Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. The conference participates in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are located in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

History

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. However, the merger did not include either Great Midwest member

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

or Metro members VCU and

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

. Since this left an uneven number of schools in the conference,

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

of the dissolving

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...

was extended an invitation and agreed to join following 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, C-USA 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 the league on a national basis.

2005–06 realignment

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 C-USA members departed for the Big East, including three football-playing schools (

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

, Louisville, and South Florida) and two non-football schools ( DePaul and Marquette; both joined the New Big East in 2013). Another two schools (

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

and Saint Louis) left for the

Atlantic 10 The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Easter ...

; TCU joined the

Mountain West The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations ...

(and is now in the Big 12 with several other former Southwest Conference members); and a ninth member,

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, which was C-USA football-only, opted to become an independent in that sport again. With the loss of these members, C-USA lured six schools from other conferences: UCF and Marshall from the MAC, as well as

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

, 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 adopted a two-division alignment.

2013–14 realignment

In 2013, C-USA entered its next phase with the departure of four schools (Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF) for 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 Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. 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 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 the new league. As a result, both C-USA and the MW backed away from a full merger. , the likeliest scenario was an all-sports alliance in which both conferences retain 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 C-USA along with the one Sun Belt member (FIU), that sponsor the sport, would play under the C-USA'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 C-USA's three full members that offer the sport (UAB, Marshall, Tulsa), the two SEC members already in C-USA for the sport (Kentucky, South Carolina), and the Sun Belt's FIU. However, the only MW member school that ultimately moved to C-USA men's soccer was New Mexico. For the 2013–14 season C-USA 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 C-USA joining for men's soccer in 2005), from the Sun Belt Conference. Old Dominion, which already housed five of its sports in C-USA, moved the rest of its athletic program from the

CAA CAA may refer to: Law * Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 of India ** Protests regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act * Copyright assignment agreement, to transfer copyright to another party * Clean Air Act, United States law to reduce air ...

(except for

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

women's lacrosse Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to lax, is a sport with twelve players on the field at a time (including the goalkeeper). Originally played by indigenous peoples of the Americas, the modern women's game was introduce ...

and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat s ...

, with the three sports joining the new Big East, the

Atlantic Sun The ''Atlantic Sun'' is a local newspaper for the West Coast region of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the sout ...

, and the MAC respectively because C-USA does not sponsor those sports) and upgraded its football program from the Football Championship Subdivision. Charter member

returned from the A-10 and accelerated its recently established football program, which was set to begin play in 2013 as an FCS school, to FBS in 2015 with full conference rights in 2016.

2014–15 realignment

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 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 Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the ...

and

Florida Atlantic Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-ca ...

, both from the Sun Belt. On April 1, 2013, Conference USA announced they were adding Western Kentucky, also from the Sun Belt, to offset Tulsa's departure to The American in all sports which 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 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 the 2016 season, presumably keeping the school in C-USA for the immediate future. The return of football was later pushed back to 2017. The Blazers won the 2018 conference championship their second year back and won the C-USA title again in 2020.

2015–2021

Commissioner Britton Banowsky stepped down on September 15, 2015, to become the head of the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

Foundation. Executive associate commissioner and chief operating officer

Judy MacLeod Judy MacLeod is an American sports administrator and the current commissioner of Conference USA. She previously served as the athletic director at the University of Tulsa. MacLeod is the first woman to commission a conference in the NCAA Division ...

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 Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges ...

'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 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

issues, in Cary, North Carolina.

2020s realignment

On October 18, 2021, Yahoo Sports reported that the American Athletic Conference, which had been rocked by the impending departure of three of its most prominent schools (

, UCF) for the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

, was preparing to receive applications from six C-USA members: Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA.

