These teams control their own destinies in the race for the 2016 C-USA Football Championship:

Charlotte
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Louisiana Tech
Marshall
Middle Tennessee
North Texas
Old Dominion
Southern Miss
UTSA
Western Kentucky


These teams need help:

Rice
UTEP

MTU, Marshall, and WKU will continue to fight for the east division. ODU, Charlotte, FAU, and FIU are bad.

USM and La Tech are the best in the west division. Rice, UTEP, UTSA, and UNT are bad.

There is a BIG separation between the top 5 and bottom 8.

MTU beating La Tech starts the C-USA title race. They have the most reliable offense in the east right now. Marshall's QB situation puts their title chances in jeopardy. WKU is erratic, but talented enough to win the games it should.

USM is still pretty rough around the edges. Our defense is a little light on the line, but our secondary is pretty strong. Our offense is still trying to develop chemistry in the passing game. Ito Smith had another 100 yard game, but so did Jones of UTEP.

A rebuilding La Tech seems to have scraped up enough talent to beat the bottom on the west division. Holtz needs to build on it.

Right now, I rate them:
USM
MTU
WKU
Marshall
La Tech
.
.
FAU
UNT
ODU
Charlotte
UTSA
UTEP
.
Rice
FIU

Till we beat a G5 team I wouldn't begin to know where to rank us, but it ain't in the top 5 of anything at this point.

(09-25-2016 11:42 AM)MUther Wrote:  Till we beat a G5 team I wouldn't begin to know where to rank us, but it ain't in the top 5 of anything at this point.

y'all is almost in a southern miss '12 pickle....

Litton has lost his mind and the team knows it....

Man, 100 Miles of Hate on homecoming this year will be a hell of a game to watch.

(09-25-2016 10:39 AM)USM@FTL Wrote:  MTU, Marshall, and WKU will continue to fight for the east division. ODU, Charlotte, FAU, and FIU are bad.

USM and La Tech are the best in the west division. Rice, UTEP, UTSA, and UNT are bad.

There is a BIG separation between the top 5 and bottom 8.

MTU beating La Tech starts the C-USA title race. They have the most reliable offense in the east right now. Marshall's QB situation puts their title chances in jeopardy. WKU is erratic, but talented enough to win the games it should.

USM is still pretty rough around the edges. Our defense is a little light on the line, but our secondary is pretty strong. Our offense is still trying to develop chemistry in the passing game. Ito Smith had another 100 yard game, but so did Jones of UTEP.

A rebuilding La Tech seems to have scraped up enough talent to beat the bottom on the west division. Holtz needs to build on it.

Right now, I rate them:
USM
MTU
WKU
Marshall
La Tech
.
.
FAU
UNT
ODU
Charlotte
UTSA
UTEP
.
Rice
FIU

I think you are overlooking North Texas and ODU. Not say either have shown they can dominate, but I think both have shown they can create problems for opponents.

I'd group the conference like this.

Favorites

MT 3-1 (1-0)
USM 3-1 (1-0)
WKU 2-2 (1-0)

Contenders

North Texas 2-2 (1-0)
ODU 2-2 (1-0)
Marshall 1-3 (0-0)
LA Tech 1-3 (0-1)



The Struggle Is Real

FAU 1-3 (0-0)
Charlotte 1-3 (0-0)
UTEP 1-3 (0-1)
UTSA 1-3 (0-1)


Probably Done

FIU 0-4 (0-0)
Rice 0-4 (0-2)

No way I would put north Texas in as a contender...

I hesitate to rank anyone just yet till we get 3 conference games in. Its highly unlikely anyone will run the table. Its hard to win on the road.

(09-25-2016 05:47 PM)NTTHOR Wrote:  No way I would put north Texas in as a contender...

I can agree with that. We are still letting opponents have too many big gainers. Some for long TD's.

(09-25-2016 05:48 PM)blueraidermike Wrote:  I hesitate to rank anyone just yet till we get 3 conference games in. Its highly unlikely anyone will run the table. Its hard to win on the road.

I agree, we all have our problems

Gonna go ahead and say it like last season, this conference is WKUs to lose this season. MIddle will be 2nd in the east, and Marshall 3rd (will be worse if Litton isn't part of the equation).

In the west, Its USMs to lose, but WKU will handle the eagles at home.

(09-25-2016 05:47 PM)NTTHOR Wrote:  No way I would put north Texas in as a contender...

Nor would I ODU. We could certainly play spoiler this year to a team but unless all hell breaks loose I expect us well behind the east division champ. At least going by what I've seen so far. I think we've still got a pretty good chance at bowling (mainly because there's a lot of pretty bad teams in our conference) but that's even greatly diminished by our inability to kick a field goal or even a pat. We got better as the season went on last year and I think we will again but so far we haven't been able to compete against good teams.

(09-25-2016 10:18 PM)goherd24herdfans Wrote:  In the west, Its USMs to lose, but WKU will handle the eagles at home.

Maybe. But it's not like LA Tech lost big last night to MTSU. It was as close as a game can get. On the road, vs the team that's supposed to be the "team to beat" this year in CUSA. I like our chances going forward.

WKU is beat up, if we don't get some players back..... We ain't beating anybody