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49-583: On January 14, 2021, the WAC announced its intention to reinstate football as a conference-sponsored sport at the FCS level, as well as the addition of five new members to the conference in all sports, including football. The new members announced included the "Texas Four" of Abilene Christian University , Lamar University , Sam Houston State University , and Stephen F. Austin State University , then members of

98-461: A "brand refresh" on July 1, 2023, the same day that Jacksonville State, Liberty, New Mexico State, and Sam Houston joined. The former abbreviation of "C-USA" was retired in favor of "CUSA", and the logo was slightly updated. On November 27, 2023, Pete Thamel reported on X that Conference USA was expected to add Delaware as a new member for the 2025–26 season. On Tuesday, November 28, 2023, both CUSA and Delaware announced on their websites and social

147-546: A football-sponsoring school, as a new member for the 2022–23 season. ESPN reported on December 9, 2022, that the ASUN and WAC had agreed to form a new football-only conference that plans to start play in 2024. The initial membership would consist of Austin Peay , Central Arkansas , Eastern Kentucky , and North Alabama from the ASUN, and Abilene Christian , Southern Utah , Stephen F. Austin , Tarleton State , and Utah Tech from

196-521: A national team championship while a member of the conference is Jacksonville State , which won the 2024 bowling championship in its first season of both varsity bowling and CUSA membership. The only other school to have won such a championship while a CUSA member is Marshall , which moved to the Sun Belt Conference in 2022. Marshall won the 2020–21 men's soccer championship in May 2021 (with

245-592: A new conference which took the Big East name, leaving the football-playing members to become the American Athletic Conference ). Conference USA responded by adding Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic , both from the Sun Belt. On April 1, 2013, Conference USA announced it was adding Western Kentucky, also from the Sun Belt, to offset Tulsa's departure to The American in all sports which

294-640: A single-sport FCS football conference was denied by the NCAA later the same month. On September 8, 2023, the University of West Georgia announced it would transition from Division II and join the ASUN in 2024; accordingly, the UAC announced that the West Georgia football program would also join the conference the same year. Full members Full non-playing members Other Conference Other Conference This

343-509: Is a list of the champions since 2023. Abilene Christian University Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.151 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 923959652 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:40:02 GMT Conference USA Conference USA ( CUSA )

392-647: Is an intercollegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States . The conference participates in the NCAA 's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas .   Member departing for the Mountain West Conference in 2026. In this table, all dates reflect the calendar year of entry into Conference USA, which for spring sports

441-539: Is the year before the start of competition. In this table, all dates reflect each school's actual entry into and departure from Conference USA. For spring sports, the joining date is the calendar year before the start of competition. For fall sports, the departure date is the calendar year after the last season of competition. Full members (all-sports) Full members (non-football) Affiliate members (football-only) Affiliate member (other sport) Other Conference Other Conference CUSA (abbreviated "C-USA" before 2023)

490-477: The American Athletic Conference , the football-sponsoring portion of the former Big East Conference. This was again the result of Big East schools leaving for the ACC, this time being Syracuse and Pittsburgh , as well as Notre Dame for non-football sports. It was announced in early 2012 that Conference USA was in talks with the Mountain West Conference about forming either a football alliance or conference merger in

539-545: The American Athletic Conference , which had been rocked by the impending departure of three of its most prominent schools ( Cincinnati , Houston , UCF ) for the Big 12 Conference , was preparing to receive applications from six CUSA members: Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA. ESPN reported the next day that The American had received all six schools' applications, and The American announced all six as future members on October 21, though it did not announce

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588-699: The Atlantic Sun Conference (then officially branded as the ASUN Conference) to reestablish its football league, with the Texas Four being joined by three incoming ASUN members for at least the fall 2021 season in what it calls the ASUN–WAC (or WAC–ASUN) Challenge. The Challenge was abbreviated as "AQ7", as the top finisher of the seven teams would be an automatic qualifier for the FCS postseason. The two conferences renewed their alliance for

637-589: The MAC , as well as Rice , SMU , Tulsa , and later UTEP from the WAC . UCF played in the MAC for football only; for all other sports, it was a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN). With CUSA's membership now consisting of 12 schools, all of which sponsor football, the conference adopted a two-division alignment. In 2013, CUSA entered its next phase with the departure of four schools (Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF) for

