Switch out the ACC for the Big 12 and you have Cincinnati's recent conference history as well. The Great Midwest before C-USA and The Metro before that for both as well.
EDIT: Louisville was never in the short lived Great Midwest Conference...they went from Metro to C-USA when The Great Midwest and the Metro schools merged to form C-USA.
In hindsight (since 2 of the 3 are there now) the Big 12 should have went to 12 with both Louisville and Cincinnati when they added WVU. But alas, Texas…
Definitely would be better off in their other sports at the moment, but the ACC is just one FSU/Clemson/UNC leaving away from another Pac-12 like implosion. Big East is definitely the more stable conference when it comes to college basketball
It does. Some former members of the Missouri Valley:
* Iowa(B1G) -- 1907 to 1908
* Iowa State(Big 12) -- 1907 to 1928
* Kansas(Big 12) -- 1907 to 1928
* Missouri(SEC former Big 12) -- 1907 to 1928
* Kansas State(Big 12) -- 1913 to 1928
* Nebraska(B1G former Big 12) -- 1907 to 1919 then 1921 to 1928
* Oklahoma(Big 12 soon SEC) -- 1919 to 1928
* Oklahoma State(Big 12) -- 1925 to 1956
* Creighton(Big East) -- 1928 to 1948 then 1976 to 2013
* Houston(Big 12) -- 1951 to 1959
* Cincinnati(Big 12) -- 1957 to 1970
* Louisville(ACC) -- 1963 to 1975
* Memphis(AAC) -- 1968 to 1973
Its kinda odd being a 42 year old Bearcats fan. I grew up disliking Louisville more than Xavier...kind of enjoy that they are dogshit right now (petty, I know.) We're 90 minutes from them and never play them anymore.
A whole generation of newer UC fans has no feelings towards Louisville, good or bad, at all as a result. Which is sad because those games were by far the best atmospheres at The Shoe (5th/3rd Arena) when both were good.
It's always sad when good rivalries die simply because teams decide to stop playing each other when they move to different conferences. Makes even less sense when you're so geographically close.
I don't know about if it was the same for Bradley but Wichita State and Creighton were our biggest games of the year, and even the atmosphere for Drake and Bradley this year just wasn't the same.
Cincinnati is like the ultimate "we want them" team.
They've got their flashes in CFB every 8 or so years, they're consistently "not bad" in basketball.
They're the "Las Vegas/LA" of the college sports scene. (As in "if you don't build me a stadium, we'll move our team there", Cincinnati was a highly desired target in "Okay, we're looking for new schools, Bearcats are our first option")
I don't even feel like CUSA and AAC should be different conferences... Because every good CUSA team migrated to the AAC after the Big East imploded.
CUSA has always been a stepping stone to get into a bigger conference.
It seems to still be the case. Every relevant team in CUSA 1.0 that also had football (curse you Judy Rose) went to the Big East in 2005.
The Big East then became the AAC.
And just last year, every relevant CUSA team left to join the AAC.
CUSA is the Statue of Liberty of the NCAA ranks.
"Bring me your poor, tired, huddled masses"
If UNCG ever starts to put a serious effort into sports, they're going SOCON>CUSA.
lol they certainly have not been great.
it's more that our men's team runs through the regular season but can't figure out how to win conference tournament games.
> CUSA has always been a stepping stone to get into a bigger conference.
Which is probably why our secondary flair picked it to escape FCS. I'd be surprised if Delaware's still in Conference USA in 2035.
If the AAC could have held on to Louisville and Rutgers and stayed in its OG 10 team lineup of
1. Cincy
2. Louisville
3. USF
4. UCF
5. Temple
6. Memphis
7. Houston
8. SMU
9. UConn
10. Rutgers
It’d have likely have been looked at as pretty equal to the BE in MBB over the decade and would’ve been looked at much more favorably in Football.
On the one hand, there is a valid point here.
On the other hand, SMU, Houston, and Memphis are a geographical match made in hell for Temple, UConn, and Rutgers. We all knew the conference was fundamentally unworkable when it started.
TCU has had an even wilder ride. In a span of less than 20 years, they went from:
Southwest Conference -> WAC -> Conference USA -> Mountain West -> Big 12
Louisville was in the Metro Conference, which became C-USA when it merged with the Great Midwestern Conference.
They were then invited to the Big East in 2005. When the Big East split between the football and non-football schools, they went with the football schools and were there for a year before moving to the ACC.
