C-USA Football not awful, just irrelevant..

[ponyinNC]

Great article, spot on I think...

http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/kscarbinsky.ssf?/base/sports/1191572761173240.xml&coll=2

C-USA football not awful - just irrelevant
Friday, October 05, 2007
AUAB booster called the other day to ask an interesting question. What's going on with Conference USA football?

I was grateful for the call because it reminded me of something a lot of us who follow college football have forgotten.

Conference USA actually plays football.

It's true. There was indisputable visual evidence this week.

Did you watch ESPN2 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights? Did you see Memphis beat Marshall on a somber evening at the Liberty Bowl and Rice upset Southern Miss to prove there is life for the Owls after Major Applewhite?

Of course you didn't.

You were too busy yapping about Applewhite learning on the job as the Alabama offensive coordinator because, let's be honest, talking about SEC football beats watching C-USA football any day of the week.

Did you know that the defending Conference USA champion will be playing in the state Saturday? Did you know that Houston, which visits Alabama, is a member of Conference USA?

Of course you didn't.

Your interest in the Cougars starts and stops with how soon they will allow/force Applewhite to sub Greg McElroy for John Parker Wilson.

This is why the UAB booster called and why he was concerned. UAB's league has fallen deeper into irrelevance than ever before.

When's the last time a C-USA team generated half as much buzz as Appalachian State did when it beat Michigan? When's the last time a C-USA team beat a team half as good as the Wolverines?

For the record, C-USA members are 2-19 against BCS members this season. The two wins came against North Carolina and North Carolina State, bad ACC outfits with new coaches.

The biggest coup by a Conference USA team this season wasn't a victory but a visitor. Central Florida got beat by Texas in a close game, but at least UCF got the Longhorns to christen Bright House Networks Stadium on campus in Orlando.

Some of the better teams in the nation have showed up in C-USA stadiums, but the hosts have been far too accommodating. Oklahoma made itself at home at Tulsa 62-21, and LSU ho-hummed Tulane 34-9 in the Superdome to warm up for the BCS Championship Game there.

Conference USA points out in its weekly press release that six different schools have won or shared the last five league titles. The release leaves out the fact that three of those schools - Louisville, TCU and Cincinnati - have bolted for bigger, better leagues.

Take South Florida. The Big East did.

The Bulls, who were still growing horns when they played in C-USA, are an unprecedented sixth in this week's AP poll.

How many current C-USA members appear in the poll? One. Central Florida is the 13th team outside the top 25 that also received votes.

Is serving as a farm system for its BCS big brothers the best Conference USA can do? When is a C-USA school going to barge its way into the parity party going on across the college football landscape?

This weekend offers some noise-making opportunities.

UAB has a chance to do something Auburn couldn't by beating Mississippi State. Houston has a chance to do what UAB did to Nick Saban in his first season at LSU by beating Alabama.

Unless C-USA, against the big boys, is way out of its league

[2112]

cusa is so weak, smu should be ashamed that it cannot dominate this mush league.

[ponyinNC]

yup. and you would think that C-USA as a whole and its commish would be pushing for better teams, better coaches, less stringent entrance req's to boost our overall rating.

[davidsmu94]

we are just above the sunbelt....... barely

[QuikSStang]

i thought it was quite representative when all the c-usa teams lost in week one

[perunapower]

i thought it was quite representative when all the c-usa teams lost in week one

Wrong.

Tulsa beat ULa-Mo.
UTEP beat UNM
USM beat Tenn.-Martin
UCF beat NC State

...All of which were in Week 1.

Quit talking from your @ss.

[QuikSStang]

i thought it was quite representative when all the c-usa teams lost in week one

Wrong.

Tulsa beat ULa-Mo.
UTEP beat UNM
USM beat Tenn.-Martin
UCF beat NC State

...All of which were in Week 1.

Quit talking from your @ss.

my bad, i coulda sworn that happened