Wednesday, April 23, 2014

2014 Conference USA Football Schedule

This Week's News Stories:

A group of Penn State fans have announced a Kickstarter campaign to raise $300,000 for a new statue of Joe Paterno.  If the fundraising campaign is successful, the new statue will be erected in downtown State College.  Full story here. 

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is fighting allegations from the Freedom From Religion Foundation over whether he violated the First Amendment rights of his players.  The FFRF maintains that Coach Swinney was using his position as head coach to promote Christianity at a public university.  Full story here. 

Mark Lewis, an N.C.A.A. executive vice president for championships and alliances, made a statement to CBSSports.com about the O'Bannon antitrust lawsuit.  Four years ago, former UCLA basketball player Edward O'Bannon filed a lawsuit against the N.C.A.A. over the association's use of athletes' likenesses for commercial gain.  A federal judge back in February ruled that the case can go to trial, which is scheduled to begin in June.  Full story here.

In an interview with ESPN, Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong discussed his expectations for the upcoming 2014 season.  Full story here.

Mary Willingham, the reading specialist and whistle-blower in the North Carolina academic scandal, announced her resignation on Monday.  Full story here. 

The football coaches of the BIG XII Conference recently attended a meeting in Kansas City.  Among the topics they discussed was the upcoming players union vote at Northwestern University.  Full story here.

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The 2014 football schedule for Conference USA is now available on The Howell Report.  The schedule appears below, but first I would like to provide a brief history of this ever-changing association. 

Since it was founded in 1995 as a merger of the Metro Conference and the Great Midwest Conference, C-USA's membership has significantly changed over the last two decades.  In 1996, Conference-USA consisted of the following schools:  Cincinnati, DePaul, Houston, Louisville, Marquette, St. Louis, South Florida, Charlotte, Southern Mississippi, Alabama-Birmingham, Memphis, and Tulane.

By 2002 three more schools had joined:  Army (football only), East Carolina, and Texas Christian.  Unfortunately, this collection of schools would not stay together for very long.  In 2005 a major Division I conference realignment occurred after the Atlantic Coast Conference expanded from nine schools to twelve by adding three institutions from the old Big East:  Boston College, Miami (FL), and Virginia Tech.  As a result, the Big East replaced those teams by admitting five C-USA schools:  Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, Louisville, and South Florida.  That same year, St. Louis and Charlotte joined the Atlantic 10, Texas Christian left for the Mountain West, and Army became an independent.  Because of the realignment, C-USA admitted six more schools:  Central Florida, Southern Methodist, Tulsa, Marshall, Rice, and Texas-El Paso. 

Between 2006 and 2012, Conference USA had twelve members arranged in two football divisions:


East:  Alabama-Birmingham, Central Florida, East Carolina, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss. 

West: Houston, Rice, Southern Methodist, Texas-El Paso, Tulane, Tulsa.  

In 2013 another round of conference realignment occurred, resulting in seven schools leaving C-USA to join what would eventually become the American Athletic Conference.  Four left in 2013:  Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, and Southern Methodist.  And three more will leave on July 1st of this year:  East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa.  In order to replace these seven schools, Conference USA will admit nine colleges as full members over a three year timespan.  Six colleges joined as full members for the 2013 season:  Florida-Atlantic, Florida-International, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee State, North Texas, and Texas-San Antonio.  Western Kentucky will join C-USA as a full member on July 1st of this year.  Old Dominion will also become as a full member in 2014, while Charlotte will rejoin as a full member in 2015. 

Because of all these changes, Conference USA will play as a thirteen member conference for the 2014 season.  The football divisions will be imbalanced for one season (2014) and they will appear as follows after July 1st:

East:  Alabama-Birmingham, Florida-Atlantic, Florida International, Marshall, Middle Tennessee State (MTSU), Old Dominion, and Western Kentucky

West:  Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Texas-El Paso (UTEP), and Texas-San Antonio (UTSA).