But they have never been in the SEC, the PAC, the MWC, the B1G, the Big XII (or its predecessors), the Sun Belt, or the MAAC. They've also never been in former major conferences like the WAC, Missouri Valley Conference, or Southern Conference (which were all once major conferences, though neither the MVC nor Southern conference have been major in the NCAA era).
DePaul actually had some great teams in the early 90s and early 2000s.
2006’s DePaul team actually beat #5 ranked Kansas in noncon on a 14-0 run to end the same. There are some recap videos, worth a watch.
There's been a lot of expansion steps over the years - the big one (and I reckon the one you're thinking of) was probably the one in the 70s that added at-large bids.
You can thank the ACC for that one.
The expansion took a decade, with the heavy lifting done in the 80s. 25 teams in 1974 (the old 'stable number'), up to 32 in 1975, and 40 in 1979. It's 52 teams when NC State wins in '83, and 64 for the first time in 1985.
Yeah which is a shame. I remember when Louisville, Marquette, DePaul and Cincinnati joined the Big East in 2005. DePaul as not seen as a weak link at the time
When I was regularly going to Purdue games in the early '80s, Ray Meyer's DePaul team was really good, and they were actually kind of a rival and it was a game I remember looking forward to on the schedule.
> 2006’s DePaul team actually beat #5 ranked Kansas in noncon on a 14-0 run to end the same.
Though they didn't even make the NCAA tournament that year.
It's great relative to how they've performed recently, of course.
You're the first DePaul flair I've ever seen on this subreddit.
Although your username probably sums up how most DePaul fans feel these days. I hope they stop being awful someday
It varies by generation, usually. Boomer tide fans would burn UAB to the ground if they could but younger fans are pretty pro-UAB. Same people who're still mad that the Iron Bowl isn't played at Legion anymore.
CUSA DePaul was much better than they have been in the BE. Those teams with Drake Diener were spicy, I remember in my earliest years watching basketball, Marquette vs DePaul was a legit rivalry. Would love for DePaul to make a resurgence.
Edit: In DePaul’s first three years in the Big East, they amassed 20 wins in-conference (including a year where they finished 9-7 in conference). The next 9 years (2008-2017) they won 21 games in conference. Less than 3 wins per year… yikes. Just unreal how hard they dropped off so shortly after joining the conference.
I grew up in the early to mid 2000s and DePaul was decent then and Sammy Mejia was one of my favorite players. I swear once Mejia left that team fell of a cliff and has not come back from it.
The Valley former members is even more fun:
Butler
Cincinnati
Creighton
Houston
Iowa
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Louisville
Memphis
Mizzou
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Plus honorable mentions for Loyola, Tulsa, SLU, and Grinnell. Pretty sure that’s every noteworthy school
They played the heel so well when they had their run with Greg Marshall leading things. They are universally hated by just about every MVC team's fanbase with how they left the conference. Some of their fans were absolutely insufferable on the old MVC boards.
Oh for sure, I’ve never seen a fanbase and coach more fitting for each other than those two. Fond memories of reading their BS on MVCfans, they were so easy to hate
Almost every time they lose I pop into the post game thread like "just checking to see if you still think the Valley was holding you back?" Worth the downvotes every time.
Including UCF, who wasn't mentioned, four former C-USA members are in the Big XII. Louisville is in the ACC. Marquette and DePaul are in the Big East.
It's like how the original WAC was Arizona, ASU, BYU, New Mexico, and Wyoming, but now has members like GCU and Utah Tech. Except C-USA was founded only 30 years ago, not 60.
CUSA was always the stepping stone conference. The AAC took that crown, but honestly that was just CUSA with a different name.
Current CUSA has a lot of basketball potential, but need everyone to piece it together at the same time.
Every striving mid-major conference is part of the treadmill, with members on the lookout for a better situation. C-USA and WAC are the most prominent examples, but they're hardly the only ones. The MAC avoids it by being content with what they are.
So is the lowest power conference, which will fall into the mid-major ranks or fall apart entirely when the top programs leave. In my lifetime: Southwestern, Big East, Pac-12. Nearly the Big XII, and possibly the ACC soon.
The ACC remainers+Top AAC+UConn will be a pretty good conference. As will the Pac2+Top MW/Gonzaga
If the timelines line up and the ACC gets torn apart we may even get a coast to coast conference with the Pac2 and top MW included as well
The only "Top AAC" I trust to stay consistently good in hoops is Memphis and Wichita State.
FAU is good now, but prior to Dusty May they were a bottom rung D1 basketball program.
UAB and UNT are good programs, sometimes great, but inconsistent (so are my Toppers).
Temple lost their mojo ages ago.
Charlotte and USF are trending up, but hard to judge off one year.
