The History of Conference USA: College Sports' Revolving Door 

I'm pretty sure that's a picture of former senator Doug Jones at 8:28

I never thought I’d be looking forward to mini-docs about semi-obscure NCAA conferences… but this series has been amazing! This has quickly become one of my favorite channels

Funny how ESPN and NFL Films used to put out content in a similar style and now their entire format is just trash and clickbait. You’re doing great, dude. This sort of stuff is great.

Great video. I’m a UAB student. What they did to the football program still burns almost 10 years later. Glad we are in the AAC.

My man is basically modern day ESPN Classic. Continued success!

Thanks for making this video. I remember being a Freshman at UAB when they announced they were shutting down the football program during finals week. The libraries were empty because everyone was outside protesting the decision. I'm glad they ended up reversing the decision as well as the subsequent success under Coach Bill Clark, who will forever go down as our most important coach.

I hope Kennesaw brings the triple with them, it's weird not having an option program in Georgia these last few years since Tech and Southern went to more standard systems

I remember my sister joining protests because she was a student at the time the UAB football program was being dissolved and she was pissed. As it is worth noting that last year before getting the death penalty they went to a bowl game and looked like they were on the up (many of the players went to good schools after that and some even went to the NFL). So when they cited money as the issue most fans and students thought it was an excuse for other petty reasons but thankfully they continued to protest and others pressured the board to reverse it decision (Nick Saban called them out as well). But the thing was they came back and came out swinging which is a good thing. Because it showed that you can bounce back from the death penalty in football (ironically after this SMU started playing better).

Excellent job. I was actually accepted into a PhD program at Memphis on the very day they played for the National Championship in 2008. It was unthinkable to start the day without an alma mater who'd played for a national championship in my lifetime, only to end it seeing my soon-to-be school barely lose the NC. I even taught a few of those players the next year. Well...that's a stretch. They didn't exactly show up for class. Why bother when you know you're entering the draft, but you have to pretend to be interested in school for a brief period. The NCAA is so smart.

As a proud JSU fan definitely glad to see someone talking about smaller conferences. Everyone knows that Paul Bryant Jr tried to kill UAB football. My dad was a member of the inaugural team back in 90’s and Bill Clarke coached him in HS so UAB football is and will always be something I care about. The whole state knows that Jr despises UAB and that he’d do anything to use his dads name to get what he wants. At the end of the day the blazers have moved to greener pastures and hopefully the Gamecocks will continue to do well in the C-USA. Great video keep up the good work!

As a UAB alum hopefully one day we can get the ACC invite. Seems fitting with the city and education. We’ve came a long way. Go Blazers!

I fondly remember watching Cusa football as a kid in the early 2000s. They had some great RBs. Guys like DeAngelo Williams (Memphis), Chris Johnson (ECU), Matt Forte (Tulane), Damian Fletcher (Southern Miss) and Anthony Alridge (UH)

WKU winning the most conference titles of all schools since 2014 and getting left behind during alignment was insane.

Looking forward to more of this series!

apparently University of Delaware is moving up from FCS to CUSA and I had never heard of CUSA, thanks for making this video it was very informative! I hope UD can springboard with a few years of good recruiting and successful play into a higher conference but I'm excited for UD to be regarded as a real team

Loving how this series is turning out!

Great video and well researched! Can’t wait for PT. 2

I love these. That is all

Fire vid as always, love the work you put into it dude!

Man your videos have hit a niche of RU-vid that I didn’t know I needed but I now look forward to every upload. Keep it up bro

I'd love to see a video on The American, they seem to me like the primary "Minor League" to the P5 Conferences, filled with schools with P5 dreams, and probably the most prestigious non P5 conference (that's FBS) maybe tied with the Mountain West. They've also had a crazy revolving door recently.

Dude. Don't stop doing these. Exactly the type of videos I'm interested in. Idc which conference you chose I'll watch.

I love these conferences history videos you’ve been doin!!!

Hay! You shall do FCS Conferences after FBS, also nice Video!!!

Loving these and also politely requesting a history of the Missouri Valley Conference.

love this series man, keep it up

Man I love your content, keep it up!

