could only apply for Doughty’s sixth year of eligibility once 30 percent of the student-athlete’s season had been completed, thus exhausting his eligibility for the current season. Western Kentucky associate athletic director for compliance John McCammon began to work on the case after the Sept. 27 Navy game and the request was submitted in November.

Doughty said he was aware of the efforts to get him another season, but preferred to focus on the current season and trying to get WKU at least seven wins for the fourth consecutive season. That mission was accomplished in historic fashion Nov. 28, when Doughty threw eight touchdown passes and the winning two-point conversion to beat Marshall 67-66 in overtime.

“I think that he understands that he has the chance to come back another year, to improve his game, to see how far he can take this team, to try to find ways to win a championship – and to spend a full year honing his craft and becoming the very best he can be,” Brohm said.

Now that all the confetti has fallen and beem swept aside, the Tops are back at work. The team is scheduled to practice today through Saturday and Monday through Dec. 19 before departing for Nassau, Bahamas, on Dec. 20.

Two practices are scheduled for Dec. 21 and 22 before an off day precedes the game at 11 a.m. Dec. 24. A win over CMU would be the program’s first in the postseason since 2003 and first ever as a member of the FBS.

“We want our guys to get back in the flow,” Brohm said. “We want them to practice hard and continue to improve. We’ll have a chance to go 1s-on-1s for a good bit of the practice. When our best players are going against our best players, we’ll have a chance to work on our younger guys, get them a lot of work as well, get them ready for next year.

“So it’s a great opportunity for us to improve as a team. I think we’ll do that. I think our guys are really itching to get back out there and I think they’ll do a great job.”

Nixon commits to WKU

The Western Kentucky football program received a verbal commitment Wednesday from Devin Nixon.

Nixon is a 6-foot, 185-pound wide receiver from Viera High in Viera, Fla. Nixon reportedly holds offers from WKU, Air Force, Army, Colgate, Florida International, Florida A&M, Holy Cross, Navy, Tennessee-Martin and Valparaiso. He is rated as a two-star prospect.

Nixon was named to the roster in the Central Florida All-Star Game.

Nixon joins defensive backs Jordon Gonzalez (DuPont Manual) and Aldwin Jackson (Seneca), defensive end Ty’Ron Horton (DuPont Manual), tight end Tyler Jefferson (Doss), linebackers DeVon Quincy (Lafayette) and Devon Wharton (Christian County), wide receivers Dontavion Jackson (Lafayette) and Quin Jernighan (La Vergne/La Vergne, Tenn.), running back Marquez Trigg (Glasgow), defensive linemen Bryant Pirtle (DeSales), Heath Wiggins (Graves County) and Nick Coffey (Russell County), offensive linemen Cullen Reynolds (Madisonville-North Hopkins), Tyler Camp (Mary Persons/Forsyth, Ga.) and Hunter Holland (Buford/Buford, Ga.) as WKU commits for the 2015 class.

— Follow Western Kentucky University football reporter Chad Bishop on Twitter at twitter.com/MrChadBishop or visit bgdailynews.com.