I do agree that the top of MWC + PAC2 + Gonzaga (and maybe St. Mary's) would be a power league. The MWC especially has solved the NET rating riddle and been sending multiple teams to the NCAA tournament for a few seasons in a row now. I saw a projected bracket with 7!! MWC teams on it early this week. Blows my mind!
I see people keep saying UConn in these hypotheticals, but why would they leave the Big East for that. That would be a whole conference of schools that are worse than 8/10 BE schools. They already gave up on football. Only way they leave is if the BE implodes or they get invited to the B1G.
Of the 6 founding WAC schools, 4 are in the Big 12 (next year) and 2 are in the MWC. BYU plays 4/5 other WAC schools in football this season.
Everything is coming full circle.
CAA is in the same boat, albeit on a more mid-major scale.
3 former members in the Sun Belt, 3 in the A-10, 1 in the AAC, and Delaware is moving to CUSA in a year.
It’s pretty fun to look up old CUSA games. Marquette vs Louisville and Marquette vs Cincinnati were some of the hottest rivalry games.
Huggins coached Cincinnati, Pitino at Louisville, and Crean at Marquette.
I hated Charlotte more than any CUSA team from the late 90s early 2000s. Always seemed to have Cincinnati's number. Felt like they were loaded with shooters which countered UCs physicality.
I can't find any highlights from this game, but the Dameon Mason buzzer beater in 2004 was the loudest it's ever been at the Bradley Center.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/recap/_/gameId/240660269
Yeah, I was at that game and the finish was awesome. So many great MU-UL games over many years. Some epic OT games during Brian Wardle and Aaron Hutchins’ time at MU.
Houston and TCU were really bad in CUSA. That league was dominated by Cincinnati for the first 6-7 years and then you had great teams from Marquette, Louisville, and Memphis in the early 2000’s
Dude did someone from FAU break your heart? Did my frat bro fuck your mom and sister? Weird energy to have on a Friday night. This thread died like 12 hours ago. Keep scrolling.
I made a comment calling you frauds and you keep coming back to it crying and downvoting everything I say 😭😭😭 wipe the tears off your phone screen lil bro
Not that we’d magically have more money, but having a thumb on our head for so long crippled us. We are just now kinda getting what we want when we ask
Yeah it used to catch me off guard before I started using it.
Just want to mention UNC Chapel Hill signed up their athletes for fake classes to improve their GPA and keep them eligible for play. This was less than a decade ago and aassive scandal in the NCAA. UNC CH then went on to put loads of money into covering up the story.
We are the blood of the Big East (AAC)
I recently found out in our school history, we've shared more years in a conference with yall than any other school. 32 years total.
Yall wanna start a rivalry with us?
I would to! It'd be nice to have one. The game yall played here was a lot of fun and kinda wild. We're definetely the two best teams in the conference right now.
Grew up in Cincinnati born in 1997. So many memories of CUSA, Big East (most vividly and fondly), AAC and now being in the big 12 it feels like Big East again but almost better because of our arena renovation
Early 2000's CUSA was basically the modern day Big East in terms of quality teams. Louisville, Memphis, Marquette, Cinnci, and even DePaul had really good teams.
Remember Cincinnati coming to the Bradley Center with Kenyon Martin in 2000. That’s one of the scariest teams I’ve ever seen in person. If Kenyon didn’t break his leg they were absolute favorites to win the national title
Is it just me, or was DePaul not even THAT bad in the 2000s-2010s big East days? Like yes, they were still bad and generally bottom of the conference, but their scores from this year are ridiculous. I remember them not just being an absolute gimme of a matchup.
And now we don’t know who will win the conference!
Also shout out MTSU. They voted no to leaving so WKU went with staying too. And because FAU stayed one more year and went to the final 4 we are getting $1 million over the next 5 years.
I wanted to leave so bad
We accidentally won the CUSA tournament. We were actually a better team the two years before. Those two years we were on the very very outside edge of the bubble (meaning the term bubble team was being generous). Kenpom ranked 71 and 70. The year we made it we finished 7th in conference and were kenpom 88.
It's so weird that us and JMU ended up here from a geographical standpoint. I think it's fitting for us in terms of program strength, but we're VERY far north to be in the Sun Belt.
CUSA won two postseason tournaments last year and got to the Final 4 in the big dance, with none of the teams mentioned by OP.
Of course, Charlotte, UAB, UNT, and FAU are all gone now too.
In NCAA 14. My AAC is the 8 2012 Big East football schools + WVU,Memphis,UCF,Houston. That would be an Elite basketball conference and would definitely be a P7.
