Conference USA

Conference USA, officially abbreviated C-USA, is a college athletic conference whose member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I, and in Division I-A for football. C-USA was generally considered to be among the best mid-major (non-BCS) conferences in the country before it was affected by conference realignment in 2005.

C-USA was founded in 1995 by the merger of the Metro Conference and Great Midwest Conference, two Division I conferences that did not sponsor football. The conference immediately started competition in all sports, including football.

C-USA's offices are located in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas, specifically in the Las Colinas business district.

Sports sponsored

Member schools participate in football, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, baseball, cross country, golf, men's and women's soccer, softball, women's swimming, tennis and track and field.

Member schools

The conference saw radical changes for the 2005–06 academic year. The stage for these changes was set in 2003, when the Atlantic Coast Conference successfully lured Miami and Virginia Tech to make a move from the Big East Conference in 2004. Boston College would later make the same move, joining the ACC in 2005. In response to that series of moves, which depleted the Big East football conference, the Big East looked to Conference USA to attract replacements. Five C-USA members departed for the Big East, including three football-playing schools (Cincinnati, Louisville, and USF) - the other two were non-football programs, (DePaul and Marquette). Another two schools, (Charlotte and Saint Louis) left for the Atlantic 10; Texas Christian University joined the Mountain West; and a ninth member, Army, which was C-USA football-only, opted to become an independent in that sport.

With the loss of these teams, C-USA was forced to lure six teams from other conferences: Central Florida and Marshall from the MAC, as well as Rice, SMU, Tulsa, and later UTEP from the WAC. Note that UCF played in the MAC for football only; for all other sports, it was a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

With C-USA's membership now consisting of 12 schools, all of which sponsor football, the conference has adopted a two-division alignment:

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)	Birmingham, Alabama	1969	Public	16,693
University of Central Florida (UCF)	Orlando, Florida	1963	Public	45,090
East Carolina University	Greenville, North Carolina	1907	Public	24,075
University of Houston	Houston, Texas	1927	Public	35,180
Marshall University	Huntington, West Virginia	1837	Public	16,400
University of Memphis	Memphis, Tennessee	1912	Public	20,668
Rice University	Houston, Texas	1891	Private/Non-sectarian	4,835
Southern Methodist University	University Park, Texas	1911	Private/Methodist	10,901
The University of Southern Mississippi	Hattiesburg, Mississippi	1910	Public	15,050
University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)	El Paso, Texas	1914	Public	18,918
Tulane University	New Orleans, Louisiana	1834	Private/Non-sectarian	13,214
University of Tulsa	Tulsa, Oklahoma	1894	Private/Presbyterian	4,174

C-USA

Former members

The schools that departed in 2005 were:

Big East:
- University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati Bearcats)
- DePaul University non-football member (DePaul Blue Demons)
- University of Louisville (Louisville Cardinals)
- Marquette University non-football member (Marquette Golden Eagles)
- University of South Florida (USF Bulls)
Atlantic Ten:
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte non-football member (Charlotte 49ers)
- Saint Louis University non-football member (Saint Louis Billikens)
Mountain West:
- Texas Christian University (TCU Horned Frogs)
Independent:
- United States Military Academy football only (Army Black Knights)

Conference USA Men's Soccer Only Members

Because men's soccer is not sponsored by all major conferences, three schools in other conferences are C-USA members for men's soccer.

Sun Belt Conference Member

Florida International University

Southeastern Conference Members (Both members are the only SEC schools which play the sport.)

Television

In 2005, C-USA began a long-term exclusive television contract with College Sports Television to carry a variety of sports. The deal replaced one it had with ESPN and ESPN Plus. The college basketball men's championship game can be seen on CBS Sports.

Conference facilities

School	Football stadium	Stadium capacity	Basketball arena	Arena capacity
UAB	Legion Field	71,594	Bartow Arena	8,508
UCF	Citrus Bowl	65,438	UCF Arena	5,300
East Carolina	Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium	48,000	Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum	8,000
Houston	Robertson Stadium	33,000	Hofheinz Pavilion	8,500
Marshall	Joan C. Edwards Stadium	38,019	Cam Henderson Center	9,600
Memphis	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium	62,380	FedExForum	19,000
Rice	Rice Stadium	72,000	Autry Court	5,000
SMU	Gerald J. Ford Stadium	32,000	Moody Coliseum	8,998
Southern Miss.	M. M. Roberts Stadium	33,000	Reed Green Coliseum	8,095
UTEP	Sun Bowl Stadium	52,000	Don Haskins Center	12,000
Tulane	Louisiana Superdome	76,791	Avron B. Fogelman Arena	3,600
Tulsa	Skelly Stadium	40,385	Reynolds Center	8,355

Championships

Football: Following the division of the conference into East and West Divisions, the conference began holding a championship game pitting the leading teams from each division against each other. The first such game was played on Dec. 3, 2005, between Tulsa and UCF, both surprising come-from-behind teams who had struggled in previous years and were new to the conference. Tulsa won the first C-USA championship game 44-27. It was held at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

Conference USA Champions

1996 Houston & Southern Miss
1997 Southern Miss
1998 Tulane
1999 Southern Miss
2000 Louisville
2001 Louisville
2002 Cincinnati & TCU
2003 Southern Miss
2004 Louisville
2005 Tulsa

Conference USA Men's Basketball Tournament

External links

College athletics conferences | NCAA Division I-A Conferences

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