2014 CONFERENCE USA COMPOSITE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

For non-league games, C-USA members appear in ALL CAPS 
For league games, home teams are underlined

August 29th

Bowling Green at WESTERN KENTUCKY

August 30th 

FLORIDA ATLANTIC at Nebraska
Bethune-Cookman at FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL
MARSHALL at Miami (OH)
Savannah State at MIDDLE TENNESSEE
Hampton at OLD DOMINION
Troy at ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM
LOUISIANA TECH at Oklahoma
NORTH TEXAS at Texas
RICE at Notre Dame
SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI at Mississippi State
TEXAS-EL PASO at New Mexico
TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO at Houston

September 4th

Arizona at TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO

September 6th

FLORIDA ATLANTIC at Alabama
Wegner at FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL
Rhode Island at MARSHALL
MIDDLE TENNESSEE at Minnesota
OLD DOMINION at North Carolina State
ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM at Mississippi State
WESTERN KENTUCKY at Illinois
LOUISIANA TECH at Louisiana-Lafayette
Southern Methodist at NORTH TEXAS
Alcorn State at SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI
Texas Tech at TEXAS-EL PASO

September 11th

Louisiana Tech at North Texas

September 13th

Tulsa at FLORIDA ATLANTIC
Pittsburgh at FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL
Ohio at MARSHALL
Western Kentucky at Middle Tennessee
Eastern Michigan at OLD DOMINION
Alabama A&M at ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM
RICE at Texas A&M
SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI at Alabama
New Mexico State at TEXAS-EL PASO
TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO at Oklahoma State

September 20th

FLORIDA ATLANTIC at Wyoming
Louisville at FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL
MARSHALL at Akron
MIDDLE TENNESSEE at Memphis
Old Dominion at Rice
Northwestern State at LOUISIANA TECH
Nicholls State at NORTH TEXAS
Appalachian State at SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI

September 26th

Middle Tennessee at Old Dominion

September 27th

Texas-San Antonio at Florida Atlantic
Florida International at Alabama-Birmingham
WESTERN KENTUCKY at Navy
LOUISIANA TECH at Auburn
Rice at Southern Mississippi
TEXAS-EL PASO at Kansas State

October 2nd

Florida Atlantic at Florida International

October 4th

Marshall at Old Dominion
Southern Mississippi at Middle Tennessee
Alabama-Birmingham at Western Kentucky
Texas-El Paso at Louisiana Tech
NORTH TEXAS at Indiana
Hawaii at RICE
New Mexico at TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO

October 11th

Florida International at Texas-San Antonio
Middle Tennessee at Marshall
Old Dominion at Texas-El Paso
North Texas at Alabama-Birmingham
RICE at Army

October 18th

Western Kentucky at Florida Atlantic
Marshall at Florida International
Alabama-Birmingham at Middle Tennessee
Texas-San Antonio at Louisiana Tech
Southern Mississippi at North Texas

October 25th

Florida Atlantic at Marshall
Old Dominion at Western Kentucky
ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM at Arkansas
Louisiana Tech at Southern Mississippi
North Texas at Rice
Texas-El Paso at Texas-San Antonio

November 1st

Alabama-Birmingham at Florida Atlantic
Rice at Florida International
Brigham Young at MIDDLE TENNESSEE
OLD DOMINION at Vanderbilt
Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech
Southern Mississippi at Texas-El Paso

November 8th

Florida Atlantic at North Texas
Florida International at Old Dominion
Marshall at Southern Mississippi
Louisiana Tech at Alabama-Birmingham
Texas-San Antonio at Rice
Texas-El Paso at Western Kentucky

November 13th

Southern Mississippi at Texas-San Antonio

November 15th

Middle Tennessee at Florida International
Rice at Marshall
Army at WESTERN KENTUCKY
North Texas at Texas-El Paso

November 21st

Texas-El Paso at Rice

November 22nd

Florida Atlantic at Middle Tennessee
Florida International at North Texas
Marshall at Alabama-Birmingham
Louisiana Tech at Old Dominion
Texas-San Antonio at Western Kentucky

November 28th

Western Kentucky at Marshall

November 29th

Old Dominion at Florida Atlantic
Middle Tennessee at Texas-El Paso
Alabama-Birmingham at Southern Mississippi
Rice at Louisiana Tech
North Texas at Texas-San Antonio

December 6th

Conference USA Championship Game
Team with the best record will host. 

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