Great video! Big fan of your videos after coming across them. Would be great to get a history of the NIT tournament if you wanted to. Thanks for the videos!

Appreciate your videos man. Good stuff.

These videos a great, keep the good stuff coming!

Nice video, Thanks. As a Houston cougar alum I have followed the league since its start and really enjoyed a lot if the games. Although somewhat diminished, it is still a fun league. Keeping travel expenses down might be one of their biggest challenges since they are so spread out, but there are plenty of ooc opportunities close to each school, so staying at 10 might benefit them.

I know it's a long shot, but I'd love it if this series continues on to lower level conferences as well

You know that old Grateful Dead lyric, “What a long strange trip it’s been.”? That line, of course comes from the Dead’s classic song, Truckin’. But you could also use that line to describe the short, but wild - and strange - history of Conference USA. I mean…41 MEMBERS??? Of course, they all weren’t in the conference at the same time. But still, that’s a LOT of members! Excellent video, however, by Lucas. Great job as always. 👍👍

Man I love these videos

I can’t wait for that next video!

Pls do big 10, sec and acc as well

Great video!

Best Series on RU-vid🔥

3:08 GAH that DePaul logo

I have been waiting. I loved c-usa and hate what's happened to it

I recall when the SWC folded in 1995ish...the big boys Texas, Texas A&M went to Big 8, followed by Baylor & Texas Tech, both w/ state political support, creating the Big XII. The remaining SWC teams Houston & Rice wound up in the CUSA & TCU to the WAC. Now, from the mid-90's to the late 2000's, Baylor was dreadful. Football - Couldn't beat anybody and basketball - terrible off field incident during the Dave Bliss years. I felt sorry for the Baylor Bears, and at the time thought they should have been a member of CUSA, where they'd be competitive. Fast forward to today, Baylor is among the best in basketball, and proven it can be quite competitive in football. If fact, the rise of the Baylor football program is the most under-appreciated tale of this century, largely because it's clouded w/ the Art Briles era issues.

Virginia Tech did not elect to go elsewhere. It was told it could not join since it could not bring its football team (which was in the Big East). The split was acrimonious and the Hokies were given their NCAA shares as compensation. VT joined the A-10. Its only other option was the Colonial as the ACC and SEC both said no. (The Hokies also replaced the Metro logos on their basketball court with A10 logos as it marched through the NIT that year).

Outstanding take on the brief history of the conference. But I'm curious, do you see C-USA return back to at least 12 full members, so that they won't look like a small conference in terms of membership size?

i am 90% sure that was former senator doug jones and not paul bryant jr

God help me, I love the group of 5. Doing the lord's work by giving us football on weekdays. Bless them. And great job on these videos. Really enjoy learning more about their history.

DEPAUL MENTIONED

Would you ever do videos on FCS conferences? I would love to see a CAA video

As a fan of one of the charter non-football members of CUSA, I have to tell you that the schools that originally left could not wait to get out the door. The best thing that happened to them was the ACC raiding the Big East. The Big East just barely hung together, as the ACC intended to kill it off. As there were a mix of football and non-football schools in the BE, they had to make a deal. Louisville and Cinicinatti came in as football members and Marquette and DePaul got in as non-football members. USF was an afterthought. They were originally invited in as a football only member so that the conference would have a team in talent rich Florida after the ACC had pirated Miami. Then when it could not get Notre Dame, the ACC took Boston College instead and USF was invited in as a full member. They were always the weird outlier in the Big East. The BE was a basketball-centric conference, and USF mostly sucked. I think they had one good season. And they were nowhere near anybody else. The East Coast schools were all much further north and the Midwest schools were even further away. The original CUSA was a conglomeration of dissimilar schools. The non-football mostly Catholic and smaller schools had nothing at all to do with the large state football-playing universities. It was crazy to think that Marquette and DePaul were in the same conference as ECU and TCU. It was often referred to as Conference Hee Haw or Confernece Rube Goldberg. The second iteration of CUSA was probably the best, with a dozen regional mostly public football schools located in about the same area. It was a Southern second tier conference which could attract some interest and had a nice TV contract, though of course much smaller than the Big Five. When the ACC raided the BE again, it once again failed in its attempt to kill the conference. The BE added three good basketball schools and became what it was originally intended to be, a basketball-centric conference of mostly private schools (entirely private before UConn returned.) It has been great for the BE, as it has continued to produce great basketball teams without the complications that come with requiring football. Unfortunately, CUSA is a victim of circumstance and geography.

