Search the Community

TEAM CONF GB OVR Middle Tennessee 4-0 -- 15-3 East Carolina 3-1 1 15-2 Tulane 3-1 1 12-5 Rice 3-1 1 10-7 Charlotte 3-1 1 9-8 UTEP 2-2 2 13-4 Southern Miss 2-2 2 13-4 UTSA 2-2 2 11-6 UAB 2-2 2 10-7 Tulsa 2-2 2 8-7 Old Dominion 2-2 2 9-9 FIU 2-2 2 8-9 Florida Atlantic 1-3 3 11-6 North Texas 1-3 3 7-10 Marshall 0-4 4 7-10 Louisiana Tech 0-4 4 5-12

With the year winding down and nothing left (thankfully) but the bowl game how would you guys rate the expectations for CUSA vs. our reality? Topics: TV Coverage? Is having regional rivals the boon we thought it would be? CUSA organization vs. SBC. Scheduling, refs, overall way that CUSA runs things. Perception, no one knew anything about the SBC. Are we getting treated like a real program now that we are in CUSA? Are we getting any recruiting advantages yet? Feel free to add in your own question or topic you feel is important. And finally a poll to see how the general public feels about our move.

https://twitter.com/CUSAFB/status/407581985683435520]https://twitter.com/CUSAFB/status/407581985683435520 http://www.conferenceusa.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/120213aab.html It's shared with Southern Miss QB Nick Mullens, but when you look at the fact that Byrd has the most yards of any Running Back in CUSA, I think he should have been the sole award recipient. Mike Marshall became the first player to block two punts in school history. North Texas leads the nation in punts blocked, BTW.

Oct. 21 #CUSA FB Honors: @ECUPiratesFB Justin Hardy, @MeanGreenFB Zac Whitfield & @RiceFootball1 Chris Boswell. http://t.co/9Tp9obr75n — C-USA Football (@CUSAFB) October 21, 2013 Congrats to Zac. That Pick 6 really felt like it gave the Mean Green a permanent momentum swing. This post has been promoted to an article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDA6ozbAi54

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/8/18/4633678/ncaa-marine-mtsu-steven-rhodes-eligibility

Louisiana Tech will launch one of the most important weeks in school history Monday when it welcomes a new president, a new athletic conference and kicks off a country-wide search for a new athletic director. Itll be a largely subdued celebration in Ruston today when Dr. Les Guice officially takes over the universitys reins from longtime president Dr. Dan Reneau. Tech also officially joins Conference USA today in a move supporters hope will continue moving its sports programs forward. I dont know if this is the biggest week in school history, but it certainly is a big week for me, Guice said. In addition to the moves in athletics, we also are completing our budget and planning for the coming year. Joining the new football league has been anticipated since the WAC began losing members midway through Techs decade-long membership in the far-flung league. The WAC was heralded as the best thing since peaches in Ruston when Tech joined it in 2001, because it afforded separation from its Sun Belt brethren, while affording some regional rivalries. The same could be said of C-USA. I think its great because you can travel to San Antonio or Dallas for games, and it will save (Tech) money, said Shreveporter Cynthia (Aillet) Pettiette. Hopefully it will increase the fan base. I dont know if I see any downs about it at this point. C-USA officials welcomed Tech with a full page ad in todays Times, saying Were Proud to Play with La. Tech. Logos of the 16 league members for 2013-14 were included in the ad, along with the slogan C-USA, A History of Greats Whos Next. Read more: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20130701/SPORTS0203/307010010/La-Tech-officially-joins-C-USA?nclick_check=1

