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Florida International's rocky, choppy climb to the upper crust of the Sun Belt Conference hit quite the snag last fall, sending the Golden Panthers down multiple pegs just as the program heads into its debut season as a member of Conference USA. This coming year has all the makings of a rebuilding season: FIU has a new coach, new players and a new league, three factors that contribute to the general sense of impending doom surrounding this team as it enters offseason conditioning. The new coach is not Butch Davis, by the way, but rather Ron Turner, the ex-Illinois coach who spent the last eight seasons in the NFL before returning to the college game. The slide happened overnight, it seems. After reaching back-to-back bowl bids from 2010-11, FIU dropped to 3-9 in 2012, its final season under Mario Cristobal. (Cristobal has since landed on his feet as Alabama's offensive line coach.) Only a late-season win against Florida Atlantic saved FIU from tying South Alabama for last place in the Sun Belt and tying for last place in the Sun Belt effectively makes you one of the five or six worst teams in college football, most would say. Unfortunately, the climb back to relevancy won't occur with the same velocity. FIU is staring at another multiple-year rebuilding project, and that must sting for a fan base that very recently believed such days were a thing of the past. LAST YEAR'S PREDICTION When it comes to the Sun Belt, the only thing that can stop Florida International is Florida International. This is what happens when you combine the league's best offensive line, best defensive line, best overall defense and best running game: you get the best team in the Sun Belt. No other team is as complete, even if the Golden Panthers are slanted heavily towards the defensive side of the ball. No other team has such senior leadership especially where it counts, up front on offense and in the front seven on defense. No other team in the SBC can match the program's clear and obvious climb over the last two seasons. Others disagree, it seems; to me, FIU is clearly the Sun Belt's best team in 2012. Expectations are high, and for good reason. 2012 RECAP In a nutshell: Not every disappointing team needs to play in a major conference, with Florida International as our most recent example. At worst, FIU was viewed as the third-best team in the Sun Belt; in terms of talent and experience, this was an easy bowl team with room for more. What ensued was an utter disappointment that word again with FIU winning only three games, losing nine, and dropping from successive bowl berths to the bottom third of the nation's weakest conference. The slide was inexplicable, and served in large part as the school's rationale for jettisoning Cristobal after his years of hard work building FIU into a program worthy of inclusion into Conference USA. Cristobal's replacement inherits a team with far less talent, far lower expectations and far less of a chance of achieving anything of consequence in 2013. High point: A 34-24 win over rival Florida Atlantic, the Panthers' second win in a row against the Owls after losing eight of their first nine in the series. The Panthers also lost five games by a touchdown or less, including a 28-21 loss to Louisville during non-conference play. Low point: Those same close setbacks meant the difference between three wins and a potential bowl berth. FIU lost to Louisville, Middle Tennessee State, Troy, Western Kentucky and Louisiana-Monroe the latter in overtime by a combined 26 points. Tidbit: The three teams FIU beat in 2012 finished a combined 6-31 on the season: Akron went 1-11, South Alabama 2-11 and FAU 3-9. This was the second-worst defeated opponent's win total of any three-win team in the FBS in 2012, ahead of only UTEP, which had victories over New Mexico State (1-11), Tulane (2-10) and Southern Mississippi (0-12). read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/05/14/florida-international-fiu-college-football-countdown-2013-preview/2158467/

Two years ago today, Texas at San Antonio was preparing for year one as a football program. Two years later, UTSA is preparing for year one in Conference USA, having skyrocketed through the following stages in the span of 22 games: planning, forming, creating, building and winning. UTSA won eight games in 2012, its first season playing a pseudo-Football Bowl Subdivision schedule, and notched a 4-4 record against FBS competition. (The Roadrunners went 4-0 against teams from college football's lower levels.) For now, ignore the fact that UTSA's four FBS victories came against South Alabama and Texas State, another pair of new FBS additions, and Texas State and Idaho, a pair that went a combined 2-22 in 2012. Who cares? Led by former Miami (Fla.) coach Larry Coker, UTSA is moving quicker than any program in FBS history. Before anointing UTSA as the next great program to come out of Texas, however, let's wait and see how the Roadrunners fare against a 12-game schedule loaded with teams like Oklahoma State, Arizona, Houston and Tulsa. LAST YEAR'S PREDICTION Wins and losses don't matter. Well, they do – no one wants to lose – but they don't. This season won't be judged on Texas at San Antonio's won-loss record; it'll be judged by progress of another sort, the kind that can't be seen in the standings but remains, without a doubt, the most important task at hand as the program begins its second season of existence. It'll be ugly at times. One win against true FBS competition – not counting South Alabama or Texas State – would be a tremendous accomplishment. What seems far more likely is no more than three wins, with two of those coming against the FCS. Keep the long-range vision in mind when watching this team: UTSA could one day be somebody. Today, the Roadrunners are nobodies. 2012 RECAP — In a nutshell: Wins! Eight wins, to be exact. Who saw that coming? (Not me.) Here's what UTSA was heading into 2012: young. No, not the team – though the 2012 team was quite young and extremely inexperienced. The program itself was young, having played only 10 games as an FCS independent before transitioning up to the FBS and the WAC a season ago. All the Roadrunners did as the youngest, weakest, least-experienced team in the FBS – and perhaps in FBS history, believe it or not – was win eight games, half of which came against FBS competition. There was no precedence for a team winning eight games this quickly as a member of the FBS, just as there was no precedence for a program moving so quickly from nonexistence to the top level of college football. So … what's next? — High point: The four wins against FBS competition. It seemed hard to top the first, a 33-31 win over similar FBS greenhorn South Alabama complete with a hard-to-believe 51-yard field goal with 16 seconds left. But UTSA would close with three wins in a row to end the year, the last two against FBS foes: 34-27 at Idaho and 38-31 against Texas State. — Low point: A four-game losing streak in October and November. Yes, the four losses – the only four on the season – came against the only strong FBS teams on UTSA's schedule. The Roadrunners lost to Rice, San Jose State, Utah State and Louisiana Tech by the combined score of 185-82. — Tidbit: UTSA's roster includes only 10 seniors, befitting a program entering its third season of existence on any level. In all, UTSA's roster leans in two directions: young and Texan. The Roadrunners' 105-player roster includes 31 freshmen, whether true or redshirt, and another 19 sophomores. UTSA also has 45 juniors, which is an abnormally high number – and means that the 2014 squad should have more seniors than any other team in the FBS. UTSA also has 92 players from Texas, compared to 13 players from the other 49 states: five from California, three from Florida and one from Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland and Oklahoma. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/05/13/texas-at-san-antonio-utsa-college-football-countdown-2013-preview-larry-coker/2156359/

