Conference USA
Conference USA, officially abbreviated CUSA, is a group of college sports teams that play each other on the NCAA Division I level. It was formed in 1995 when the Great Midwest Conference and Metro Conference merged, and has added several members since then. Most of the new members have come from either the Western Athletic Conference or the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). From 2005 to 2014, it also lost many members, mostly to the original Big East Conference and its football-playing offshoot, the American Athletic Conference (The American). In a later wave of conference changes in the early 2020s, CUSA lost three members to the SBC in 2022 and six to The American in 2023. CUSA responded to these later moves by adding seven new members, with four joining in July 2023, one joining in July 2024, and two to join in July 2025. One school will leave in 2026.
The conference sends several teams to bowl games every year, including the Liberty Bowl and New Orleans Bowl.
Memphis (now a member of The American) has been the most successful men's basketball team in the conference, reaching the national championship game in 2008. (However, the NCAA later took Memphis's wins from that season away because a Memphis player, namely Derrick Rose, had not been eligible to play.)[1]
Members
[change | change source]Conference USA now has 10 "full members" which play most of their sports in the league; Liberty (which joined in 2023) is the only private school. Future member Delaware (joining in 2025) is defined as a "privately governed, state-assisted" school.
Before 2022, the schools were split into East and West Divisions for some sports, most notably football; this allowed the football division winners to play a conference championship game. The divisional split ended with the loss of three members to the SBC. The football championship game now features the top two teams in the conference standings.
School | Location | Founded | Type (affiliation) |
Nickname | Joined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Florida International University (FIU) | Miami, Florida[a] | 1965 | Public | Panthers | 2013[b] |
Jacksonville State University | Jacksonville, Alabama | 1883 | Public | Gamecocks | 2023[c] |
Kennesaw State University | Kennesaw, Georgia[d] | 1963 | Public | Owls | 2024 |
Liberty University | Lynchburg, Virginia | 1971 | Private | Flames & Lady Flames |
2023 |
Louisiana Tech University | Ruston, Louisiana | 1894 | Public | Bulldogs & Lady Techsters |
2013 |
Middle Tennessee State University | Murfreesboro, Tennessee | 1911 | Public | Blue Raiders | 2005 |
New Mexico State University | Las Cruces, New Mexico | 1888 | Public | Aggies | 2023 |
Sam Houston State University (Sam Houston) |
Huntsville, Texas | 1879 | Public | Bearkats | 2023 |
University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)[e] | El Paso, Texas | 1914 | Public | Miners | 2005 |
Western Kentucky University (WKU) | Bowling Green, Kentucky | 1906 | Public | Hilltoppers & Lady Toppers |
2014[f] |
- ↑ The FIU campus has a Miami mailing address, but lies in the unincorporated Miami-Dade County community of Westchester.
- ↑ FIU was a member in men's soccer only from 2005 to 2013.
- ↑ Jacksonville State joined CUSA beach volleyball in 2022, a year before it became a full member.
- ↑ The KSU campus has a Kennesaw mailing address, but is in unincorporated Cobb County.
- ↑ UTEP will join the Mountain West Conference in 2026.
- ↑ WKU was a member in women's swimming and diving only in the 2013–14 school year.
Future members
[change | change source]CUSA will add two members in 2025.
School | Location | Founded | Type (affiliation) |
Nickname | Joining | Former conference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
University of Delaware | Newark, Delaware | 1746 | Private–public hybrid | Fightin' Blue Hens | 2025 | CAA |
Missouri State University | Springfield, Missouri | 1905 | Public | Bears & Lady Bears[a] | 2025 | MVC |
- ↑ The women's beach volleyball team is nicknamed "Beach Bears".
