Projections: C-USA

Why am I doing projections on Conference USA? It's a local Division I-A conference. The quality of play here is not as high across the board, but it was highly competitive last year in the first year of its new configuration. The better teams here in a given year can compete in a BCS league from year to year, and the lower-level teams have to question their ability to compete at this level. All of these schools would like to be in a better league. But, they are where they are, and are trying to make the best of it.

In the East, Memphis is now the top dog. Location is the only thing that kept them out of the Big East last year, and they are now a higher-rung program in C-USA. They have a home game with UCF, which will decide the division champion.

In the West, I am projecting a three-way tie at the top between Houston, Tulsa, and UTEP. The Cougars will have wins over both Tulsa and UTEP, giving them the division championship and a trip to Memphis on December 1 to take on the Tigers in the C-USA championship game.

Projections:
East
Memphis 9-3 7-1
UCF 9-3 6-2
Southern Miss 6-6 5-3
UAB 4-8 2-6
East Carolina 2-10 2-6
Marshall 2-10 1-7

West
Houston 9-3 6-2
Tulsa 8-4 6-2
UTEP 7-5 6-2
SMU 7-5 5-3
Tulane 2-10 1-7
Rice 1-11 1-7

This conference has seven bowl contracts. So, that's who's going to all these new bowls! C-USA has contracts with the Liberty Bowl (champion), GMAC (Mobile), Birmingham, Bell Helicopter Armed Forces (Fort Worth), Hawaii, New Orleans, and Texas (Houston) Bowls. I'm all over that Birmingham Bowl. :-) Is Hattiesburg going to have a bowl next year?

Seriously, SMU looks to return to a bowl for the first time since the Death Penalty in 1989. The new C-USA has been good for the Ponies, and maybe they shouldn't give up football, as the Old Gray Wolf on The Ticket in Dallas likes to say they should.

Tulane won't be going to a bowl this year, but, at this point, one year after Katrina, they are glad to have a university, and for them to have a football program is icing on the cake. They will play home games in the remodeled Superdome this year. That is an improvement on last year's hurricane-induced schedule of 11 games in 11 different locations, while bunking in an old dorm at Louisiana Tech in Ruston. They shouldn't give up football just yet.