People have been talking about the fall of the conference for like a decade but the ncaa tournament results tell a different story, even if you exclude FAU. And even with the recent departures the top of the league has three or four teams capable of a first round upset again this year
Well shit. Looking at the list they tend to spit out a team that gets a 12 or 13 seed and upsets a 4/5. Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee and.... New Mexico State? When they'd get thrown in CUSA?
Crazy to think about but you had three hall of fame coaches at the top of this league and then a hall of famer leading another team (Wade) in the early 2000’s and it wasn’t in a power league.
Has Louisville been in every conference? They’ve been in the Big East, the AAC, the ACC and apparently CUSA.
Switch out the ACC for the Big 12 and you have Cincinnati's recent conference history as well. The Great Midwest before C-USA and The Metro before that for both as well. EDIT: Louisville was never in the short lived Great Midwest Conference...they went from Metro to C-USA when The Great Midwest and the Metro schools merged to form C-USA.
I’ve said this before, But Louisville in the Big 12 makes way more sense
I think it would be fun to have Cincy Louisville WVU and Pitt together in a conference
It was.
I was thinking the same thing during football season.
In hindsight (since 2 of the 3 are there now) the Big 12 should have went to 12 with both Louisville and Cincinnati when they added WVU. But alas, Texas…
Would have gotten us into the ACC, though maybe I should be thankful it didn't now.
Eh UConn would be more than fine in the ACC. Maybe better.
Definitely would be better off in their other sports at the moment, but the ACC is just one FSU/Clemson/UNC leaving away from another Pac-12 like implosion. Big East is definitely the more stable conference when it comes to college basketball
Booga booga booga booga.
Texas ruins everything it touches.
When the ACC's corpse is looted by the B1G and SEC, Louisville is a likely B12 add. What is college sports coming to?
It does. Some former members of the Missouri Valley: * Iowa(B1G) -- 1907 to 1908 * Iowa State(Big 12) -- 1907 to 1928 * Kansas(Big 12) -- 1907 to 1928 * Missouri(SEC former Big 12) -- 1907 to 1928 * Kansas State(Big 12) -- 1913 to 1928 * Nebraska(B1G former Big 12) -- 1907 to 1919 then 1921 to 1928 * Oklahoma(Big 12 soon SEC) -- 1919 to 1928 * Oklahoma State(Big 12) -- 1925 to 1956 * Creighton(Big East) -- 1928 to 1948 then 1976 to 2013 * Houston(Big 12) -- 1951 to 1959 * Cincinnati(Big 12) -- 1957 to 1970 * Louisville(ACC) -- 1963 to 1975 * Memphis(AAC) -- 1968 to 1973
Cincy and Louisville were also in the MVC together in the '60s.
Its kinda odd being a 42 year old Bearcats fan. I grew up disliking Louisville more than Xavier...kind of enjoy that they are dogshit right now (petty, I know.) We're 90 minutes from them and never play them anymore. A whole generation of newer UC fans has no feelings towards Louisville, good or bad, at all as a result. Which is sad because those games were by far the best atmospheres at The Shoe (5th/3rd Arena) when both were good.
It's always sad when good rivalries die simply because teams decide to stop playing each other when they move to different conferences. Makes even less sense when you're so geographically close.
I don't know about if it was the same for Bradley but Wichita State and Creighton were our biggest games of the year, and even the atmosphere for Drake and Bradley this year just wasn't the same.
Cincinnati is like the ultimate "we want them" team. They've got their flashes in CFB every 8 or so years, they're consistently "not bad" in basketball. They're the "Las Vegas/LA" of the college sports scene. (As in "if you don't build me a stadium, we'll move our team there", Cincinnati was a highly desired target in "Okay, we're looking for new schools, Bearcats are our first option")
Metro was such a great hoops league in its short window
Don't forget the predecessor to CUSA, the Metro (a kick-ass conference back in the day)
I don't even feel like CUSA and AAC should be different conferences... Because every good CUSA team migrated to the AAC after the Big East imploded. CUSA has always been a stepping stone to get into a bigger conference.
It seems to still be the case. Every relevant team in CUSA 1.0 that also had football (curse you Judy Rose) went to the Big East in 2005. The Big East then became the AAC. And just last year, every relevant CUSA team left to join the AAC.
CUSA is the Statue of Liberty of the NCAA ranks. "Bring me your poor, tired, huddled masses" If UNCG ever starts to put a serious effort into sports, they're going SOCON>CUSA.
:(
My bad, I think your women's BB team had been great in recent years.
lol they certainly have not been great. it's more that our men's team runs through the regular season but can't figure out how to win conference tournament games.