686-863: The Mountain West Conference in 2026. On November 5, 2024, the conference announced that former full member South Florida would join as an affiliate member in beach volleyball in 2025. In 2019, Conference USA inducted its first Hall of Fame class, comprising 20 student-athletes, three coaches, and two administrators. The inductees included former University of Cincinnati basketball player Kenyon Martin , baseball player Kevin Youkilis , and men's basketball head coach Bob Huggins . Conference USA sponsors championship competition in eight men's and 11 women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Twelve schools are affiliate members—one in baseball, four in beach volleyball, six in bowling, and one in both beach volleyball and bowling. The most recent changes in sports sponsorship were

735-621: The New Big East in 2013). Another two schools ( Charlotte and Saint Louis ) left for the Atlantic 10 ; TCU joined the Mountain West (and is now in the Big 12 with several other former Southwest Conference members); and a ninth member, Army , which was C-USA football-only, opted to become an independent in that sport again. With the loss of these members, CUSA lured six schools from other conferences: UCF and Marshall from

784-652: The Southland Conference , along with Southern Utah University , from the Big Sky Conference . Originally, all schools were planned to join in July 2022, but the entry of the Texas Four was moved to July 2021 after the Southland expelled its departing members. The WAC also announced that it would most likely add another football-playing institution at a later date. On the same day, news broke that

833-498: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley , a non-football-playing WAC member, had committed to creating an FCS football program by 2024. UTRGV later announced it would play an exhibition schedule in 2024 before starting full varsity play in 2025. However, UTRGV moved their athletics program, including football, from the WAC to the Southland in 2024 before they played a single game in the alliance. The WAC ultimately partnered with

882-404: The WAC , New Mexico State and Sam Houston . Liberty and New Mexico State previously played football as FBS independents , while Jacksonville State and Sam Houston played at the FCS level in their respective conferences. On October 7, 2022, Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that current football-sponsoring ASUN member Kennesaw State was in talks to become the tenth member of Conference USA for

931-567: The Western Athletic Conference (WAC), to allow the three teams to join the WAC as football affiliates for 2021, branding it interchangeably as the "ASUN–WAC Challenge" and "WAC–ASUN Challenge"; the two leagues will receive a combined bid to the FCS playoffs. As soon as it was announced, however, the football league was thrown into jeopardy, as Jacksonville State announced it would be leaving once again in 2023 for Conference USA (CUSA), an FBS conference. Liberty University

980-689: The 2016 season, presumably keeping the school in CUSA for the immediate future. The return of football was later pushed back to 2017 with their first game in September. The Blazers won the 2018 conference championship their second year back and won the CUSA title again in 2020. Commissioner Britton Banowsky stepped down on September 15, 2015, to become the head of the College Football Playoff Foundation. Executive associate commissioner and chief operating officer Judy MacLeod

1029-471: The 2022 season, although both leagues will conduct separate conference seasons and then choose the alliance's automatic qualifier by an as-yet-undetermined process. Both the WAC and ASUN initially planned to have six playoff-eligible teams in 2022, but each lost such a member with the start of FBS transitions by Jacksonville State and Sam Houston. On November 5, 2021, it was reported that New Mexico State (an FBS independent ) and Sam Houston would be leaving

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1078-497: The 2023 season. Neither conference's announcement mentioned any plans to move to FBS. The ASUN and WAC jointly announced on January 5, 2023, that the football conference had established a basic governing structure and had hired Oliver Luck as executive director. On April 17, 2023, ASUN-WAC Football Partnership formally rebranded as the United Athletic Conference. The UAC's waiver request to be recognized as

1127-503: The 2024 season, and that Florida Atlantic and UAB would remain in CUSA beach volleyball after otherwise departing for The American. On May 10, 2023, CUSA announced that it would add bowling , a women-only sport in the NCAA, effective in 2023–24. The Southland Bowling League , a single-sport conference established by the Southland Conference , was merged into CUSA. The bowling league added Wichita State when it elevated its club team to varsity status in 2024–25. The conference unveiled

1176-501: The 2024 season. One week later, CUSA officially announced Kennesaw State's 2024 entry. This was followed by the Sun Belt Conference adding beach volleyball for the 2023 season (2022–23 school year), taking with it the three full SBC members that had previously housed that sport in CUSA: Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, and Louisiana–Monroe. Southern Miss also left CUSA beach volleyball as part of its full-time move to

1225-556: The FCS level. The ASUN Conference announced that it would be adding the University of Central Arkansas , Eastern Kentucky University , and former member Jacksonville State University , as incoming members on January 29, 2021, with the intent of sponsoring football in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in 2022. However, with these three schools joining in 2021, the league partnered with another conference beginning to sponsor football also in 2022,