Direct Link: http://inhouse.unt.edu/new-conference-usa-membership-begin-2013 May 4, 2012 Dear UNT community, UNT’s been making headlines lately with good news from our athletics program. The latest is an announcement I’m proud to make - we are becoming members of Conference USA in the 2013 season. Moving our competitions to C-USA will be great for our fans because of the many natural, regional rivalries it will create. Having conference members in Texas and in nearby states makes this a logical move so that Mean Green fans can more readily attend games. We’ve been part of the Sun Belt Conference since 2000 and have experienced great success there, including 20 conference championships and four bowl games. We have enjoyed our time in the Sun Belt and look forward to our final season with the conference teams we’ve played for so long. We're also excited about this great opportunity, which will mean a higher level of competition for our teams, more national media exposure and better name-recognition for our university. Raising the level of competition will make our athletics program stronger. We will compete against many successful teams, which will help us raise our level of play. And competing with the other C-USA institutions better reflects the true academic quality of our university. This conference change comes at a time when UNT’s athletics program is on the rise. Since 2003, we have developed more than 12 new athletics facilities. After opening our world-class, first-of-its kind green Apogee Stadium last fall with a $20 million sponsorship, we hosted record crowds - breaking an all-time single-season attendance record with more than 113,000 fans - and had our best football season since 2004. I know it’s only going to get better. We’ve got an even stronger team going into this fall, and Coach Dan McCarney is fired up to make this another winning season. We’ll continue to have great matchups as a member of C-USA. This is a great time to buy season tickets because football at UNT will be more exciting than ever. The Mean Green is your home team! There are great things happening in basketball, too. Tony Benford, the former men’s basketball associate head coach at Marquette University, joined us as the new head coach of men's basketball. We were sorry to lose Johnny Jones to his alma mater, Louisiana State University, but we wish him great success as its new head coach. We’ve also welcomed Mike Petersen, the former head coach of women’s basketball at Wake Forest University, as the new head coach of women's basketball. He replaces Karen Aston, who joined the University of Texas at Austin as head coach. We also wish her continued success. Both Tony and Mike bring plenty of experience and great track records to UNT, and they are taking over winning teams with a lot of talent. We expect a great basketball season this year. There are plenty of other Mean Green milestones to celebrate. The Mean Green tennis team and the men’s golf team won 2011-12 Sun Belt Conference tournament championships, while our Mean Green soccer team won the regular season championship. Our student-athletes continue to excel academically, thanks to the dedication of our athletics staff members and others at the university in ensuring they get the benefits of a first-rate education. These advances are part of UNT’s overall momentum and reflect our ongoing commitment to uphold the three A’s: academics, the arts and athletics. We’re intent on being great across the board because providing a top-quality experience enriched by knowledge, culture, competition and community is what makes great universities stand out. Sincerely, V. Lane Rawlins President

I love the Conference USA logo in green, so I decided to make my self a cellphone wallpaper using it. I thought some others might be interested in having it as well so if you want it, here ya go. This post has been promoted to an article

Read more: http://www.meangreensports.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=205424618

"Though the deal has not been signed, the Big 12′s member presidents have verbally agreed to a TV deal worth a combined $2.6 billion with ESPN and FOX, CBSSports is reporting. Word of the deal first came on March 13 and was reported by both CBS and the Sports Business Journal. " http://collegefootba...v-deal/related/ With the new deal, the Big 12 would make $1.3 billion from ESPN and $1.2 billion from Fox. Each Big 12 school would make around $5 million more per year in the new ESPN deal compared to the old one. With the two deals combined, each Big 12 school will receive just under $20 million a year, while Pac-12 schools will average nearly $21 million per season. The blockbuster deal is quite impressive considering the Big 12 lost Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC, forcing it to add TCU from the Mountain West and West Virginia from the Big East. In 2005, C-USA began a long-term television contract with CBS College Sports Network (then known as CSTV) to carry a variety of sports. The deal largely replaced the one it had with ESPN and ESPN Plus, though some C-USA football and men's basketball games are still carried by the ESPN networks. The college basketball men's championship game can be seen on CBS Sports. Beginning in 2011-12, CBS College Sports will be joined by FSN for football and select men's & women's basketball games. Some games, including the C-USA Football Championship game may be moved to Fox or FX. A year ago, Conference USA signed a $43 mlllion deal with Fox to broadcast a mininmum of 20 football games per year including the league's title game through the 2015 season. At the time ESPN protested saying it believed it had the right of first refusal on such a deal with Conference USA. C-USA has added a combination of established and emerging programs. Four of the five schools bring a market size ranked among the top 36 in the country and totaling over two million more TV households than the league held this past year. If ODU commits that wll bring an additional 718,750 households. Five of the six schools are in the fastest growing media markets. Three of the six schools are media markets without competition from other major Universities or Pro teams. So what kind of deal should C-USA be seeking when renegotiating television contracts? What is the value of the C-USA relative to the Big 12? 25%, 10% or less. Would it make since to merge with the MWC in order to negotiate new media contracts?