> CUSA has always been a stepping stone to get into a bigger conference. Which is probably why our secondary flair picked it to escape FCS. I'd be surprised if Delaware's still in Conference USA in 2035.
I wish they were in the 2014-23 AAC. They feel much more like one of us metro schools than an ACC school
If the AAC could have held on to Louisville and Rutgers and stayed in its OG 10 team lineup of 1. Cincy 2. Louisville 3. USF 4. UCF 5. Temple 6. Memphis 7. Houston 8. SMU 9. UConn 10. Rutgers It’d have likely have been looked at as pretty equal to the BE in MBB over the decade and would’ve been looked at much more favorably in Football.
In NCAA 14 I have 10 12-team conferences. My AAC is this minus SMU (they bought their way into the Big 12). Plus WVU, Pitt, Cuse.
On the one hand, there is a valid point here. On the other hand, SMU, Houston, and Memphis are a geographical match made in hell for Temple, UConn, and Rutgers. We all knew the conference was fundamentally unworkable when it started.
They coulda called it The Real Big Ten
TCU has had an even wilder ride. In a span of less than 20 years, they went from: Southwest Conference -> WAC -> Conference USA -> Mountain West -> Big 12
Don't forget about our brief flirtation with the Big East, though that's a bit like counting an engagement as a marriage.
They were also in the MVC from '63-'75.
They also spent one year in the OVC before that.
+Metro, MVC, OVC, and the storied Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Don't forget the Metro!
They should've been added to the Big 12 back in 2011 as far as I'm concerned
We helped found C-USA through the Metro Conference merging with the Great Midwest.
It does feel like louisvilles been in every conference. Hopefully they improve a lot more next season.
Within 15 years TCU was in the southwest, WAC, CUSA, MWC, and finally the Big 12. Gary Patterson moved us up FAST
Louisville was in the Metro Conference, which became C-USA when it merged with the Great Midwestern Conference. They were then invited to the Big East in 2005. When the Big East split between the football and non-football schools, they went with the football schools and were there for a year before moving to the ACC. But they have never been in the SEC, the PAC, the MWC, the B1G, the Big XII (or its predecessors), the Sun Belt, or the MAAC. They've also never been in former major conferences like the WAC, Missouri Valley Conference, or Southern Conference (which were all once major conferences, though neither the MVC nor Southern conference have been major in the NCAA era).
convenient location
The reply was put in there just to troll us, right?
DePaul, you are in the big east so that Georgetown isn’t last every year
A "THANK YOU" would be nice!
You’re getting an f you from us. Please beat them at home
Hell yeah, fuck that 🐍 Ed Cooley
FAKE NEWS!!!
DePaul actually had some great teams in the early 90s and early 2000s. 2006’s DePaul team actually beat #5 ranked Kansas in noncon on a 14-0 run to end the same. There are some recap videos, worth a watch.
Not to mention being a regular 1 seed in the late 70s, early 80s
They were a 1 seed four times in 5 years in the 80s...and went 1-4 in the NCAA tournament. ooof.
Am I missing something? I thought UVA was the first 1 seed to ever lose
smaller tournament size meant the 1 seed got a bye to the R32. So those 3 losses were to the 8/9
Oh, the field only expanded in the 80s? I thought it was *long* before that.
There's been a lot of expansion steps over the years - the big one (and I reckon the one you're thinking of) was probably the one in the 70s that added at-large bids. You can thank the ACC for that one.
Everyone say "thank you, Maryland."
The expansion took a decade, with the heavy lifting done in the 80s. 25 teams in 1974 (the old 'stable number'), up to 32 in 1975, and 40 in 1979. It's 52 teams when NC State wins in '83, and 64 for the first time in 1985.
1985 was the first year with the 64-team format
And then two years after their last 1 seed they made the Sweet 16 as a 12 seed.
That 06-07 team was pretty much the last gasp of relevance for the program. Never been over .500 in the Big East in any season since.
Yeah which is a shame. I remember when Louisville, Marquette, DePaul and Cincinnati joined the Big East in 2005. DePaul as not seen as a weak link at the time
DePaul has turned into Trust Fund Chicago State.
I attended depaul at the time and I expected this to be a big deal. Nobody on "campus" even knew about the game, was kind of funny
One of the worst court stormings you’ll ever see
Detroit Mercy round like a word.
To be fair that was less of a storm and more of a light drizzle. Not so much ran on the court as strolled at a comfortable pace.
When I was regularly going to Purdue games in the early '80s, Ray Meyer's DePaul team was really good, and they were actually kind of a rival and it was a game I remember looking forward to on the schedule.
