View source for Conference USA

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[[image:Conference USA.png|right]]
'''Conference USA''' is a Division I FBS conference which was created in 19959, but didn't officially begin play until the fall of 1996.  The conference was effectively a merger of the non-football [[{{metro}}|Metro Conference]] and [[{{gmwc}}|Great Midwest Conference]] which allowed the football-playing schools in those conferences to come together under the same banner while still highlighting basketball as the conference's marquee sport. Of the original twelve members, six did not sponsor football; over time, the demands of big-time college football television deals whittled away at the initially basketball-centric league until the point where football became the primary concern when inviting new members.

Initially respected, the conference quickly diluted itself by adding football programs new to Division I FBS and programs with histories of mediocrity. Worse, the upward suction caused by conference realignment pulled the conference's best teams out of the mix; of the thirteen schools affiliated with the league in its second season, nine eventually moved on to the [[{{bige}}]] and the [[{{amac}}]] (as well as three schools which joined later) and two to the [[{{a10}}]]. Only two original members remain, and the rest of the roster is teams Conference USA itself vacuumed up from the [[{{sunb}}]] and [[{{wac}}]]. What was once legitimately a power conference in basketball and a moderately respectable one in football is in shambles, but still soldiering on.
=='''Data'''==
{| class="wikitable zebra" style="width: 600px;"
|'''Began play:'''
|1995-96
|-
|'''Affiliation:'''
|NCAA I FBS
|}

=='''Historical Data'''==
{{cusa fby}}
{{cusa mbby}}

[[Conference USA Women's Basketball]]

=='''External Links'''==
[http://www.conferenceusa.com/ Conference USA website]
{{cccat|{{cusa}}}}