READ MORE: http://wvgazette.com/Sports/todayssportscolumn/201205060169

Read more: http://bonesville.net/Articles/DennyOBrien/11-12/05/050712_OBrien.htm

Read more: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x453697100/Coaches-OK-with-new-C-USA

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/04/2783085/fiu-joins-conference-usa.html#storylink=cpy Read more: Miami Herald: CUSA in discussions with spanish tv networks

Read more: http://www.dailypress.com/sports/teel-blog/dp-teel-time-odu-basketball-cusa,0,1403162.story?track=rss

Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby was introduced as the Big 12's new commissioner on Friday and many believe it signals a new era of stability for the reconstructed conference. At the same time the Big 12 was putting its hope for a new quieter period in Bowlsby, C-USA was announcing five new members in a continuing makeover of its membership. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are hoping a frantic two-year scramble, that included at least two near-moves to the Pac-12, may finally be in the past. On the other hand, Tulsa is hoping this bold move by Conference USA will bring about a similar spirit of unity in its league. "This is the first step in a process," said outgoing Tulsa President Steadman Upham. "We are re-populating our league in an effort to stabilize." Then, said Upham, C-USA can continue an effort to get some type of agreement/association/merger with the Mountain West. "We had a teleconference with the 16 presidents in our two leagues that will be going forward and we are definitely going to continue to work through some legal issues," said Upham. "Those plans have not ended." That's great news. TU would greatly benefit athletically from an association with Mountain West schools. However, the reality is the Big 12 is far more likely to enjoy a new-found stability than Conference USA. The new-look C-USA would appear to be banking on the future with new football schools like UTSA and Charlotte. In the present, it would appear C-USA will struggle as a football league. "The possibilities of this league 3-4 years down the road are tremendously exciting," said TU athletic director Ross Parmley. "For Tulsa, this provides us even more stability within a league." That more than anything should encourage TU. They are in a league with other like-minded schools trying to remain relevant in college football. Tulsa's conference odyssey has been a wild ride since it left the Missouri Valley Conference for the Western Athletic Conference in 1995. This latest shift in conference rivals would appear to be nothing more than a grab by C-USA to preserve its shaky future. But, it also gives league members like Tulsa, weary of the constant rumors and shifting allegiances, a new chance for hope. Certainly, the addition of five teams has great potential. North Texas, Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana Tech gives Tulsa three natural geographic rivals. The addition of Florida International and Charlotte (with Old Dominion a possible add in the future) gives C-USA some balance between the east and west divisions. It will take C-USA from a 12-team to 13-team league, but does little to fix the geographic challenges that have been somewhat of an obstacle to league rivalries and cooperation. In addition, none of the new members really fills the loss of SMU, Houston, Central Florida and Memphis. But there is potential. Read more: http://www.tulsaworl...B1_TheBig855824

Read more: http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt-teel-column-odu-cusa-20120506,0,4331219.column

Read more: http://boards.caazone.com/showthread.php?120338-How-a-21-year-old-would-view-this-potential-jump-to-CUSA

North Texas will make a jump when it comes to the level of competition it faces in several sports when it joins Conference USA in 2013. The challenge is one the school’s coaches and players said they are prepared for — not to mention looking forward to — following the school’s official announcement Friday that it is leaving the Sun Belt Conference. C-USA added four other teams in addition to UNT in its latest round of realignment — Texas-San Antonio, Charlotte, Louisiana Tech and Florida International. “We are definitely excited,” said Kelsey Hodges, a member of UNT’s soccer team. “This will give us more rivalries with more teams that are closer to us. The higher level that Conference USA is at is exciting. We will have the chance at higher rankings and will have better competition. The expectations will go up.” UNT has faced members of C-USA on a regular basis over the last several years due to the proximity of some of those schools. The UNT football team fell last season at Tulsa and lost to Rice two years ago. Both teams will be among UNT’s new rivals in C-USA. UNT knocked off Rice in men’s basketball two years ago. Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20120505-unt-eyeing-new-challenges-in-conference-usa.ece

Conference realignment is getting to be old hat for UTSA. The Roadrunners' first Football Bowl Subdivision invitation, from the Western Athletic Conference in November 2010, featured all the pomp and circumstance of an election party: A band, beaming dignitaries, adoring fans, even cheerleaders. Today's affair, during which the Roadrunners will announce their entry to Conference USA in 2013, is expected to be far more subdued — just a basic news conference, followed by a celebratory function later in the day. Not only has UTSA been here before, this move doesn't need any embellishment. Compared to the WAC, which was on the verge of collapse even before the Roadrunners joined, C-USA is exactly what they need: a geographically sound and stable home in which to flesh out their potential. Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/college_sports/local_colleges/article/For-now-UTSA-s-big-plan-paying-off-3533741.php#ixzz1txtklgli

Austin Schubert / Staff Writer - The UNT Athletic Department addressed the impact of the university's acceptance of an invitation to join Conference USA in a press conference Friday afternoon, expressing excitement about what the move will do for UNT. "It's a big day for us," UNT President V. Lane Rawlins said. "It's not something unexpected. The right things in life happen when you do the right things and we've been doing the right things." The move to Conference USA helps elevate theuniversity's athletic program to a higher level, UNT Athletic Director Rick Villarreal said. "I always believed that [...] View the full article