Conference USA preview: Can Western Kentucky knock off Liberty? What

Expense Connelly, ESPN Staff WriterMay 31, 2024, 08:33 AM ET Close Bill Connelly is a personnel author for ESPN.com.Let’s review.In 1996, Conference USA started sponsoring football with a lineup of Cincinnati, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Southern Miss and Tulane. It included East Carolina in 1997, then Army in 1998 and UAB in 1999. TCU, bailing on the WAC, took part 2001. USF, which had actually been a non-football member, joined for football in 2003. In 2005 came the very first

of three total regrowth efforts. Cincinnati, Louisville and USF left for the Big East, Army returned to being independent, and TCU bailed for the Mountain West; so aboard came Marshall, Rice, SMU, Tulsa, UCF and UTEP. The center really held for a minute, but realignment never ever truly picks up long. Houston, Memphis, SMU and UCF left for what would end up being the AAC in 2013, then ECU, Tulane and Tulsa followed in 2014. It was time to refill once again: CUSA raided the Sun Belt for FAU, FIU, MTSU, North Texas and Western Kentucky. It took Louisiana Tech and UTSA from the WAC and brought in football start-ups ODU in 2014 and Charlotte in 2015. That brought subscription to 14. UAB dropped football in 2015 in a nasty political game, then wised up and brought it back in 2017. Fourteen again.That held till the next time the AAC got raided. It caught Charlotte,

FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA in 2023. Searching for some semblance of stability( and geographic sense), Marshall, Old Rule and Old Rule also left for the Sun Belt. Regrowth No. 3! Indies Liberty and New Mexico State came aboard, and Jacksonville State and Sam Houston made the jump up from FCS. Kennesaw State is joining this year. Delaware and Missouri State will do the exact same in 2025. Next year, FBS will feature 136 groups. Conference USA will have, at one point or another

, housed 32 of them. It is the Ellis Island of FBS. Poor, tired, huddled masses, et cetera. It is a genuine conference for the USA. It might not have much of a conference race in 2024, however.

Liberty was by far the class of the conference in 2015, winning seven of nine CUSA games by at least 13 points and rolling to a 49-35 win over NMSU in each team’s first CUSA Championship. The Flames were able to go unbeaten and skate around having an awful run defense, but that caught up to them in a 45-6 decimation at Oregon’s hands in the Fiesta Bowl. They had among the weakest schedules in the nation and among the most wonderful offenses … simply as they probably will this year. And unless Western Kentucky or Jacksonville State springs a surprise, it’s difficult to see somebody toppling LU this time around either.Every week through the summertime, Costs Connelly will sneak peek another FBS conference solely for ESPN+, eventually consisting of all 134 FBS groups.

The sneak peeks will consist of 2023 breakdowns, 2024 previews and team-by-team pills. Here is the MAC preview.Jump to a section:2024 forecasts|Finest games Title contenders|Who’s close?Hoping for 6-6 2023 recap TEAM REC. (CONF )SP+RK OFF. SP+DEF. SP+ST SP+L iberty 13-1(9-0)8.0(33)36.2( 16)26.3(64)-1.9 (123)J’ville St.9-4 (6-2)-1.6(71 )24.8(76)25.9(57)-0.6(86)NMSU 10-5(7-2)-1.8(73)23.3(83)25.8(56)0.7(51)WKU 8-5(5-3) -2.0(74)28.7 (53)30.1(91 )-0.7

and UTEP carried on from Rick Stockstill and Dana Dimel, respectively, after frustrating finishes.