Conference USA taking positive steps - Metro News

[Harry]

I like what Conference USA is doing. After losing some of its member instituions to the Big East, it would have been easy for CUSA to curl up and go away. That is what is happening to the once proud WAC, a league that once produced a paper national champion in football in BYU in 1984.

Give CUSA credit. The league is benig pro-active adding five new schools with a sixth evidently soon to follow. I like what the league is doing and here is why.

First of all, the league is showing vision. FIU brings another team with a Florida presence, something that is important to coaches in recruiting.

Second, the league is adding teams from cities that are growing, not shrinking. Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. The same for the Dallas Metroplex, home of North Texas. San Antonio is a destination city. Louisiana Tech, while located in rural Ruston has always played good football and can boast such alums as Terry Bradshaw, Roger Carr, Mike Barber and Willie Roaf. Roaf is being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this fall.

If Old Dominion, which just started playing football, comes on board, the CUSA expansion will give Marshall something it has not had in the league, two near-by regional rivals as opponents. In Charlotte and Old Dominion, Marshall will actually have two conference games that fans can actually attend.

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