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Conference USA, officially abbreviated C-USA, is a college athletic conference which is now in the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I, and in Division I-A for football.

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.

Contents 1 Member schools 1.1 East Division 1.2 West Division 1.3 Championship 1.4 C-USA East 1.5 C-USA West 1.6 Former members 1.7 Conference USA affiliate members 1.8 Sports sponsored 2 Conference Stadia 3 External link

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 raided Conference USA. Five C-USA members, including three football-playing schools (Cincinnati, Louisville, and USF), left for the Big East. Two other non-football schools (Charlotte and Saint Louis) left for the Atlantic 10; Texas Christian University joined the Mountain West; and one other football member, Army, opted to become an independent in that sport.

With the loss of these teams, C-USA was successful in luring 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, and other sports played in 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:

East Division

• University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB Blazers)
• University of Central Florida (UCF Golden Knights)
• East Carolina University (ECU Pirates)
• Marshall University (Marshall Thundering Herd)
• University of Memphis (Memphis Tigers)
• University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss Golden Eagles)

West Division

• University of Houston (Houston Cougars)
• Rice University (Rice Owls)
• Southern Methodist University (SMU Mustangs)
• University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP Miners)
• Tulane University (Tulane Green Wave)
• University of Tulsa (Tulsa Golden Hurricane)

Championship

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 suprising 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.

C-USA East

East Carolina Pirates	Marshall Thundering Herd	Memphis Tigers	Southern Miss Golden Eagles
UAB Blazers	UCF Golden Knights

C-USA West

Houston Cougars	Rice Owls	SMU Mustangs	Tulane Green Wave
Tulsa Golden Hurricane	UTEP Miners

Former members

The departing schools are:

• 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 affiliate members

• Florida International University, men's soccer only, otherwise a member of the Sun Belt Conference.
• University of Kentucky, men's soccer only, otherwise a member of the Southeastern Conference.
• University of South Carolina, men's soccer only, otherwise a member of the Southeastern Conference.

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.

Conference Stadia

School	Football stadium	Stadium capacity	Basketball arena	Arena capacity
East Carolina	Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium	48,000	Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum	7,500
UCF	Citrus Bowl	65,438	UCF Arena	5,300
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
Tulane	Louisiana Superdome	76,791	Avron B. Fogelman Arena	3,600
Tulsa	Skelly Stadium	40,385	Reynolds Center	8,355
UAB	Legion Field	71,594	Bartow Arena	8,508
UTEP	Sun Bowl Stadium	52,000	Don Haskins Center	12,000

External link

• Conference USA official website
• Conference USA football, basketball & baseball fan site
• CUSA-fans.com's Conference USA sports blog

Conference USA   East Division: East Carolina | Marshall | Memphis | Southern Miss | UAB | UCF   West Division: Houston | Rice | SMU | Tulane | Tulsa | UTEP

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