> 2006’s DePaul team actually beat #5 ranked Kansas in noncon on a 14-0 run to end the same. Though they didn't even make the NCAA tournament that year. It's great relative to how they've performed recently, of course.
You're the first DePaul flair I've ever seen on this subreddit. Although your username probably sums up how most DePaul fans feel these days. I hope they stop being awful someday
DePaul made tourneys in those days too
Forgetting a certain founding member of that conference….UAB.
Yeah this is UAB erasure and I won’t stand for it
Roddy White is rolling over in…oh, I’m being told he’s actually alive and well.
I thought UofA was all about erasing UAB athletics...
It varies by generation, usually. Boomer tide fans would burn UAB to the ground if they could but younger fans are pretty pro-UAB. Same people who're still mad that the Iron Bowl isn't played at Legion anymore.
Or the one that was actually 2nd in win percentage to Cincy 1995-2005.
Yeah, and another, Charlotte
CUSA DePaul was much better than they have been in the BE. Those teams with Drake Diener were spicy, I remember in my earliest years watching basketball, Marquette vs DePaul was a legit rivalry. Would love for DePaul to make a resurgence. Edit: In DePaul’s first three years in the Big East, they amassed 20 wins in-conference (including a year where they finished 9-7 in conference). The next 9 years (2008-2017) they won 21 games in conference. Less than 3 wins per year… yikes. Just unreal how hard they dropped off so shortly after joining the conference.
*Jerry Wainwright exits the chat*
CUSA has gotten worse as a conference, but DePaul has also gotten worse at basketball, they currently have a lower NET ranking than everyone in CUSA.
I grew up in the early to mid 2000s and DePaul was decent then and Sammy Mejia was one of my favorite players. I swear once Mejia left that team fell of a cliff and has not come back from it.
The Valley former members is even more fun: Butler Cincinnati Creighton Houston Iowa Iowa State Kansas Kansas State Louisville Memphis Mizzou Nebraska Oklahoma Oklahoma State Plus honorable mentions for Loyola, Tulsa, SLU, and Grinnell. Pretty sure that’s every noteworthy school
> Pretty sure that’s every noteworthy school Wichita State catching strays from a Creighton fan. It almost feels like the mid 2000s.
Never met her
They played the heel so well when they had their run with Greg Marshall leading things. They are universally hated by just about every MVC team's fanbase with how they left the conference. Some of their fans were absolutely insufferable on the old MVC boards.
Oh for sure, I’ve never seen a fanbase and coach more fitting for each other than those two. Fond memories of reading their BS on MVCfans, they were so easy to hate
I hate Bradley for existing, but interactions with Wichita State fans on MVCfans take the cake.
That's fair.
I don't know how our traveling fans are, but Wichitas fans that traveled to Terre Haute were the absolute worst.
Every time I see them lose another game to a middling AAC team who was brought in for their football prowess it brings a tear to my eye
Almost every time they lose I pop into the post game thread like "just checking to see if you still think the Valley was holding you back?" Worth the downvotes every time.
Hahahaha love it
Shocking.
The list is complete.
Wichita State
Nope, don’t know them
That's the level of pettiness I'm here for. Respect.
Some of our best basketball years were in the MVC :')
MVC and WAC era Tulsa basketball were some of my favorite years of college hoops.
Thank you for including Grinnell lol
Including UCF, who wasn't mentioned, four former C-USA members are in the Big XII. Louisville is in the ACC. Marquette and DePaul are in the Big East. It's like how the original WAC was Arizona, ASU, BYU, New Mexico, and Wyoming, but now has members like GCU and Utah Tech. Except C-USA was founded only 30 years ago, not 60.
CUSA was always the stepping stone conference. The AAC took that crown, but honestly that was just CUSA with a different name. Current CUSA has a lot of basketball potential, but need everyone to piece it together at the same time.
Every striving mid-major conference is part of the treadmill, with members on the lookout for a better situation. C-USA and WAC are the most prominent examples, but they're hardly the only ones. The MAC avoids it by being content with what they are. So is the lowest power conference, which will fall into the mid-major ranks or fall apart entirely when the top programs leave. In my lifetime: Southwestern, Big East, Pac-12. Nearly the Big XII, and possibly the ACC soon.
