NCAA Sports Blog

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 in all sports. 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, except football which started in 1996.

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

Sports sponsored

Members 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.

Men’s soccer is only sponsored by Marshall, Memphis, Southern Methodist, Tulsa, UAB, and UCF; three other schools-Florida International, and the two Southeastern Conference schools which sponsor the sport - Kentucky (which joined with its SEC mate in 2005), and the South Carolina (which rejoined C-USA for the sport in 2005) - compete as men’s soccer only members.

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) and two non-football schools (DePaul and Marquette). Another two schools (Charlotte and Saint Louis) left for the Atlantic 10; TCU 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 lured 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	Joined
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)	Birmingham, Alabama	1969	Public	17,600	1995
University of Central Florida (UCF)	Orlando, Florida	1963	Public	45,090	2005
East Carolina University (ECU)	Greenville, North Carolina	1907	Public	24,075	1997
University of Houston	Houston, Texas	1927	Public	35,180	1995
Marshall University	Huntington, West Virginia	1837	Public	16,400	2005
University of Memphis	Memphis, Tennessee	1912	Public	20,668	1995
Rice University	Houston, Texas	1891	Private/Non-sectarian	4,835	2005
Southern Methodist University (SMU)	University Park, Texas	1911	Private/Methodist	10,901	2005
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM)	Hattiesburg, Mississippi	1910	Public	15,050	1995
University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)	El Paso, Texas	1914	Public	20,154	2005
Tulane University	New Orleans, Louisiana	1834	Private/Non-sectarian	13,214	1995
University of Tulsa	Tulsa, Oklahoma	1894	Private/Presbyterian	4,174	2005

 

Former members

    * Big East:

          o University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati Bearcats), 1995-2005

          o DePaul University non-football member (DePaul Blue Demons), 1995-2005

          o University of Louisville (Louisville Cardinals), 1995-2005

          o Marquette University non-football member (Marquette Golden Eagles), 1995-2005

          o University of South Florida (USF Bulls) 2003-2005

    * Atlantic Ten:

          o University of North Carolina at Charlotte non-football member (Charlotte 49ers), 1995-2005

          o Saint Louis University non-football member (Saint Louis Billikens), 1995-2005

    * Mountain West:

          o Texas Christian University (TCU Horned Frogs), 2001-2005

    * Independent:

          o United States Military Academy football only (Army Black Knights), 1998-2004

C-USA Football Divisions

East

    * East Carolina Pirates

    * Marshall Thundering Herd

    * Memphis Tigers

    * Southern Miss Golden Eagles

    * UAB Blazers

    * UCF Knights

West

    * Houston Cougars

    * Rice Owls

    * SMU Mustangs

    * Tulane Green Wave

    * Tulsa Golden Hurricane

    * UTEP Miners

Conference USA Soccer-only Members

Because men’s soccer is not sponsored by all NCAA Division I conferences, three schools from other conferences are C-USA members for men’s soccer only:

Sun Belt Conference Members

    * Florida International University

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

    * University of Kentucky

    * University of South Carolina

Additionally there is one women’s soccer only member:

Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Members (The SCAC is a NCAA Division 3 conference, however Colorado College sponsors women’s soccer as a Division 1 sport.)

    * Colorado College

Commissioners

    * Michael Slive 1995-2002

    * Britton Banowsky 2002-present

Television

In 2005, C-USA began a long-term television contract with College Sports Television to carry a variety of sports. The deal largely replaced the one it had with ESPN and ESPN Plus, though some C-USA football and men’s basketball games are still carried by the ESPN networks. The college basketball men’s championship game can be seen on CBS Sports.

Conference facilities

School	Football stadium	Capacity	Basketball arena	Capacity	Baseball stadium	Capacity
Soccer stadium	Capacity
UAB	Legion Field	71,594	Bartow Arena	8,508	West Campus Field	2,500
UCF	Bright House Networks Stadium	45,301	UCF Arena	10,045	Jay Bergman Field	1,980
UCF Track and Soccer Complex	2,000
East Carolina	Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium	43,000	Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum 8,000	Bunting Field	>3,000
Houston	Robertson Stadium	32,000	Hofheinz Pavilion	8,500	Cougar Field	3,500
Carl Lewis International Complex	n/a
Marshall	Joan C. Edwards Stadium	38,019	Cam Henderson Center	9,600	Sam Hood Field	1,500
Memphis	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium	62,380	FedExForum	19,000	Mike Rose Stadium	2,500
Rice	Rice Stadium	70,000	Autry Court	5,000	Reckling Park	3,500
Rice Track/Soccer Stadium	5,000
SMU	Gerald J. Ford Stadium	32,000	Moody Coliseum	8,998	Westcott Field	4,000
Southern Miss	M. M. Roberts Stadium	33,000	Reed Green Coliseum	8,095	USM Track & Soccer Complex	n/a
UTEP	Sun Bowl Stadium	51,500	Don Haskins Center	12,222	University Field	500
Tulane	Louisiana Superdome	69,703	Avron B. Fogelman Arena	3,600	Turchin Stadium	5,000
Westfeldt Facility	1,500
Tulsa	Skelly Stadium	35,542	Reynolds Center	8,355	Hurricane Soccer & Track Stadium	2,000
Kentucky*	Plays in SEC	n/a	Plays in SEC	n/a	Plays in SEC	n/a
UK Soccer Complex	1,500
South Carolina*	Plays in SEC	n/a	Plays in SEC	n/a	Plays in SEC	n/a

                                          Stone Stadium                                            5,700

 

* - Men’s soccer only member

Championships

    * Conference USA Football Championship

    * Conference USA Men’s Basketball Tournament

Football Bowl Games

Conference USA sends teams to seven different bowls throughout the country.

    * Liberty Bowl

    * GMAC Bowl

    * Papajohns.com Bowl

    * Armed Forces Bowl

    * New Orleans Bowl

    * Hawaii Bowl

    * Texas Bowl