Fixin’ College Football: Shuffling the Conferences (7/11)

Conference USA
Established 1995 (Major Realignment 2005)
12 Teams
9 States
Longest Distance Between Schools: 1690 Miles (East Carolina and UTEP)

East
East Carolina
Marshall
Memphis
Southern Miss
UAB
UCF

West
Houston
Rice
Southern Methodist
Tulane
Tulsa
UTEP

Conference USA really is nothing more than a hodgepodge of teams from different regions across the nation. C-USA is one of the most geographically spread-out conferences in the country with teams ranging from West Virginia and North Carolina to South Florida to West Texas. In part due to the large distances between schools along with its brief, but jumbled history, C-USA has no great rivalries or tradition. The major realignment in 2005 devastated C-USA. Cincinnati, Louisville, and South Florida all departed and rising powerhouse TCU left for the MWC as well. As a result, C-USA added UCF, Marshall, Rice, SMU, UTEP, and Tulsa, but the net change was still negative. Tulsa put C-USA back on the map last year after they started the season with an 8-0 record before finishing 11-3 and East Carolina has provided some memorable moments in recent years and opened up 2008 with a bang after defeating (17) Virginia Tech and (8) West Virginia in consecutive weeks. Rice, Houston, and Southern Miss have all been solid in recent years as well (and all won their bowl games this past season), but the majority of the conference ranges from weak to extremely week. The remaining 7 teams were all under .500 last season, hard to believe considering that Tulane and Southern Methodist combined for 1 win in-conference (and 3 wins overall).

The lack of fierce rivalries and lack of talent contribute to the malaise of the conference, however, beneficial changes could be made. One easy way to improve competitiveness is to create in-state rivalries. Currently, Texas is the only state with multiple schools in C-USA. The first move should be to add Louisiana Tech from the WAC. What LT is doing in the same conference as Hawaii, I have no idea. Adding LT would strengthen the in-state rivalry with Tulane. To keep 12 teams in C-USA, UTEP should depart C-USA and replace LT in the WAC. The second in-state rivalry that can be created is in Florida, between UCF and South Florida. As mentioned previously South Florida does not belong in the Big East and would be much more productive in C-USA. Last year, these two schools played in one of the most intense atmospheres of the year. With the addition of South Florida, C-USA should drop SMU to keep 12 teams and allow SMU to renew its rivalry with North Texas in the Sun Belt.

These two changes not only improve rivalries but create a more geographically centralized conference, allowing fans to travel to more games. The changes also improve competition, as LT is a step-up from UTEP, and South Florida is a huge step-up from dismal SMU. The final changes needed to improve C-USA would be to put LT in the West Division, move Southern Miss from the East to the West, and put South Florida in the East. With these final changes, the East and West would be balanced and would each contain an elite team: South Florida and Tulsa respectively. -J.S.

Solution: Add Louisiana Tech (from the WAC) and South Florida (from the Big East), Dismiss UTEP to WAC and SMU to Sun Belt, Make proper division changes with new teams