Rated among the top seven college football conferences in the nation, the Conference USA has sent 10 teams to bowl games the past two seasons, including the Memphis Tigers who faces Bowling Green in the GMAC Bowl on Dec. 22.
C-USA teams such as Louisville, Memphis, Southern Miss, and UAB have all been ranked at one point this season in the Top 25. Louisville is currently ranked No. 10 in the nation in the BCS standings with a 10-1 overall record.
Memphis football head coach Tommy West said the competition in the conference has been as tough as it has ever been.
“We’ve got some outstanding teams, starting with Louisville,” West said. “This league’s always been pretty tough at the top; now it’s tough at the bottom, to a point where really anybody can beat anybody on a given day.”
After celebrating its 10-year anniversary this season, the C-USA has developed into one of the most prolific conferences in not only college football, but in other sports as well.
The C-USA is consistently rated as one of the top leagues in the country for men’s basketball, with 34 NCAA tournament berths and 24 NIT tournament appearances since its inception in 1995.
“We’ve had a lot of growth in 10 years,” C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said. “The competitive success that we’ve had continues to blossom and get better and we have seen success in virtually all of our sports.”
But next season the C-USA will have a completely new look. Current members Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and USF will leave the conference next season and become members of the Big East. TCU will move over to the Mountain West, while Charlotte and Saint Louis shift over to the Atlantic 10. Army will also bolt the C-USA, joining Notre Dame and Navy as an Independent.
Teams moving into the realigned C-USA next season include Marshall and UCF, both from the Mid-American Conference, as well as Rice, SMU, Tulsa, and UTEP. They join current members East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulane, and UAB in the newly formatted 12-team conference. Banowsky said the new editions will allow the league to become even better for the future.
“We view the realignment as an opportunity,” Banowsky said. “We think the league in most ways is going to be better in the future than it is right now and we’re very excited about it. We were able to add some great universities and get a little more compatible.”
Currently there are schools in the C-USA that don’t sponsor football teams (Charlotte, DePaul, Marquette and Saint Louis) and one that only sponsors football (Army). The realignment will change all that.
“To have all 12 universities sponsoring the sport of football and all the other sports is really terrific for us from a structural standpoint,” Banowsky said.
West likes the direction that the conference is going in and said he is excited about the outlook for the future.
“Football wise, our league is going to be as strong or possibly stronger next season,” West said. “But with all the changes there is definitely going to be an [adjustment period] as we continue to try and grow as a conference.”