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/schools/finances/ Interesting to note it appears that Old Dominion has the biggest budget in C-USA...

Idaho will spend one season on college football's outer fringes as an FBS independent, along with its former Western Athletic Conference rival New Mexico State, before joining the Aggies as two of the newest members of the Sun Belt Conference in 2014. Life on the fringe is recognizable space for Idaho, which has gone unnoticed and unknown for the better part of a generation since transitioning up to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 1997. With one exception: Idaho won eight games in 2009, pulling magic out of its hat on more than one occasion, before stumbling back to a combined nine wins over the last three seasons. Enter Paul Petrino, Bobby's younger brother and Arkansas' former offensive coordinator, and he's handed a simple yet complicated task – if not nationally known, make Idaho relevant. Think that's easy? Outside of New Mexico State, no other program faces a more difficult path from irrelevance back to bowl eligibility. Patience is the word of the day. LAST YEAR'S PREDICTION Simply put, there's not a whole lot to like on either side of the ball. While I like Blackman as Idaho's starter, there's a reason why Akey has yet to name his starting quarterback: he's still undecided. In all, Idaho is currently in a position where it's relying on the defense to win games. The linebacker corps is strong, but let's be serious: Idaho's not winning games on defense. While Idaho should win three or four games, two are coming against Texas State and Texas-San Antonio. 2012 RECAP — In a nutshell: Idaho lost to an FCS opponent, Eastern Washington, and to a pair of teams making their FBS debuts in Texas State and Texas-San Antonio. The Vandals fired coach Robb Akey after a 70-28 loss to Louisiana Tech dropped their record to 1-7, with former offensive coordinator Jason Gesser taking over and losing each of his four games in November. Hey, at least Idaho beat New Mexico State. When taken in conjunction with the program's then-dire future – the school didn't land an invite to the Sun Belt until this spring – the 1-11 record cast an enormous shadow over the football program as a whole. Why even battle against the tide, scrambling to remain a member of the FBS, when you're barely a blip on the radar in the dearly departed WAC? Now, with its future more secure and an energetic new coach in stow, Idaho can finally take a deep breath and begin moving forward. — High point: A 26-18 win over New Mexico State on Oct. 6, the Vandals' lone victory on the season. Nothing else qualifies. — Low point: Idaho lost to Texas State and UTSA. That's not good. While Louisiana Tech beat up on several teams, the Bulldogs rolled up 839 yards of total offense against the Vandals on Oct. 20. That loss was the last straw for Akey, and deservedly so. — Tidbit: Idaho finished second-to-last in the FBS last fall in scoring offense (15.8 points per game) and third-to-last in scoring defense (42.4 points per game), which is not an easy thing to accomplish. The Vandals scored more than 28 points only once, in an overtime loss to Wyoming, and held only two FBS opponents (the Aggies and Bowling Green) under 34 points. FORMER PLAYERS IN THE NFL — 6: P Bobby Cowan (Oakland), LB JoJo Dickson (New York Jets), QB Nathan Enderle (Tennessee), OG Mike Iupati (San Francisco), S Shiloh Keo (Houston), LB Korey Toomer (Seattle). ARBITRARY TOP FIVE LIST — College head coaches, last name starts Van- 1. Pie Vann (139-59-2, 1949-68) 2. Jerry Vandergriff (138-105-2, 1982-2004) 3. Whitney Van Cleve (80-93, 1955-73) 4. J.A. VanFleet (12-3-4, 1923-24) 5. Conrad Eugene Van Gent (14-8-3, 1916-21) Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/05/08/idaho-college-football-countdown-2013-preview-paul-petrino/2143911/