1274-578: The SBC. CUSA would add three new beach volleyball members for that season; Jacksonville State joined CUSA for beach volleyball in advance of full membership that July, Tulane became an associate member, and full member UTEP added a new beach volleyball program. Tarleton announced on April 24, 2023, that it would join CUSA as an associate member for the school's first season of varsity beach volleyball in 2024; CUSA confirmed this on May 11, adding that Missouri State and TCU would also join in beach volleyball for

1323-476: The SWC's disbanding at the end of the 1995–96 academic year. The conference immediately started competition in all sports, except football which started in 1996. Being the result of a merger, CUSA was originally a sprawling, large league that stretched from Florida to Missouri, Wisconsin to Texas. Many of its original schools were located in major urban centers and had strong basketball traditions, which helped establish

1372-530: The Southland Conference in 2023 roughly three months prior to UIW's announcement, on April 8, 2022; however, three months later, it was announced that the SLC and Lamar would be accelerating the rejoining process so that Lamar could return for the 2022 athletic season instead. The WAC has been speculated to move back up to FBS in the future following the re-establishment of the football conference at

1421-482: The Sun Belt Conference on October 27, followed later in the week by Marshall. On March 29, 2022, CUSA agreed to allow Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss to move to the Sun Belt beginning July 1, 2022, a year earlier than initially announced. In response to these losses, on November 5, Conference USA announced the addition of four new members to start the 2023 athletic season. These included two ASUN schools, Liberty and Jacksonville State , along with two from

1470-457: The Sun Belt's FIU. However, the only MW member school that ultimately moved to CUSA men's soccer was New Mexico. For the 2013–14 season CUSA invited five new members to join their conference, with all accepting. UTSA and Louisiana Tech joined from the WAC and North Texas and FIU , (an affiliate member of CUSA joining for men's soccer in 2005), from the Sun Belt Conference. Old Dominion , which already housed five of its sports in CUSA, moved

1519-471: The WAC for Conference USA in 2023. The WAC responded by adding football-playing Incarnate Word from the Southland Conference and non-football school UT Arlington from the Sun Belt Conference ; however, UIW later reversed course and decided to stay with the SLC only days before the 2022-23 athletic season officially began. Lamar also announced that it too would return to its former home of

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1568-419: The WAC. UTRGV was originally planned to become the 10th member upon its planned addition of football in 2025; however, they moved their athletics program, including football, from the WAC to the Southland in 2024 before they played a single game in the alliance. The new football conference also reportedly planned to move "from what is currently known as FCS football to what is currently known as FBS football at

1617-472: The current season, see 2023–24 Conference USA men's basketball season . This list goes through the 2022–23 season. This list goes through the 2022–23 season. Champions from the previous school year are indicated with the calendar year of their title. "RS" is regular season, "T" is tournament. Women's swimming & diving was dropped after the 2021–22 season. Fall 2023 Winter 2023–24 Spring 2024 The only current CUSA member to have won

1666-506: The dropping of men's soccer and women's swimming and diving after the 2021–22 season, plus the addition of bowling in 2023–24. Incoming members are highlighted in gray. Conference USA used a divisional format for football from 2005 to 2021. CUSA champions Bowl games Through the 2023 season, the highest-ranked champion from the so-called "Group of Five" conferences ( The American , CUSA, MAC , Mountain West , and Sun Belt )

1715-415: The earliest practicable date." On December 20, the two conferences confirmed the football merger, announcing that the new football league would start to play in 2023 under the tentative name of "ASUN–WAC Football Conference". The new football league played a six-game schedule in 2023 and planned to start full round-robin conference play in 2024, but this was before the league expanded beyond 9 members following

1764-579: The effective date. The entry date would eventually be confirmed as July 1, 2023. The day after The American announced its expansion, The Action Network reported that Southern Miss had accepted an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference in 2023, a move which was formally announced by the university on October 26. The report added that the Sun Belt was preparing to add two other CUSA members in Marshall and Old Dominion, as well as FCS program James Madison . Old Dominion officially announced its move to

1813-400: The future. However, when the conferences discussed their plans with the NCAA, they were told that if they merged, the new league would receive only one automatic bid to NCAA championships; at least one of the former conferences would lose expected future revenues from the NCAA men's basketball tournament; and at least one former conference would lose exit fees from any schools that departed for

