Searching for purpose in Conference USA
By Matt Hinton

Part of the Doc's Mid-Major Week

Conference USA has been around for more than a decade now, and if I had to define its "mission," especially in terms of membership, I'm sure where I'd start. It still has no geographic footprint. Only four of the 12 football members have made the entire run since 1996 (Houston, Memphis, Tulane and my alma mater, Southern Miss), and, after UH, Tulane and USM combined to win the first four conference championships from '96-'99, they've been supplanted since the league's expansion to the two-division format in 2005 by the likes of Tulsa and Central Florida, perennial bottom dwellers in their previous locales.

A whole litany of schools -- Louisville, Cincinnati, TCU, even total noob South Florida -- used the league as a way station en route to bigger fish, which Houston and UCF and their huge surrounding markets continue to eye lustily. The stopgaps against that exodus, UTEP, SMU, Rice, Marshall and UAB, have only watered down an already steadily weakening brand. Like the WAC, the frequent turnover and continent-spanning membership -- from East Carolina to El Paso -- leaves one half of the conference totally disconnected and disinterested in the other; even the MAC has cultivated a stable core of closely-linked rivals. The most heated rivalry in C-USA is Houston-Rice. (It's no coincidence that the Southern Miss game I'm most looking forward to this year is the renewal of a former conference showdown, with Louisville, because the Cardinals still feel like more of a rival than anyone left in the league.) And unlike the Mountain West, a one-time peer in the conference pecking order, the failure to maintain nationally competitive teams has left even the best C-USA teams an afterthought in the polls, with no stake whatsoever in how inclusive or exclusive the BCS turns out to be.

So what is the point of Conference USA, relative to most of its members' longstanding status as independents? To serve as a farm system whenever the Big East needs to call someone up? To secure tie-ins to the Papajohn's.com Bowl?

As someone who'd like to see the conference succeed -- and for years, prior to the upheaval that cost four major members in 2004-05, I think it did, in relative terms -- I don't know, though I'm sure the answer has something to do with TV deals that force teams to try to fill up their stadiums on random school nights for the fleeting amusement of a half-asleep ESPN2 audience. (Under Larry Fedora, USM refuses to play these midweek games any more, and I don't miss them.) The markets -- Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, Orlando, Memphis, Birmingham -- are enviable to any conference, but those cities' attentions are decidedly not on the local colleges. My only ideas for a C-USA marketing campaign are, "Conference USA: Survivin'!" or "Conference USA: At Least We're Not the Sun Belt!"

There is one thing I still like about the conference: The Liberty Bowl. It's an old game with a respectable history (Joe Paterno coached in his first bowl game there as an assistant, and Bear Bryant in his last), and from the beginning has been an appropriate and worthy destination for the conference champion. In fact, C-USA was never better than when its champion met the winner of the Mountain West in Memphis for what usually amounted to the "Mid-Major National Championship" -- between 1997 and 2004, the Liberty winner finished in the top-25 all eight years, including a couple forays (Tulane in '98, Louisville in 2004, along with MWC/Fiesta Bowl champ Utah) into the top-ten.

Since the Mountain West moved on and attrition took its toll on C-USA (no team since UL in '04 and the subsequent divisional split has come very close to the final polls), though, even the Liberty has lost most of whatever luster it had as a destination. Believe me, as a fan of a school five years removed from its last conference championship, especially as the league has clearly weakened at the top, that still feels like a trophy worth having, if only because it's there. But somehow, vying to measure up against the seventh-place team in the SEC just doesn't mean as much (except, of course, as an escape from the Papajohn's.com Bowl).

It would appear that CUSA has fallen on hard times. IMO CUSA champ playing the MWC in the Liberty Bowl was and would be a much better matchup than playing SEC 7th pick.

They might want to watch the at least we're not the Sun Belt talk. Sun Belt teams have beatin CUSA teams the past 4 years. We are a few years away from passing CUSA.

