Conference USA has lost a lot of its prestige in recent years because the league has lost several teams with historic football success. At one time, Houston, Tulsa, East Carolina, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Memphis were members of the league.
In current times, CUSA has been able to barely avoid the basement as the weakest conference, maintaining a small edge over the Sun Belt.
The league race should be competitive this year, as three teams appear to be talented enough to contend for the East Division title. The West looks less competitive, but after prohibitive favorite Southern Mississippi, there are two or three teams capable of making a surprise run to the division title.
In the last two years, Marshall and Western Kentucky have been contenders for the automatic New Year’s Six Bowls, but no CUSA team figures to be in contention this year.
Here is a look at the Pre-season media poll. No vote counts were issued or for that matter, the media did not vote on overall conference champion.
| CUSA-East | |
| # | Team |
| 1 | Middle Tennessee |
| 2 | Western Kentucky |
| 3 | Marshall |
| 4 | Florida Atlantic |
| 5 | Florida Int’l. |
| 6 | Old Dominion |
| 7 | Charlotte |
| CUSA-West | |
| # | Team |
| 1 | Southern Miss. |
| 2 | Louisiana Tech |
| 3 | Rice |
| 4 | UTEP |
| 5 | UTSA |
| 6 | North Texas |
This is how the PiRate Ratings see the divisional races
| Conference USA | ||||
| East Division | ||||
| Team | PiRate | Mean | Bias | Average |
| Western Kentucky | 99.1 | 93.1 | 99.8 | 97.3 |
| Marshall | 92.3 | 96.7 | 94.1 | 94.4 |
| Middle Tennessee | 92.0 | 94.6 | 93.1 | 93.3 |
| Old Dominion | 85.7 | 89.1 | 86.3 | 87.0 |
| Florida Atlantic | 84.8 | 88.5 | 86.7 | 86.7 |
| Florida Int’l. | 82.3 | 89.5 | 84.2 | 85.3 |
| Charlotte | 72.9 | 81.0 | 74.5 | 76.2 |
| West Division | ||||
| Team | PiRate | Mean | Bias | Average |
| Southern Miss. | 92.7 | 92.1 | 93.8 | 92.9 |
| Rice | 84.7 | 94.1 | 85.1 | 88.0 |
| Louisiana Tech | 85.4 | 88.6 | 86.0 | 86.7 |
| UTSA | 78.4 | 87.1 | 80.9 | 82.2 |
| UTEP | 74.5 | 79.5 | 75.8 | 76.6 |
| North Texas | 74.0 | 76.6 | 73.7 | 74.8 |
| CUSA Averages | 84.5 | 88.5 | 85.7 | 86.3 |
The PiRate Ratings are best used just to look forward to the next week game schedule. These ratings cannot really be used to predict won-loss records, so with that caveat, here are the projected won-loss records based on the ratings alone.
| Conference USA Projected Standings | |||
| East Division | Conference | Overall | Bowl |
| Marshall | 7-1 | 10-3 * | Hawaii |
| Western Kentucky | 7-1 | 9-3 | New Orleans |
| Middle Tennessee | 6-2 | 7-5 | Heart of Dallas |
| Florida Int’l. | 4-4 | 6-6 | Bowl Eligible |
| Old Dominion | 4-4 | 6-6 | Bowl Eligible |
| Florida Atlantic | 3-5 | 5-7 | |
| Charlotte | 0-8 | 1-11 | |
| West Division | Conference | Overall | Bowl |
| Southern Miss. | 8-0 | 10-3 | Boca Raton |
| Rice | 5-3 | 6-6 | New Mexico |
| Louisiana Tech | 4-4 | 6-6 | Arizona |
| UTSA | 3-5 | 4-8 | |
| UTEP | 1-7 | 3-9 | |
| North Texas | 0-8 | 1-11 | |
| * Marshall to win CUSA Championship Game | |||
Next Preview: Wednesday, August 17–Mid-American Conference Preview
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