State of Conference USA: Wrapping up Fall Sports
In this special edition of the “State of Conference USA,” we dive into a review of the conference’s fall sports. We’ll give some details…
In this special edition of the “State of Conference USA,” we dive into a review of the conference’s fall sports. We’ll give some details about how things went and the general trends within the conference. Some sports really don’t require a full write-up, but there were several noteworthy events going on in Conference USA this fall.
There were several surprises (good and bad) with football, volleyball was a smashing success, and North Texas’ women represented themselves extremely well in the NCAA Soccer Tournament.
Let’s get into each sport. As we go into these deep dives this season, please feel free to let us know what you would like to see covered.
State of Conference USA Football: Satisfactory
College football is finally over for the year, but soon enough, winter workouts will begin, National Signing Day will come and go, and spring practice will start. It’s an evergreen sport these days, but a week removed from the national championship game is a perfect time to take a look at the finished product from 2019–20.
Conference USA was decent this year. No teams had an other-worldly season, but there was plenty of quality and no truly dominant team. Two awful teams really dragged down the rest of the conference, but every other team won at least three games in the conference. In bowl season, the conference was 3–5. That was definitely disappointing, but some of that had to do with some tough match-ups. Overall, a decent year for the conference.
Teams at the top
FAU (11–3, 7–1 C-USA, C-USA East Division Champs, Conference Champions, Boca Raton Bowl Champions) will have some proving to do with Lane Kiffin leaving and former FSU and WKU (among others) Head Coach Willie Taggart taking over. FAU still has plenty of talent, and with the right direction should continue to be successful now that it has gotten to and stayed at or near the top of C-USA for a few years in a row. South Florida is such a wonderful recruiting ground. Taggart may not ever leave the state to find good players. There may not be one person on this Earth more equipped to recruit south Florida for a Group of Five school like Willie T.
UAB (9–5, 6–2 C-USA, C-USA West Division Champs, New Orleans Bowl appearance) found a way to fall into a championship appearance once again. Head Coach Bill Clark is amazing, and I’m not sure how anyone could look at what he’s done and hate him. Loyal to the bitter end, he stuck it out with UAB despite having the program pulled from underneath him. Since UAB has come back, they’ve been magical, with eight wins out of nowhere in 2017, a championship in 2018, and another appearance in 2019. UAB doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
La Tech (10–3, 6–2 C-USA, Independence Bowl Winners) always seems to be decent to great. Even in a down year, they’re still producing winning seasons. This one was special, but two untimely losses (due to key players being suspended) in a very balanced C-USA kept them from making an appearance despite being able to make an argument as the best team in the conference.
Teams on the Rise
Western Kentucky (9–4, 6–2 C-USA, First Responder Bowl Winners) spent one year as a dumpster fire and immediately turned around a three-win season to win nine games in Tyson Helton’s first year. WKU is loading up on JUCOs and is returning 3/4 of its starters, so Helton definitely seems ready to make an explosive second step next season. Anyone sleeping on WKU is insane. The Toppers had a limited offense and could have easily won 11 games with better performances in any of their four losses. WKU returns DeAngelo Malone, and it seems like DC Clayton White may also stay to re-fortify WKU’s already incredible defense.
Charlotte (7–6, 5–3 C-USA, Bahamas Bowl appearance) is another amazing story. A program with zero tradition in (granted) a big market and a really nice recruiting area, the 49ers are immediately decent with Head Coach Will Healy at the helm. He may be insane and have come off like a jerk a few times, but that guy sure knows how to get his players to play like they’re Herschel Walker out there. Healy has the 49ers train a-chuggin’, and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. Could WKU and Charlotte possibly be the new Kings of the East? That would be unforeseen as of last year, when both teams were sub-.500 overall.
Rice (3–9, 3–5 C-USA). Yes, freakin’ Rice is on the rise. Y’all hear me out. How many true seniors did Rice honor on Senior Day? One. This was a team I had my eye on all year, expecting them to upset someone. They finally did late in the year. They had an absolutely murderous schedule, first of all, playing the likes of Army, Wake Forest, Texas, and Baylor in the non-conference portion and then heading to La Tech and UAB to start conference play. That’s pretty much a guaranteed 0–6 for almost everybody in C-USA. This young team won three of its last six games, including its last two and showed a ton of potential along the way. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rice (depending on schedule and luck) gets bowl eligible or even makes a stab at the West Division next year. They’ve been young and terrible for years, but they won’t be next season.