Literally my second favorite conference if all time behind the SEC

My poor Dawgs of Louisana Tech. Never closing the deal on a conference championship like we did in the WAC. Getting left behind as usual. Several days late and even more dollars short.

My USF Bulls ended up playing only 2 football seasons in Conference USA due to having to start as an FBS independent first and getting called up to the old BIG EAST. Too bad we weren't there in 2002 because I think we could've won the conference if we were a football member back then.

You gotta cover some FCS conferences like the Missouri Valley and The Big Sky

Marshall leaving the MAC for CUSA was one of the dumbest in history.

I wish we didn't have to stay in that conference as long as we did. Happy to have landed in the Sunbelt eventually. The inner politics there were horrible and leadership has often been weak. It's nice being somewhere where the conference commissioner actually visits schools and has negotiating power

Another banger

I feel like with FCS and independent schools like Kennesaw State, Sam Houston State, and Liberty joining there will be more stability. They just got into a conference at the FBS level and probably aren’t planning on moving anywhere anytime soon. Yeah there might be some better options out there, like the Sun Belt, but they haven’t gotten to that level yet. Kennesaw State and Liberty in particular are two very large and very quickly growing schools. They have great basketball programs and up until recently, for KSU and SHU, have played great in football. These aren’t backwater FCS programs they schools with 40,000+ students who are looking to bring it to the next level. If the C-USA can just keep these school in there they will have a great chance to improve overall.

C-USA is the only conference in the FBS where none of the original members are still there far as I know. If you're a team playing in C-USA, you don't initially plan to stay there forever

what's the name of the song from 4:56-6:32? it's beautiful

I won the Metro conference 10,000m 1995, and conference USA 10,000m 1996, and indoor 5000m 1996 and 1997., for USF

Was hoping for a bit on the LA Tech AD that voted against Louisiana and now Louisiana is in a much better situation

I’m glad anytime my alma mater is mentioned in a video :)

Please do the big ten

Bring Missouri State to the CUSA!

Can we get a history of the Atlantic 10?

could you ever see any missouri valley teams getting promoted?

Can you do the ACC

Aaaaand guess which G5 conference has the NY6 Bowl bid this year? Go Liberty, good job CUSA 🔥👍

oh HELL yeah

Saving the SEC the big 12 and the ACC for last I see, smart move, I predict the American conference video next

Do the mountain West!

Let’s go Marshall

cant wait for my KSU Owls to finally play FBS

Kennesaw gonna run the show. HMFH BABY

They should add the Dakota schools

Delaware will now join the CUSA in 2025,they are the first team the will pay the NCAA a $5 million dollar fee to move up from FCS to FBS which was previously only $5,000.They will be the 11th full member after Kennesaw State which will join in 2024.

kSU moving up is big

That’s now Paul Bryant Jr, that’s former US Senator Doug Jones…

Whats that tune at 7:35?

Not bad. For a Wildcat. ROCK CHALK

Honestly, C-USA should merge with teams going to the Sun Belt Conference and the other teams going to the MAC.

Paul Bryant Jr- aka Bear Bryants son

Don't be surprised if they are so desperate that they add Eastern Kentucky

Wake up babe dalukes posted

HECK YEAH. NEW DALUKES UPLOAD

Ive lived near Marshall my whole life and have been a student since 2018. I loved the early days of CUSA, but the last few years were awful. The Sun Belt is by far more fun and with MUCH better TV deals. I remember Judy Macleod signing a TV deal with a company responsible for TV screens on gas station pumps lmfao. Miserable conference now.

Who actually thought C-USA would outlast the PAC. I think C-USA could survive forever by simply promoting lower levels

You got the 2013 split wrong bud

CUSA turned into the AAC again & that’s why Tulane & Memphis needs to exit like Smu

GO OWLS RAHH

Repent and trust in Jesus you will be saved I love yall and God bless y'all

"I want pro-rel" "We have pro-rel at home" pro-rel at home: