For a football geek, like me, things will be pretty quiet until a small adrenalin jolt in the Spring. Not a Basketball or baseball hater, at all, but football's the thing, from my perspective.

So looking back on this season, here are some things I learned or that were reinforced for me concerning C-USA football.

1. Strength of Schedule matters
2. C-USA is developing an excellent football conference with it's new configuration.
3. It will be hard for anyone to dominate this conference year and year out. Significant parity already, inside the conference, but we do very well outside of our conference with our peer institutions.
4. The UAB debacle was...well, just that, a debacle. Just wrong on every conceivable front.
5. Considering both of the last two seasons, EVERY SINGLE NEW ADDITION did something to get our attention in a positive way. Last year FAU, UTSA and North Texas did very well and were strong competitors. This year, WKU was an offensive beast, ODU knocked of two West Division powerhouses, FIU was a strong, strong defensive unit, LaTech played for a championship.
6. I really do NOT like ESPN.


What did you learn this season?

(01-15-2015 07:48 AM)Cnelson203 Wrote:  For a football geek, like me, things will be pretty quiet until a small adrenalin jolt in the Spring. Not a Basketball or baseball hater, at all, but football's the thing, from my perspective.

So looking back on this season, here are some things I learned or that were reinforced for me concerning C-USA football.

1. Strength of Schedule matters
2. C-USA is developing an excellent football conference with it's new configuration.
3. It will be hard for anyone to dominate this conference year and year out. Significant parity already, inside the conference, but we do very well outside of our conference with our peer institutions.
4. The UAB debacle was...well, just that, a debacle. Just wrong on every conceivable front.
5. Considering both of the last two seasons, EVERY SINGLE NEW ADDITION did something to get our attention in a positive way. Last year FAU, UTSA and North Texas did very well and were strong competitors. This year, WKU was an offensive beast, ODU knocked of two West Division powerhouses, FIU was a strong, strong defensive unit, LaTech played for a championship.
6. I really do NOT like ESPN.


What did you learn this season?

1. I think strength of schedule has always mattered, to a degree, but it's front and center in this new "playoff" structure, for sure. I'm not going to argue about Marshall's schedule anymore because it ultimately didn't matter, but if a team has to go 11-0 to get ranked AT ALL, that tells you all you need to know. If anything, that was the perfect litmus test for one extreme on the strength of schedule argument in this new "playoff" era and it was in the very first year. All G5 programs now where we stand now.

2. I wouldn't say CUSA is developing an "excellent" football conference, but we are without a doubt way better than outsiders thought we were before this, and last, season started. By many metrics, we're the best G5 conference this past season .

3. CUSA just finished season 2 of the new membership structure, for the most part, for football and while I would agree there's decent parity, you're starting to see some 'tiers' develop:

Tier 1: Marshall, Rice, LaTech, Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky
Tier 2: UTEP, Old Dominion, UTSA, North Texas, FAU
Tier 3: FIU, Southern Miss

Please don't take this tier listing as "smack" simply because this is only based on the last 2 seasons, with more weight put on the most recent season. LaTech and WKU could've gone in either Tier 1 or Tier 2.

4. Pretty heartbreaking for UAB, no doubt. Had this happened during a typical UAB football season of 2, 3, or 4 wins, I wouldn't have really cared much about the football impact to CUSA going forward, but Clark really had that program on the uptick.

CUSA should be pretty strong again next year. Marshall returns a lot of players off of a very strong team. WKU should have one of the best offenses in the country. La Tech should also be extremely strong next season.

UTEP should be improved with that QB transfer from Pitt. I only watched UTEP twice this year, but I thought they looked like a good team with a mediocre QB. With a better QB they could be a surprise (to more than just CUSA fans) next season.

As long as ODU's next QB isn't a complete bomb, I think they could be better than last year.

I don't really know enough about any of the other teams to comment on them.

This season, I learned that life has no meaning. It's just a dark space of depressing emptiness.

UAB Football is not dead. Stay tuned!

I learned I love my conference mates. Best makeup of fans this conference has seen since its inception. Most of the arrogance has left the building.

I learned that USM is still at least 1 or 2 seasons away from competing for the championship again. This upcoming season I feel like we will be around the 5 to 6 win mark as long as we catch a few breaks. I look back at last season's 3 wins and feel like we left 2-3 wins on the table with the UTSA, Middle Tennessee, and La Tech games. Not making excuses as those teams made the plays it needed to win but at the same time IF we make a few more plays it "could" have been a different outcome. Regardless, with our new strength coach and another year of Monken I feel like we are on the right path but not quite "there" yet. [/align]

I think we are an excellent football conference. The bowl wins don't lie and neither do the Capital One Trophys.

There is a tier system developing but two years is not a good enough sample size. For instance, UNT and Tech both had a good season and a bad season. Rice was the only consistant bowl team in the West and Marshall in the East. It will take about 5 years before we see the real winners and losers.

I think we have a perfect blend with the new teams and the old. UAB will be back IMHO. This Conference is only gonna get better as our reputation builds.

I also loathe ESpin.

MT is sort of halfway there as a football program. Overall, our athletics are excellent, with REALLY GOOD women's basketball and okay men's hoops too.

Our Mens is good, our WBB is a shadow of its former self. Its gonna take a few years.

Overall I would say this year has exhibited that ODU athletics are on an upward trajectory. MBB is finally returning to form, WBB is struggling with consistency (but shows promise), Football kept the "No Losing Seasons Ever" streak alive, and MSoccer brought home the university's first C-USA championship in any sport.

I learned that moving up to FBS is harder than I thought it would be. The overall talent level is just so much higher. Look out Charlotte, next year could be a long one.

WKU being new to CUSA and moving from the SBC I think performed at a fairly high level the offense was terrific while the defense was woeful most of the time.
I seriously thought in 2013-14 there was not a whole lot of separation between the SBC & CUSA on the gridiron but during 2014-15 season the difference was significant.