Stagnating
Southern Miss (7–6, 5–3 C-USA, Armed Forces Bowl appearance) was in there with a chance late in the season, but they were not as good as they have been in recent years. The defense was way worse, and sure the offense was good, but losing to Tulane by a large amount in the bowl and petering out at the end of the year really hurt the momentum for the Golden Eagles.
Marshall (8–5, 6–2 C-USA, Gasparilla Bowl Appearance) just can’t seem to get over the hump with Doc Holliday as a coach. He had one great year in 2014 when they nearly went undefeated and won a conference championship. However, since then, Marshall has been bad in one year and decent every other. They have squandered opportunities against lesser teams and lost the game they needed to lose not to compete for championships. On top of that, they were probably not far from losing several more than they did. Can Marshall get it together or are they doomed for frustration from a fan base that expects perfection?
FIU (6–7, 3–5 C-USA, Camellia Bowl appearance) was in an excellent position to compete for the East. That was not to be, losing to La Tech and WKU to start the year, and they were in desperation mode from the beginning of the year, extremely lucky to even become bowl eligible. This was a disappointing year for Butch Davis. Finally, with a conference that would seem to be up for grabs, they’re out of it within a few weeks of the start of the season. FIU is an incredibly difficult job. Mario Christobal was at FIU for years and never mustered much. Now he is the coach at Oregon and looking like a genius. FIU has to conjure invisible fans to pretend as anyone cares about their games in the slightest, despite honestly having a decent to good football program of late.
UTSA (4–8, 3–5 C-USA) seemed like a team that could have become bowl eligible this season, but it never really came to fruition because of a very difficult schedule. Because of the lack of an increase in wins despite the increase in quality, this may feel like an extremely frustrating year for the Roadrunners.
Plummeting
North Texas (4–8, 3–5 C-USA) was almost a unanimous pick to win the West and finished fifth. That is an absolute disaster, and now quarterback Mason Fine may not even get much of a look in the pros. North Texas’ defense couldn’t stop a perfectly fine faucet from running non-stop, and consequently, the Mean Green lost four games by less than a possession. They were good enough to win but found every way in the world to lose, including having some sneaky good football teams on their schedule at the wrong time. Nonetheless, that is an absolute disaster.
MTSU (4–8, 3–5 C-USA) could not overcome the loss of Brent Stockstill and the presence of Rick Stockstill and absolutely laid an egg late in the season. After beating Marshall and looking decent fairly early in the season (I had them as a real contender at that point), Middle utterly tanked. One year removed from almost winning the C-USA Championship, Middle was totally irrelevant. Good thing Coach Stock has that massive buyout…
Old Dominion (1–11, 0–8 C-USA) just completely melted down this year. Usually decent, Bobby Wilder lost control of his team and ODU was inept in every sense of the word. The defense was sadly decent, but the offense was so god awful that a pretty good defense couldn’t help the team win more than one game. Wilder was fired, and now Old Dominion turns to Ricky Rahne to turn the Monarchs around. Good luck, brother. You’ve got a lot of issues to overcome.
UTEP (1–11, 0–8 C-USA) is just a sad story. They’ve been really bad for a really long time. 2014 was the last time UTEP had a winning record, and the program has won two games in the last three years. In the bigger picture, even when UTEP has made bowl games, they have not won in the postseason since 1988. That is truly unfortunate.
State of Conference USA Volleyball: Unprecedented
There is a clear hierarchy in many women’s sports. When one team has tangibly bigger and stronger and more athletic players, it plays out. Hence in women’s basketball, for example, certain programs can win for years in a row. Multiple teams will go undefeated and meet in the Final Four. In women’s volleyball, it was the same thing in C-USA. There were two teams clearly head and shoulders above everyone else: Rice and WKU. Both won games in the NCAA Tournament, and WKU actually hosted at Diddle this season as the 15th overall seed.
It wasn’t just quality at the top, though. Ten of 14 teams had winning records or better overall. Only one team had single-digit wins overall, Southern Miss, who only had three wins total and only one win in conference. That’s a great year in general for the entire conference. Add in two teams (one which received an at-large bid in Rice) that made the Round of 32 and you have something that has never happened in Conference USA.
Throw in the fact that the two played each other twice while ranked and WKU earned a top 16 seed, hosting the first and second rounds for the first time in its history and this was truly a season for the ages. Want to know something scary? WKU is not going away, only graduating two seniors, only one of which was a starter. Build Travis Hudson a statue already.
