Conference USA History

The University of South Florida was a founding member of the Sun Belt Conference in 1976. When the Metro Conference suffered defections, USF moved to that conference in 1991. Some of the schools had left the Metro to join the new Great Midwest Conference and discussions continued on creating another conference. The idea was for the new conference to have six Great Midwest schools (Alabama-Birmingham, Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, Memphis and Saint Louis), along with Louisville, Southern Miss and Tulane from the Metro. A tenth member, Houston, would join when the Southwest Conference disbanded.

South Florida was not in the original mix for what would become Conference USA, nor were other Metro Conference schools UNC-Charlotte, Virginia Commonwealth and Virginia Tech. If three of the seven Metro teams jumped to the new league, the remaining schools would have to scramble for options. A USF athletic department study listed the school's options as returning to the Sun Belt, joining the Southern Conference or becoming an independent. The only leverage that USF had was the Metro bylaws which would have required each departing member to pay about $2 million in exit fees. However, the bylaws could be changed with a two-thirds majority vote, so USF and Charlotte agreed to vote for the change if they were included in the new league. The plan worked and USF would be part of the new conference.

The formation of Conference USA was officially announced on April 24, 1995 at Harry Carey's Restaurant in Chicago. Eleven schools, six from the Great Midwest Conference and five from the Metro Conference began play in 1995. Houston was the twelfth school and joined in time for the first football season in 1996.

Only six of the charter members of the conference, Cincinnati, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Southern Mississippi and Tulane, were playing Division I-A football. All the schools, with the exception of Houston, were operating as football independents at the time of conference formation. Almost immediately, Conference USA looked to expand.

East Carolina, another program playing football as an independent, was added as a football only member in 1997. The U.S. Military Academy, better known as Army, was another independent added for football only in 1998. Alabama- Birmingham, who started its football program in 1991 and had played at the Division I-A level for four seasons, began league play in 1999. For 2001, the conference voted to grant full membership to East Carolina and to add Texas Christian. TCU was a member of the Southwest Conference and went to the Western Athletic Conference for a couple of years before coming to C-USA. This gave the conference a total of fourteen full member universities and a fifteenth, Army, remained football only. South Florida, who started its football program in 1997, became the eleventh football team in 2003.

C-USA Football Champions

1996 - Houston and Southern Miss

1997 - Southern Miss

1998 - Tulane

1999 - Southern Miss

2000 - Louisville

2001 - Louisville

2002 - TCU/Cincinnati

2003 - Southern Miss

2004 - Louisville

2005 - Tulsa

2006 - Houston

2007 - Central Florida

2008 - East Carolina

If C-USA had twelve football playing members, a conference championship game could be held. With that additional money on the table, expansion was constantly under consideration. Back in 1999, when the addition of TCU was announced, many thought that the league would also add Southern Methodist. In 2001, Marshall was expected to be named a football only member, however, the school presidents nixed that recommendation. There was talk about how Navy would be a perfect fit, but they never seriously considered joining the conference. While it never received an offer, Central Florida was a school that expressed interest in joining C-USA. Since the conference already had fifteen members, there was always concern that additional expansion would create problems. Many pointed to the WAC, which had grown to sixteen schools and saw half the teams eventually leave to form the Mountain West Conference. There were rumors of such a split in C-USA.

In 2003, major changes would take place, as another period of conference realignment began with the Atlantic Coast Conference raiding the Big East Conference. The Big East looked to Conference USA to fill the gaps left by the defections of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College. Actually, the changes to C-USA membership started with Army announcing it would leave the league after the 2004 season and return to independent status.

On November 4, 2003, the Big East lured away South Florida, Cincinnati and Louisville as all sports members. DePaul and Marquette also joined the Big East, however, they would not participate in football. The five schools would leave C-USA after the 2004 season. That same day, Conference USA announced that five new universities would join the league. Central Florida and Marshall would leave the Mid-American Conference for C-USA, while Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa would come from the Western Athletic Conference.

About a week later, the only remaining non football playing schools, Charlotte and St. Louis, decided to leave C-USA for the Atlantic 10 Conference. In January 2004, TCU announced it would move to the Mountain West Conference for the 2005 season. Several months later, Texas-El Paso, another school from the WAC, was named as a replacement.

The original twelve team conference was rich in basketball tradition, however, football was the driving force behind the constantly changing membership. The 2005 version of Conference USA had twelve members with only five of the original dozen remaining. Since all the schools have Division I-A football programs, there would be a conference championship game.

Conference USA has seen continual changes since Tulane upset Cincinnati in the first C-USA game on August 30, 1996. Six schools played that first C-USA football season with Houston and Southern Mississippi finishing as co- champions. USM lost at Houston, so the Cougars made the conference's first trip to a bowl game. In 1997, with the conference at seven teams, the title was decided when Southern Miss won its homecoming game over Tulane. 1998 saw eight teams and again the key game was Tulane and Southern Miss. This time the Green Wave, quarterbacked by Shaun King, won and ended a perfect 12-0 season with a victory in the Liberty Bowl. In 1999, with the conference at nine teams, Southern Miss recaptured the title and there was a four-way tie for second place. Louisville won the 2000 title and they repeated in a ten team conference in 2001. In 2002, TCU and Cincinnati shared the conference championship. For the 2003 season, the conference had eleven football members and Southern Miss won the league title. Louisville won the 2004 crown.

The inaugural Conference USA Championship Game was held in Orlando with Tulsa defeating Central Florida 44-27. Houston hosted the 2006 title game and the Cougars defeated Southern Miss 34-20. In 2007, UCF won as host over Tulsa 44-25. Tulas held the game in 2008 and lost to East Carolina 27-24.

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