Conference USA

From NCAA Wiki

Conference USA

Established	1995
Classification	I-A
National Titles	48
Commissioner	Britton Banowsky
Members	12
Sports Fielded	15
States	Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia
Headquarters	Irving, TX
Website	ConferenceUSA

Conference USA was formed in 1995, from a merger of teams from the Metro Conference and Great Midwest Conference, neither of which supported football. The charter members were: Charlotte, Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis, Saint Louis, Southern Mississippi, Tulane, UAB, and USF. In the first C-USA football game, Tulane defeated Cincinnati.

In 1996, Houston came from the disbanding Southwest Conference, to bring the membership to 12. In 1997, East Carolina joined the conference for football. In 1998, Army joined for football only. In 1999, ECU added the rest of their sports to the roster, and UAB moved their football team to I-A, joining the rest of their sports in the conference. In 2001, Texas Christian joined, coming from the WAC. In 2003, USF began I-A football.

In 2005, nine teams left in a move begun by the ACC's expansion: Charlotte and Saint Louis left for the Atlantic 10, Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette, and USF went to the Big East, Army became independent, and TCU joined the Mountain West.

The conference replaced them with Rice, Southern Methodist, Tulsa and UTEP from the WAC, Marshall from the MAC, and Central Florida from the MAC and Atlantic Sun.

In football, the conference is divided into two, six-team divisions: the East is made up of ECU, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss, UAB, and UCF, while the West is made up of Houston, Rice, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, UTEP. The winners of the two divisions play off in the C-USA championship game, held at the site of the team with the highest winning percentage in conference play.