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

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 the effective date. 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 C-USA members in Marshall and Old Dominion, as well as FCS program

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

. Old Dominion officially announced its move to the Sun Belt Conference on October 27, followed later in the week by Marshall. On March 29, 2022 C-USA 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 Conference The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divi ...

schools,

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

and Jacksonville State, along with two from the WAC, New Mexico State and Sam Houston. Liberty and New Mexico State previously played football as

FBS independents National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Bowl Subdivision independent schools are four-year institutions whose football programs are not part of an NCAA-affiliated conference. This means that FBS independents are not required to s ...

, while Jacksonville State and Sam Houston played at the FCS level in their respective conferences. On October 7, Pete Thamel of

reported that current football-sponsoring ASUN member Kennesaw State was in talks to become the tenth member of Conference USA for the 2024 season. One week later, C-USA officially announced Kennesaw State's 2024 entry.

Hall of Fame

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.

Member schools

Current members

Departing members are highlighted in pink. ;Notes:

Future members

Affiliate members

In this table, all dates reflect the calendar year of entry into Conference USA, which for spring sports is the year before the start of competition.

Current

;Notes:

Former members

;Notes:

Former affiliate members

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. ;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1995 till:2032 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.6,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two id:OtherC3 value:rgb(0.999,0.859,0.984) # Use this color to denote a team that has move to another conference, when OtherC1 and OtherC2 have already been used PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:FullxF from:1995 till:1996 text:

(1995–2005) bar:1 color:Full from:1996 till:2005 bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text: Big East bar:1 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2023 text:

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:end text: Big 12 bar:2 color:FullxF from:1995 till:2005 text: DePaul (1995–2005) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text: Big East bar:2 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:end text: Big East bar:3 color:FullxF from:1995 till:1996 text: Louisville (1995–2005) bar:3 color:Full from:1996 till:2005 bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text: Big East bar:3 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2014 text:

bar:3 shift:(15) color:OtherC1 from:2014 till:end text: ACC bar:4 color:FullxF from:1995 till:2005 text: Marquette (1995–2005) bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text: Big East bar:4 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:end text: Big East bar:5 color:FullxF from:1995 till:2005 text: Saint Louis (1995–2005) bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:end text:

bar:6 color:FullxF from:1995 till:2003 text: South Florida (1995–2003) bar:6 color:Full from:2003 till:2005 text:(2003–2005) bar:6 shift:(20) color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text: Big East bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:end text:

bar:7 color:FullxF from:1995 till:2005 text:

(1995–2005) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:end text:

bar:7 color:FullxF from:2013 till:2015 text:(2013–2015) bar:7 shift:(20) color:Full from:2015 till:2023 text:(2015–2023) bar:7 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text:

bar:8 color:FullxF from:1995 till:1996 text: Southern Miss (1995–2022) bar:8 color:Full from:1996 till:2022 bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:end text:

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — d ...

bar:9 color:FullxF from:1995 till:1999 text: UAB (1995–1999) bar:9 color:Full from:1999 till:2015 text:(1999–2015) bar:9 color:FullxF from:2015 till:2017 text:(2015–2017) bar:9 shift:(20) color:Full from:2017 till:2023 text:(2017–2023) bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:end text:

bar:10 color:FullxF from:1995 till:1996 text: Memphis (1995–2013) bar:10 color:Full from:1996 till:2013 bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text:

bar:11 color:FullxF from:1995 till:1996 text: Tulane (1995–2014) bar:11 color:Full from:1996 till:2014 bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:2014 till:2022 text:

bar:11 color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text:(Beach volleyball, 2022–present) bar:12 color:Full from:1996 till:2013 text:

(1996–2013) bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:2023 text:

bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text: Big 12 bar:13 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2001 text:

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a teacher training school, East Carolina has grown from its origi ...

(1997–2001) bar:13 shift:(30) color:Full from:2001 till:2014 text:(2001–2014) bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:2014 till:end text:

bar:14 color:AssocF from:1998 till:2005 text:

(1998–2005) bar:15 color:Full from:2001 till:2005 text: TCU (2001–2005) bar:15 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2012 text:

bar:15 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text: Big 12 bar:16 color:Full from:2005 till:2013 text:

Central Florida Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, including the Tampa Bay area and the ...