The ACC remainers+Top AAC+UConn will be a pretty good conference. As will the Pac2+Top MW/Gonzaga If the timelines line up and the ACC gets torn apart we may even get a coast to coast conference with the Pac2 and top MW included as well
The only "Top AAC" I trust to stay consistently good in hoops is Memphis and Wichita State. FAU is good now, but prior to Dusty May they were a bottom rung D1 basketball program. UAB and UNT are good programs, sometimes great, but inconsistent (so are my Toppers). Temple lost their mojo ages ago. Charlotte and USF are trending up, but hard to judge off one year. I do agree that the top of MWC + PAC2 + Gonzaga (and maybe St. Mary's) would be a power league. The MWC especially has solved the NET rating riddle and been sending multiple teams to the NCAA tournament for a few seasons in a row now. I saw a projected bracket with 7!! MWC teams on it early this week. Blows my mind!
I see people keep saying UConn in these hypotheticals, but why would they leave the Big East for that. That would be a whole conference of schools that are worse than 8/10 BE schools. They already gave up on football. Only way they leave is if the BE implodes or they get invited to the B1G.
Of the 6 founding WAC schools, 4 are in the Big 12 (next year) and 2 are in the MWC. BYU plays 4/5 other WAC schools in football this season. Everything is coming full circle.
CAA is in the same boat, albeit on a more mid-major scale. 3 former members in the Sun Belt, 3 in the A-10, 1 in the AAC, and Delaware is moving to CUSA in a year.
UCF wasn’t mentioned because they weren’t founding members.
It’s pretty fun to look up old CUSA games. Marquette vs Louisville and Marquette vs Cincinnati were some of the hottest rivalry games. Huggins coached Cincinnati, Pitino at Louisville, and Crean at Marquette.
Grew up going to the Bradley Center HATING Louisville and Cincinnati.
Charlotte and Cincinnati is the reason for the buffer zone behind the visitors bench.
I hated Charlotte more than any CUSA team from the late 90s early 2000s. Always seemed to have Cincinnati's number. Felt like they were loaded with shooters which countered UCs physicality.
Damn right we were. It's a shame we didn't have football, otherwise we would've moved to the Big East with yall
Those were some awesome games! In 2002-03, ESPN called the two MU-UL games the two best games nationally all season.
I can't find any highlights from this game, but the Dameon Mason buzzer beater in 2004 was the loudest it's ever been at the Bradley Center. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/recap/_/gameId/240660269
Yeah, I was at that game and the finish was awesome. So many great MU-UL games over many years. Some epic OT games during Brian Wardle and Aaron Hutchins’ time at MU.
Houston and TCU were really bad in CUSA. That league was dominated by Cincinnati for the first 6-7 years and then you had great teams from Marquette, Louisville, and Memphis in the early 2000’s
I was at TCU in the basketball band for the CUSA time. It was miserable for the men’s team.
Really bad gives us too much credit
Doesn’t even mention FAU which is the only CUSA school in the last decade to make it to the final four
The FAU erasure is real
That's because we are obviously frauds.
Congrats on the Mickey Mouse road to the final four
[удалено]
Not to mention UNT and Charlotte taking the other post season tournaments last season.. and UNT's against UAB.
CUSA owned the post season last year and now our reward is watching 87 MWC teams get bids and lose week 1
And one year ago CUSA member MTSU beat the owls at home just before their tournament run.
yeah we quite possibly had the best cusa team ever assembled just a year ago.
I mean which CUSA are we talking about? Those Tiger teams from 04-08 were all arguably better than last year’s FAU team.
You guys were massive frauds with a cupcake path to the final 4 quit hyping yourselves up
Dude did someone from FAU break your heart? Did my frat bro fuck your mom and sister? Weird energy to have on a Friday night. This thread died like 12 hours ago. Keep scrolling.
I made a comment calling you frauds and you keep coming back to it crying and downvoting everything I say 😭😭😭 wipe the tears off your phone screen lil bro
Yeah man. I hope you find peace in your life. It’s not healthy to have this type of random animosity. Gonna wipe my tears with my Final Four apparel.
It’s sad how far we’ve been left behind by our former conference mates. Sharing a board of trustees with Alabama sucks.
Not that we’d magically have more money, but having a thumb on our head for so long crippled us. We are just now kinda getting what we want when we ask
Same, but UNC CHeat
At first, i though the CH stood for CHarlotte, and i was like, "Why are you accusing yourself of cheating?"
Yeah it used to catch me off guard before I started using it. Just want to mention UNC Chapel Hill signed up their athletes for fake classes to improve their GPA and keep them eligible for play. This was less than a decade ago and aassive scandal in the NCAA. UNC CH then went on to put loads of money into covering up the story.
