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CUSA To Have 14 Members in 2013 *UPDATE*

This post was obviously oudated as soon as Tulane and ECU decided to bold to the Big East. Whereas CUSA will have them as members briefly, the future of the conference is as Sun Belt 2.0. 

 

This report by CBSSports is making the rounds. No doubt you’ve heard all that there is to hear. No doubt you’ve done some perusing of the message boards to try to figure out what you think of this. For all the prestige that we thought was coming with the move we are in a glorified Sun Belt.

When completed, Conference USA’s new 14-team league is expected to be split into two divisions: East – East Carolina, FIU, Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, Charlotte and ODU; West – Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Rice, Texas San Antonio, Tulane, Tulsa and UTEP.

That isn’t a knock. It is glorified for a reason. Namely ECU, Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, LaTech, Rice, Tulane, Tulsa and UTEP.

Big jump over the fare in the Belt. Admit it. You are excited about playing Rice and Tulsa for conference supremacy and not just as non-con fodder. The most unfortunate thing about this move is that Tulsa has owned us over the last decade, outscoring us by an average of 31 points. The closest we’ve come is 17.

Rice? Sure we almost beat them in Denton a couple years ago, but they also demolished us 77-20 in Houston the year prior. Yep. I remember checking the score from work and seeing 56-20 at the half.

Now, I don’t believe a repeat of the past is in store for us in the new league. I am just reminding those wearing dark green tinted glasses of what we face and how we are probably the fourth in our projected division.

Pardon.

That is just good old North Texas pessimism taking over. We are CUSA-ers now. Things are looking up. We have four Texas teams. That is if you consider El Paso part of Texas and not Mountainous Uninhabited Wasteland, like I do. Every road game will be within driving distance save for Tulane and UTEP. I can live with that. We should see green in at pretty much every road stadium. If we can get the sweetest setup, where we never play both Tulane and UTEP at home or on the road in the same season, each year we should have two division road games within reasonable driving distance and one to fly to.

I can dig it.

Ah the beauty of living in a transportation hub of a city.

The move is a long way away, and even this coming year will not tell us much about what Dan McCarney will make this team into in 2013.

It still is hard looking at that without gauging our chances of winning the thing . . .

UTSA? Win

LaTech? Depends on if we can rustle up a secondary in time. Loss

Rice? Eek. Win.

Tulane? Win

Tulsa? Loss. Not there yet.

UTEP? ….. Win … ?

The Eastern side:

FIU, Charlotte, ODU? Wins

Marshall, ECU, UAB, SMiss? Losses.

It will be interesting to see how the scheduling partnerships with the MWC work out. It will be a fun last ride in the ‘Belt. Can’t look too far ahead. We still have a season to play this fall.

gmg.

One Comment

  1. jp Reister jp Reister January 21, 2013

    El Paso is a waist land and not really Texas? El Paso still has the best basketball program in Texas and the only NCAA basketball title a Texas team has ever won and I am sure they recruit much better and have better football coaches then Denton aka the arm pit of Dallas. DOOR MAT OF CUSA!!! GET USE TO THE SOUND OF THAT!!!

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