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Conference USA, officially abbreviated '''C-USA''', is a College Athletic Conference which is now in the Southern United States . The conference participates in the NCAA 's Division I, and in Division I-A for Football . C-USA was generally considered to be among the best Mid-major (non-BCS) conferences in the country before it was affected by conference realignment in 2005.

C-USA was founded in 1995 by the merger of the Metro Conference and Great Midwest Conference , two Division I conferences that did not sponsor football. The conference immediately started competition in all sports, including football.

C-USA's offices are located in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas , specifically in the Las Colinas business district.


MEMBER SCHOOLS


The conference saw radical changes for the 2005–06 academic year. The stage for these changes was set in 2003 , when the Atlantic Coast Conference successfully lured Miami and Virginia Tech to make a move from the Big East Conference in 2004 . Boston College would later make the same move, joining the ACC in 2005 . In response to that series of moves, which depleted the Big East football conference, the Big East raided Conference USA. Five C-USA members departed for the Big East, including three football-playing schools ( Cincinnati , Louisville , and USF ) - the other two were non-football programs, ( DePaul and Marquette ). Another two schools, ( Charlotte and Saint Louis ) left for the Atlantic 10 ; Texas Christian University joined the Mountain West ; and a ninth member, Army , which was C-USA football-only, opted to become an independent in that sport.

With the loss of these teams, C-USA was forced to lure six teams from other conferences: Central Florida and Marshall from the MAC , as well as Rice , SMU , Tulsa , and later UTEP from the WAC . Note that UCF played in the MAC for football only; for all other sports, it was a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference .

With C-USA's membership now consisting of 12 schools, all of which sponsor football, the conference has adopted a two-division alignment:


East Division



West Division



CHAMPIONSHIPS


  • Football: Following the division of the conference into East and West Divisions, the conference began holding a championship game pitting the leading teams from each division against each other. The first such game was played on Dec. 3, 2005, between Tulsa and UCF, both surprising come-from-behind teams who had struggled in previous years and were new to the conference. Tulsa won the first C-USA championship game 44-27. It was held at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando .


Conference USA Champions
  • 1996 Houston & Southern Miss

  • 1997 Southern Miss

  • 1998 Tulane

  • 1999 Southern Miss

  • 2000 Louisville

  • 2001 Louisville

  • 2002 Cincinnati & TCU

  • 2003 Southern Miss

  • 2004 Louisville

  • 2005 Tulsa




C-USA




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