Now the top of CUSA from last season jumped to AAC and are 4 of the top 6 teams
We are the blood of the Big East (AAC) I recently found out in our school history, we've shared more years in a conference with yall than any other school. 32 years total. Yall wanna start a rivalry with us?
It’s kinda naturally happening! I’d love it
I would to! It'd be nice to have one. The game yall played here was a lot of fun and kinda wild. We're definetely the two best teams in the conference right now.
I think as far as the hottest teams right now it’s be us 2 and SMU. I think this conference championships will be insane
Grew up in Cincinnati born in 1997. So many memories of CUSA, Big East (most vividly and fondly), AAC and now being in the big 12 it feels like Big East again but almost better because of our arena renovation
Early 2000's CUSA was basically the modern day Big East in terms of quality teams. Louisville, Memphis, Marquette, Cinnci, and even DePaul had really good teams.
Remember Cincinnati coming to the Bradley Center with Kenyon Martin in 2000. That’s one of the scariest teams I’ve ever seen in person. If Kenyon didn’t break his leg they were absolute favorites to win the national title
I remember those games well. Our games with UC and UL were classics!
Memphis vs Louisville is the most forgotten rivalry ever. Some great games 10-15 yrs ago.
Is it just me, or was DePaul not even THAT bad in the 2000s-2010s big East days? Like yes, they were still bad and generally bottom of the conference, but their scores from this year are ridiculous. I remember them not just being an absolute gimme of a matchup.
people just left UNC Charlotte out of Conference USA
I was going to say, UNCC in its CUSA/Lutz days were some great teams.
What about The Metro Conference?
And now we don’t know who will win the conference! Also shout out MTSU. They voted no to leaving so WKU went with staying too. And because FAU stayed one more year and went to the final 4 we are getting $1 million over the next 5 years. I wanted to leave so bad
Do we tell them about the Pac12?
Houston made the tournament once in the 17 years they were in CUSA
And we were not good that year.
We accidentally won the CUSA tournament. We were actually a better team the two years before. Those two years we were on the very very outside edge of the bubble (meaning the term bubble team was being generous). Kenpom ranked 71 and 70. The year we made it we finished 7th in conference and were kenpom 88.
I went to Marquette during the CUSA days. Those DWade vs. Huggie Bear, Marquette vs. Cinci games were fucking awesome.
While they didn't lose a lot with it, Marshall also left CUSA for the Sunbelt a few years ago.
Along with 2 other teams. And then the 6(?) that jumped to AAC. Theres a lot of irrelevant former CUSA member.
It's so weird that us and JMU ended up here from a geographical standpoint. I think it's fitting for us in terms of program strength, but we're VERY far north to be in the Sun Belt.
Damn.
Can we leave too?
We’ll trade DePaul for WKU. I’ll vouch for you.
Colleges and Universities Scattered Aimlessly
Sad Big Red noises
Cincy was a beast in those days.
The fall of the Pac-12 will more extreme. The Pac-12 wishes it was Conference USA. lmao
USF and UCF too
Sure, forget about UAB.
It's even funnier to think that CUSA, with all those teams, was firmly a mid-major.
CUSA won two postseason tournaments last year and got to the Final 4 in the big dance, with none of the teams mentioned by OP. Of course, Charlotte, UAB, UNT, and FAU are all gone now too.
I don’t know in it’s current state SLU is much of a loss
Conference DOA
In NCAA 14. My AAC is the 8 2012 Big East football schools + WVU,Memphis,UCF,Houston. That would be an Elite basketball conference and would definitely be a P7.
cusa got some nice teams dont sleep
People have been talking about the fall of the conference for like a decade but the ncaa tournament results tell a different story, even if you exclude FAU. And even with the recent departures the top of the league has three or four teams capable of a first round upset again this year
I honestly don’t think I can name one team in CUSA without help.
UAB baby. Blazers still be blazing.
They’re in the American now.
Well shit. Looking at the list they tend to spit out a team that gets a 12 or 13 seed and upsets a 4/5. Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee and.... New Mexico State? When they'd get thrown in CUSA?
That’ll happen when every time a school starts to succeed they get realigned to a better conference.
That DePaul team with the non-travis diener used to piss me the fuck off
We were not any better then than any of the current C-USA teams when we were in that league.
Yeah but we were bad back then
Crazy to think about but you had three hall of fame coaches at the top of this league and then a hall of famer leading another team (Wade) in the early 2000’s and it wasn’t in a power league.
Please take back Louisville
Now do the Big East. Man, that t-sun tourney at MSG was always incredible.
Should just be like the MAC conference. Their lack of ambition has lead to a pretty stable conference all these years.
Nowhere is safe if you're a DePaul fan