The top two were great, but as was mentioned above, the rest of the conference provided some good depth. Four other teams resided within the top 115 in the RPI at season’s end: FAU (87), UTSA (88), Marshall (92), and North Texas (115). Each of those was capable of taking sets off of the two dominant teams, and in fact, FAU and North Texas both took a set-off of WKU, and UTSA took a set-off of Rice.
The next tier in C-USA Volleyball was basically everyone else besides Southern Miss. These teams were honestly decent, competitive teams, as we mentioned. In terms of men’s basketball, they’re your UAB-type of quality. They’re pretty good for a mid-major, but they’re not remotely exceptional. UTEP, Middle Tennessee, Charlotte, UAB, La Tech, and FIU make up this next tier. These teams were capable of taking sets on some quality opponents, like UTEP and Middle both taking a set on Rice and WKU, respectively. Each of these teams finished no lower than 209 in the RPI.
Conference USA has never been this strong from every angle. Every team can compete. The top could beat anyone in the country. C-USA was a top ten conference in the country in volleyball this season. As a mid-major, being that good in a non-revenue making sport is just incredible. This will probably go down as C-USA’s best sport of 2019–20.
State of C-USA Women’s Soccer: Top Heavy
No one thinks Conference USA when they think of women’s soccer, but for those in the women’s soccer world, C-USA Tournament champion North Texas is a well-known powerhouse. In 25 seasons of existence, North Texas has never had a losing season. In addition, UNT has not lost a home conference game in 11 years. That is not a misprint.
UNT is the class of C-USA, and although FAU was extremely good this season and won the regular-season championship, North Texas hosted the tournament and swept the conference tournament with relative ease. They then nearly upset #3 Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament, only down 1–0 with ten minutes remaining before conceding two late goals. The last two years, FAU and North Texas have been the top two in the standings. They are the clear class of the conference in recent memory.
The rest of C-USA is just a step below North Texas and FAU. Several teams, like Charlotte, WKU, UTEP, and Rice all made significant improvements and seem to have bright futures. North Texas, interestingly, graduates six seniors. Will they be able to continue their elite play?
Several teams like UAB, La Tech, and Old Dominion fell from near the top of the conference to the bottom half in one year. Teams like UTSA and FIU kept their spots near the bottom of the conference.
The reality is most schools don’t place a huge emphasis on women’s soccer. This is no slight on women’s athletics, but 14 schools have women’s soccer because of Title IX. Like it or not, women’s soccer is, unfortunately, a placeholder for many schools.
State of C-USA Men’s Soccer: Actually Very Good
Who knew? Honestly, I’m not going to pretend to have a clue about collegiate men’s soccer, but after doing some research, Conference USA has some really good men’s soccer teams. This season, Marshall won the C-USA Championship, finishing ranked 11th in the country. UK and Charlotte were also ranked in the top 25. Last season, C-USA had two ranked teams, including #5 UK.
With over 200 teams in Division I men’s soccer and three ranked teams, C-USA is one of the top few conferences in the country. Three teams landed in the top 20, another in the 30s (FIU), and all but two of the conference’s eight teams were in the top half of the RPI. Even the two worst teams in the conference (UAB and Old Dominion) were in the 140s in the rankings.
Men’s and Women’s Cross Country: Middle Utterly Dominant
Before budget cuts and a few departed coaches ago, Western Kentucky was a truly elite track and field and cross country program. Now, that is absolute history, and MTSU has taken over as the unquestionably dominant team in C-USA in 2019.
The numbers speak for themselves, but in both men’s and women’s, they had at least three top ten finishers and of all of their 14 competitors (both men and women) finished in the top 40 of their respective races. Between the two divisions combined, only four other teams were able to do that, and none of them had the star power to compete in the top five positions, which qualify for the team’s score (add up all finishers; lowest number wins). Only the Charlotte men came remotely close to matching the Blue Raiders.
In terms of consistency, Charlotte’s men have finished second each of the past two years. MTSU was sixth in 2018, so MTSU really put it together this past season. On the women’s side, UTEP, Middle, Southern Miss, and Rice were the top four teams in 2018, as well.
Overall State of Conference USA Fall Sports: Overachieving
With Conference USA seeming to find ways to minimize the ability to make TV money, it is amazing that C-USA does as well as it does across the board. Particularly in non-revenue sports, C-USA has some serious, national-level type programs. C-USA Football is also in great shape, with plenty of big names still calling C-USA home and several teams poised to continue to improve.
The conference is extremely fortunate to have such quality considering how little money the conference makes for its member schools.