C_Best Mid-Major Conference?

[BIG DAWG]

I know there has been a lot of talk about some of the teams C-USA has invited in, but our bowl record right now looks pretty good.

We didn't rank very high as a conference in he preseason, but I wonder where we land in the 2015 preseason rankings as a conference.

Watch out for some of he newbies too...especially ODU.

Btw...also wouldn't mind taking in ULL

Edited December 26, 2014 by BIG DAWG

[NM Green]

MWC getting the big money but I have a feeling Marshall could have given Arizona a game.

At the end of the day you have to look at CUSA at the top G5. We defeated most of in not all our head to heads against the other G5's and now cleaned up bowl season at 4-1. My final ranking thoughts:

1. CUSA

2. MWC

3. AAC

4. Sun Belt

5. MAC

GMG

[BIG DAWG]

MWC getting the big money but I have a feeling Marshall could have given Arizona a game.

At the end of the day you have to look at CUSA at the top G5. We defeated most of in not all our head to heads against the other G5's and now cleaned up bowl season at 4-1. My final ranking thoughts:

1. CUSA

2. MWC

3. AAC

4. Sun Belt

5. MAC

GMG

I think that is a spot on ranking

[Ryan Munthe]

MWC getting the big money but I have a feeling Marshall could have given Arizona a game.

At the end of the day you have to look at CUSA at the top G5. We defeated most of in not all our head to heads against the other G5's and now cleaned up bowl season at 4-1. My final ranking thoughts:

1. CUSA

2. MWC

3. AAC

4. Sun Belt

5. MAC

GMG

Absolutely. I hear all this about the MWC but no way was it better than CUSA this year.

[wardly]

Surely you jest. Look at the number of teams we had in bottom 25 at years end. I would put us behind MWC and AAC, ahead of Sun Belt, and maybe even with the MAC. Bowl games have little to do with overall strength of a conference as mush as the bottom dwellers do.

[jdennis82]

This was done quickly, but here's how I think CUSA performed against each non-power 5...

vs MAC 7-0

vs Sunbelt 2-0

vs American 3-1

vs MWC 3-3

Seems pretty clear to me

[greenit]

CUSA had 6 teams with losing records, MWC had 6, and AAC had 5. The MAC had 7 and the SBC had 6. Not a lot of difference between the conferences in that regard. Essentially, each league had roughly half of their teams with losing records.

CUSA certainly did enough to be in the conversation. Personally, I would put both CUSA and MWC slightly ahead of the AAC this season. CUSA thrashed the AAC in head to head during OOC.

[BIG DAWG]

Surely you jest. Look at the number of teams we had in bottom 25 at years end. I would put us behind MWC and AAC, ahead of Sun Belt, and maybe even with the MAC. Bowl games have little to do with overall strength of a conference as mush as the bottom dwellers do.

You have to judge by the top teams, each conference has bottom feeders. It would be ridiculous to judge a conference by how bad their bad teams are...

[emmitt01]

You have to judge by the top teams, each conference has bottom feeders. It would be ridiculous to judge a conference by how bad their bad teams are...

If you did judge a conference by their bottom dwellers then CUSA would be ahead of AAC by virtue of SMU alone

[wardly]

Having a very bad bottom half of your conference hurts their better teams because of strength of schedule..Even before Marshall lost to W.K. they were ranked behind Boise State.

[BIG DAWG]

If you did judge a conference by their bottom dwellers then CUSA would be ahead of AAC by virtue of SMU alone

Best post of the day!

Maybe 2014!!!

[letsgiveacheer]

This thread is something you would expect to see on the Sun Belt board.

[glick1980]

Surely you jest. Look at the number of teams we had in bottom 25 at years end. I would put us behind MWC and AAC, ahead of Sun Belt, and maybe even with the MAC. Bowl games have little to do with overall strength of a conference as mush as the bottom dwellers do.

The AAC had 4 teams in the bottom 11 in a 10 team conference. They were atrocious in OOC games too.

[NT91]

Add Texas St or Georgia Southern.

Edited December 27, 2014 by NT91

[outoftown]

If you did judge a conference by their bottom dwellers then CUSA would be ahead of AAC by virtue of SMU alone

Definitely. If memory serves me well, the difference between a team with two conference wins in C-USA (UNT) and one win in the AAC (SMU), equates to 37 point difference on the field.

This may have been a rather bad season for UNT, but that game is still a memory that has me smiling.

Edited December 27, 2014 by outoftown

[Mean Green 93-98]

Here's a story from NBC Sports on the favorable impression C-USA made this bowl season: http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/12/27/conference-usa-made-a-statement-this-bowl-season/