(2005–2013) bar:16 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:2023 text:

bar:16 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text: Big 12 bar:17 color:Full from:2005 till:2013 text: SMU (2005–2013) bar:17 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text:

bar:18 color:Full from:2005 till:2014 text: Tulsa (2005–2014) bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:2014 till:end text:

bar:19 color:Full from:2005 till:2022 text: Marshall (2005–2022) bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:end text:

bar:20 color:Full from:2005 till:2023 text:

(2005–2023) bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:end text:

bar:21 color:Full from:2005 till:end text: UTEP (2005–present) bar:22 color:AssocOS from:2005 till:end text: FIU (Men's soccer, 2005–2013) bar:22 color:Full from:2013 till:end text:(2013–present) bar:23 color:AssocOS from:2005 till:2022 text:

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

(Men's soccer, 2005–2022) bar:24 color:AssocOS from:2005 till:2022 text:

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

(Men's soccer, 2005–2022) bar:25 color:Full from:2013 till:2023 text:

(2013–2023) bar:25 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:end text:

bar:26 color:Full from:2013 till:end text: Louisiana Tech (2013–present) bar:27 color:Full from:2013 till:end text:

(2013–present) bar:28 color:Full from:2013 till:2023 text: North Texas (2013–2023) bar:28 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:end text:

bar:29 color:FullxF from:2013 till:end text: Old Dominion (2013–2022) bar:29 color:Full from:2014 till:2022 bar:29 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:end text:

bar:30 color:Full from:2013 till:2023 text: UTSA (2013–2023) bar:30 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:end text:

bar:31 color:AssocOS from:2013 till:2019 text:

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

(Men's soccer, 2013–2019) bar:32 color:Full from:2014 till:end text: Western Kentucky (2014–present) bar:33 color:AssocOS from:2021 till:2023 text:

Coastal Carolina Coastal Carolina University (CCU or Coastal) is a public university in Conway, South Carolina. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, it became an in ...

(men's soccer, 2021-2022; beach volleyball 2021–2023) bar:34 color:AssocOS from:2021 till:2023 text:

Georgia State Georgia state or ''variation'', may refer to: Primarily * Georgia State University ("State", "Georgia State"), a state university * Georgia (U.S. state) ("Georgia state"), a state of the United States of America Sports * sports teams of Georgia St ...

(beach volleyball, 2021–2023) bar:35 color:AssocOS from:2021 till:2023 text: ULM (beach volleyball, 2021–2023) bar:36 color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text: Dallas Baptist (baseball, 2022–future) bar:37 color:Full from:2023 till:end text: Jacksonville State (2023–future) bar:38 color:Full from:2023 till:end text:

(2023–future) bar:39 color:Full from:2023 till:end text: New Mexico State (2023–future) bar:40 color:Full from:2023 till:end text: Sam Houston (2023–future) bar:41 color:Full from:2024 till:end text: Kennesaw State (2024–future) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1995 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Conference USA Membership History" #> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Commissioners

* Michael Slive 1995–2002 *Britton Banowsky 2002–2015 *

2015–present

Sports

Sports sponsored

Conference USA sponsors championship competition in nine men's and 11 women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Three schools are affiliate members for men's soccer, with a fourth joining for that sport in July 2022. One of the men's soccer affiliates, plus two other schools, are affiliate members in the newest C-USA sport of beach volleyball, added for 2021–22. Men's soccer and women's swimming and diving were dropped as conference sports after the 2021-22 season.

Men's sponsored sports by school

Departing members in pink.

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by Conference USA

Women's sponsored sports by school

Departing members in pink.