1862-465: The league on a national basis. The conference saw radical changes for the 2005–06 academic year. The Big East Conference had lost several members, and looked to Conference USA to attract replacements. Five CUSA members departed for the Big East, including three football-playing schools ( Cincinnati , Louisville , and South Florida ) and two non-football schools ( DePaul and Marquette ; both joined

1911-462: The new league. As a result, both CUSA and the MW backed away from a full merger. As of April 2012 , the likeliest scenario was an all-sports alliance in which both conferences retained separate identities. However, after the MW added more members, the alliance was apparently abandoned. For men's soccer, there was a chance that the MW, SEC, and CUSA along with the one Sun Belt member (FIU), that sponsor

1960-426: The official move to make Delaware the eleventh all-sports member of the conference. Six months later, on May 10, 2024, both CUSA and Missouri State University jointly announced on their respective websites that Missouri State would also join the league for the 2025–26 season, bringing league membership up to 12. The 12-member lineup will last only one year, as UTEP, the longest-tenured current member, will leave for

2009-444: The program and the finances involved, leaving open a possible resumption of the program as early as the 2016 season. On January 29, 2015, the conference announced that there was no time pressure in making a decision regarding UAB's future membership. The conference also stated that it would wait for the new study results before any further discussions on the subject. On June 1, UAB announced that it would reinstate football effective with

United Athletic Conference - Misplaced Pages Continue

2058-606: The rest of its athletic program from the CAA (except for field hockey , women's lacrosse and wrestling , with the three sports joining the new Big East , the Atlantic Sun , and the MAC respectively because CUSA does not sponsor those sports) and upgraded its football program from the Football Championship Subdivision . Charter member Charlotte returned from the A-10 and accelerated its recently established football program, which

2107-411: The sport, would play under the CUSA's men's soccer program. The MW, which does not sponsor men's soccer, would take three of the four members that offer the sport (UNLV, Air Force, New Mexico—San Diego State is a Pac-12 associate member in that sport), join CUSA's three full members that offer the sport (UAB, Marshall, Tulsa), the two SEC members already in CUSA for the sport (Kentucky, South Carolina), and

2156-472: Was also invited to CUSA for 2023, but had already competed as an FBS independent for some time and was not included in the ASUN's new football league. With the WAC also losing Sam Houston , another football-sponsoring school, to CUSA, the two conferences announced they would be renewing their alliance for the 2022 season. On September 17, 2021, the ASUN announced Austin Peay State University ,

2205-574: Was confirmed the next day. The board of trustees in the University of Alabama system (of which UAB is a member) voted to shut down that football program on December 2, 2014, in a highly controversial move that many have attributed to a pro-Tuscaloosa bias (including trustees such as Paul Bryant Jr. , son and namesake of Alabama football coaching legend Bear Bryant ). According to Conference USA bylaws, member schools must sponsor football. In January 2015, UAB announced an independent re-evaluation of

2254-503: Was founded in 1995 by the merger of the Metro Conference and Great Midwest Conference , two Division I conferences that did not sponsor football. However, the merger did not include either Great Midwest member Dayton or Metro members VCU and Virginia Tech . Since this left an uneven number of schools in the conference, Houston of the dissolving Southwest Conference was extended an invitation and agreed to join following

2303-578: Was guaranteed a berth in one of the non-semifinal bowls of the College Football Playoff if the group's top team was not in the playoff. Starting in 2024, at least one Group of Five conference champion will receive a berth in the expanded 12-team CFP. For the 2014–19 seasons, Conference USA was guaranteed at least five of the following bowl games. Stadiums and names reflect those in use during that period. Rivalries Current or former CUSA in-conference rivalries: [REDACTED] For

2352-496: Was set to begin play in 2013 as an FCS school, to FBS in 2015 with full conference rights in 2016. On November 27, 2012, it was announced that Tulane would leave the conference to join the Big East in all sports, and East Carolina would join the Big East for football only (ECU's membership was upgraded to all-sports in March 2013 after the Big East's non-football members, except ACC-bound Notre Dame , announced they were leaving to form

2401-525: Was subsequently named interim commissioner. On October 26 MacLeod was named the conference's third official commissioner, also becoming the first woman to head an FBS conference. Marshall University 's men's soccer program captured the league's first team national championship with its 1–0 overtime win over Indiana in the 2020 College Cup , held in May 2021 due to COVID-19 issues, in Cary, North Carolina . On October 18, 2021, Yahoo Sports reported that

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