(07-19-2009 12:31 AM)statefanatic Wrote:  They might want to watch the at least we're not the Sun Belt talk. Sun Belt teams have beatin CUSA teams the past 4 years. We are a few years away from passing CUSA.

I was thinking the same thing. We are a young conference with members relatively new (as a whole) to DIa (sorry, I refuse to use that FBS/FCS crap) and have proved more than competitive with CUSA and the MAC. Don't be looking too much in your rear view mirror CUSA!!

(07-19-2009 08:44 AM)InjunJohn Wrote:  

(07-19-2009 12:31 AM)statefanatic Wrote:  They might want to watch the at least we're not the Sun Belt talk. Sun Belt teams have beatin CUSA teams the past 4 years. We are a few years away from passing CUSA.

I was thinking the same thing. We are a young conference with members relatively new (as a whole) to DIa (sorry, I refuse to use that FBS/FCS crap) and have proved more than competitive with CUSA and the MAC. Don't be looking too much in your rear view mirror CUSA!!

They might want to take a closer look in there rear view mirror because we are on there bumper.

"rubbins racin boys, rubbins racin"

(07-18-2009 11:58 PM)paco Wrote:  It would appear that CUSA has fallen on hard times. IMO CUSA champ playing the MWC in the Liberty Bowl was and would be a much better matchup than playing SEC 7th pick.

For us watching on tv yeah, but not to folks in Memphis when the thousands of SEC folks come to Beale Street and Graceland.

I don't get all the footprint knocks.

UTEP to UCF to Marshall isn't that much more ginormous than UNT to FIU to WKU.

Other than that, I expect big things from C-USA in the future. Houston, Tulsa, East Carolina and Southern Miss all have solid football programs. UTEP gets good fan support even when they're bad, and Rice was a nice surprise last season. If June Jones can get SMU turned around and UCF lives up to its 'odd year' reputation, it should make for an interesting season.

Basketball is where I'm worried. We've really got to get some teams to step it up so that we are not a 1-bid league.

(07-19-2009 02:22 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  

(07-18-2009 11:58 PM)paco Wrote:  It would appear that CUSA has fallen on hard times. IMO CUSA champ playing the MWC in the Liberty Bowl was and would be a much better matchup than playing SEC 7th pick.

For us watching on tv yeah, but not to folks in Memphis when the thousands of SEC folks come to Beale Street and Graceland.

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True enough----I was thinking more about two conference champs being matched up for a FB game. Tourist and TV money talks, witness the current bowl line ups, mostly made for TV and tourist revenue.

IMO until the power and influence of the organized bowl system is broken, college FB will not have a true playoff. I hope someday 11 conference champs and 5 at large teams match up on the playing field and determines a real college FB champion.

(07-19-2009 03:09 PM)Chappy Wrote:  I don't get all the footprint knocks.

UTEP to UCF to Marshall isn't that much more ginormous than UNT to FIU to WKU.

Me and Google Maps disagree.

WKU is only two hours from MTSU and only five hours Arkansas State. How many hours is ECU from Marshall? How many hours is ECU from its next closest conference mate?

UTEP isn't much worse than North Texas? UTEP is about an 8 hour drive west of North Texas.

And even though FIU may be a fringe team, they still have a cross town rival in FAU.

So no, I don't think its the same.

(07-19-2009 07:10 PM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(07-19-2009 03:09 PM)Chappy Wrote:  I don't get all the footprint knocks.

UTEP to UCF to Marshall isn't that much more ginormous than UNT to FIU to WKU.

Me and Google Maps disagree.

WKU is only two hours from MTSU and only five hours Arkansas State. How many hours is ECU from Marshall? How many hours is ECU from its next closest conference mate?

UTEP isn't much worse than North Texas? UTEP is about an 8 hour drive west of North Texas.

And even though FIU may be a fringe team, they still have a cross town rival in FAU.

So no, I don't think its the same.

True, but UNT has to travel to South Florida every year. We go to UTEP once every four years at the most. The overall size of our footprints aren't THAT different is all I'm saying.