Associate members
[change | change source]CUSA now has 12 "associate members"—schools that are full members of another conference who play select sports in CUSA. One plays baseball, four play women's beach volleyball, six others compete in bowling (which the NCAA runs only for women), and one competes in both beach volleyball and bowling. Most of these schools became associate members in 2023, when CUSA expanded its beach volleyball membership[2] and added bowling as a sponsored sport. CUSA added bowling by absorbing the Southland Bowling League, a single-sport conference founded by, but separate from, the all-sports Southland Conference.[3]
One of the current associates, Missouri State, will become a full member in 2025.
School | Location | Founded | Type | Nickname | CUSA Sport(s) |
Joined | Main Conference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arkansas State University | Jonesboro, Arkansas | 1909 | Public | Red Wolves | Bowling | 2023 | Sun Belt |
Dallas Baptist University | Dallas, Texas | 1898 | Private | Patriots | Baseball | 2022 | Lone Star (Division II) |
Florida Atlantic University | Boca Raton, Florida | 1961 | Public | Owls | Beach volleyball | 2023[a] | American |
Missouri State University | Springfield, Missouri | 1905 | Public | Beach Bears | Beach volleyball | 2023 | MVC (CUSA in 2025) |
Stephen F. Austin State University (Stephen F. Austin) | Nacogdoches, Texas | 1923 | Public | Ladyjacks | Bowling | 2023 | Southland |
Tarleton State University (Tarleton) | Stephenville, Texas | 1899 | Public | Texans | Beach volleyball | 2023 | WAC |
Tulane University | New Orleans, Louisiana | 1834 | Private | Green Wave | Beach volleyball | 2022 | American |
Bowling | 2023 | ||||||
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) | Birmingham, Alabama | 199 | Public | Blazers | Beach volleyball | 2023[a] | American |
Valparaiso University | Valparaiso, Indiana | 1859 | Private | Beacons | Bowling | 2023 | MVC |
Vanderbilt University | Nashville, Tennessee | 1873 | Private | Commodores | Bowling | 2023 | SEC |
Wichita State University | Wichita, Kansas | 1895 | Public | Shockers | Bowling | 2024 | American |
Youngstown State University | Youngstown, Ohio | 1908 | Public | Penguins | Bowling | 2023 | Horizon |
- Notes
Former full members
[change | change source]No fewer than 23 schools have left CUSA since it was founded. Of these schools, 11 are now members of the American Athletic Conference. Three others had been in The American before joining the Big 12 Conference in 2023, and another left The American for the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024.
- ↑ Charlotte left in 2005 for the Atlantic 10 Conference and came back in 2013.
- ↑ Before joining CUSA, East Carolina had been a football-only member since 1997.
- ↑ Houston was a founding member of CUSA in 1995, but did not start play until 1996. It was committed to playing in the final season of its old league, the Southwest Conference.
- ↑ Before becoming a full member in 2013, Old Dominion was an affiliate in men's golf, women's golf, rowing, men's tennis, and women's tennis in 2012–13. Its football team did not join CUSA until 2014.
- ↑ TCU returned to CUSA as a beach volleyball member in 2023.
- ↑ Tulane returned to CUSA as a beach volleyball member in 2022, and added bowling to its CUSA membership in 2023.
Former associate members
[change | change source]In addition to the former full members, 21 other schools have been associate members in the past, but have moved their CUSA sports elsewhere. Most notably, the United States Military Academy, more often called "Army" in a sports context, was a football member from 1996 to 2005 (final CUSA season in 2004).
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Garci, Marlen (August 19, 2009). "NCAA vacates Memphis' '07–08 season record, Final Four run". USA Today. Gannett Company, Inc. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
- ↑ "BVB: C-USA Adds TCU, Tarleton State and Missouri State as Affiliate Members for Beach Volleyball" (Press release). Conference USA. May 11, 2023. Retrieved May 18, 2023.
- ↑ "Conference USA to Add Bowling for 2023-24 Season" (Press release). Conference USA. May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
- "Conference USA". conferenceusa.cstv.com. Archived from the original on 2008-07-26. Retrieved 2014-07-10.