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by Conference USA

Football

Conference USA used a divisional format for football from 2005 to 2021. : AmericanFootball current event

''For the current season, see

2022 Conference USA football season The 2022 Conference USA football season was the 27th season of college football play for Conference USA (C-USA). The season started on August 27, 2022, and is ended on January 31, 2023. The conference consisted of 11 members and was part of the ...

.'' C-USA champions Bowl games The highest-ranked champion from the so-called "Group of Five" conferences ( The American, C-USA, MAC,

, and

) is guaranteed a berth in one of the non-semifinal bowls of the

if the group's top team is not in the playoff. For the 2014–19 seasons, Conference USA is guaranteed at least five of the following bowl games. Rivalries Current or former C-USA in conference rivalries:

Men's basketball

''For the current season, see 2022–23 Conference USA men's basketball season.'' This list goes through the 2017–18 season.

Women's basketball

This list goes through the 2012–13 season.

Baseball

Championships

Current C-USA champions

Champions from the previous school year are in ''italics''. "RS" is regular season, "T" is tournament. Women's swimming & diving was dropped after the 2021–22 season. Fall 2022 Winter 2022–23 Spring 2023

National champions

No current C-USA member has won a national team championship while a member of the conference. The only school to have won such a championship while a C-USA 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 the tournament having moved from its normal schedule in fall 2020 to spring 2021 due to

). The following current and future C-USA teams have won national championships when they were not affiliated with C-USA:

Facilities

Departing members are in pink while future members are denoted in blue. ;Notes

Media

In 2016, C-USA began a long-term television contract with lead partners

and

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known ...

, with ESPN carrying 5 football games and the football championship game; and CBSSN carrying 6 football games, 5 basketball games, and both the men's and women's basketball championship games. C-USA also renewed and expanded its partnership with American Sports Network; owned and operated by

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...

, ASN will carry between 15 and 30 football games; between 13 and 55 men's basketball games; and between 2 and 5 women's basketball games. ASN will also carry 10 events in other C-USA sports. The conference also entered into a contract with beIN Sports for 10 football games (marking the first domestic American football rights the network has ever acquired, and the first broadcast rights deal it had ever entered into with a college conference), 10 men's and 10 women's basketball games, 12 baseball and 12 softball games, 10 men's and 10 women's soccer games (excluding conference men's soccer games at Kentucky and South Carolina, covered by their primary conference's contract), and 10 women's volleyball games. The total values of the 2016 contracts are notably lower than those of the previous contracts (which included Fox Sports). Men's soccer associate members

and

have an agreement with their primary conference for other sports to carry all home matches online through the SEC Network service, including all Conference USA conference matches. ESPN and the SEC Network will have first rights to all C-USA home men's soccer matches featuring both schools. In 2017 American Sports Network and Campus Insiders merged creating

Stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

. Stadium's C-USA content will be available to stream on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and Pluto TV. In 2017 Stadium completed a deal with

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

to exclusively stream some C-USA football games. In 2017 C-USA entered an agreement with the streaming subscription service FloSports to stream three football games.

CUSA.tv

In 2016 C-USA partnered with SIDEARM Sports to create a subscription based streaming service named CUSA.tv. In a statement C-USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod said, "Thanks to our partnership with SIDEARM Sports, this new site showcases a clean modern look with easy access to information and we are proud to offer live content and original feature stories through our CUSA.tv." Various sports including football, basketball, and baseball will exclusively air on CUSA.tv when they are not picked up by other networks.

Academics

One of the current member schools,

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of 62 leading research universities in the United States and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. Six of the Conference's fourteen members are doctorate-granting universities with "very high research activity," the highest classification given by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. A majority of the Conference's members are ranked as Tier One National Universities in '' U.S. News & World Report''s 2022 Best Colleges rankings. ;Notes

Notes

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division I FBS conference navbox Sports in Irving, Texas Organizations established in 1995 Articles which contain graphical timelines College sports in Alabama College sports in Arkansas College sports in Florida College sports in Kentucky College sports in Louisiana College sports in North Carolina College sports in Tennessee