Every few centuries, a cataclysmic event occurs that has the potential to impact civilization as we know it and change all of humanity for the better.

The new Conference USA is not such an event. But it should still be pretty cool.

A dedicated group of successful coaches have banded together from far-and-wide in an attempt to turn C-USA into a legitimate power conference. Here's the original crew:

Just because,,, I'll do a little conference rundown to put some sort of beginning to this awesome event.

*disclaimer: I just did a quick glance thru each team to make a note of where they have been (how deep in the gutter), and where they are right now as we begin this journey.

UAB - (D+) - Options, (first year after 6 seasons of sim)   This team was extremely mediocre last season...(not a bad thing as we'll see, mediocre is about as good as it gets here), finishing 8-8 in conference and 14-14 overall. They amassed a 200 RPI... return 7 players from that squad, with an overall average of 575.  UAB returns 7 players (2 starters), who played an average of 117 of the 200 mins available... scoring 43 ppg. I would be very surprised if Options can squeeze out another 8-8 season this year.. more like 5-11 is my WAG.

C. Florida - (C+) - Dacj501, (first year after 4 seasons of sim)  This team wasn't mediocre last season... they were bad. (4-23 and 4-12 in this stellar conference). They staggered to a 276 RPI... but I have to give them an inside track on UAB for this season... since they return 9 guys with an overall average of 607.... thus on paper they "should" own UAB both times they play em this season. C.Fla returns 137 minutes of that team last season, 3 -starters, and 49 ppg.... This team has had some better days and made the NT 4 of 7 seasons... and went all the way to the final dance under Aberwager. So the fans will surely pour back in a soon as Coach Dacj gets em headed back forward.

E. Carolina - (C) - Zags (First season after 5 sim seasons)  This team may have been the best one in the conference last season... if so, wow this was a ruf place to be. They did however get to the dance... and leave me a C to recruit with... which is a huge one-up on alot of the conference as we go forward the next few seasons... I tried not to waste it... but I tried also not to fire all 7 of my bullets this season... and be saddled with the largest class of lame recruits in Rupp. (the new recruits may not matter, who knows).... E.Car returns 1... count em, one starter from that team that went dancing and still managed only a 116 RPI. We return 85 minutes and 28 ppg..... OOOWWWW! Gonna be a long season in Eastern Carolina... but my Frosh will get to play alot.... I'm usually pretty hard on my teams... but this one might not win a game in conference... just bad, bad things here... i cut one guy just to not have him around for 3 seasons... prolly shoulda put more of em on that same bus home.

Marshall - (D+) - Girt  (First season after one season of sim) This team looks to me like they "should" be one of the better teams in the East this season. Last season they went 10-19 and 6-10 in conference. I really wouldn't be too surprised to see the conf. record flip to 10-6 or better. Dan returns 7 players with a 664 overall rating (much better than anyone else thus far), In that he has 3 starters, and a core that played 132 of the 200 minutes last season. They scored 46 ppg last season... so like I said,,, just by default they "should" be one of the better teams in the East....

Memphis - (C) - pjtrader (has been here 6 seasons)  Memphis is the "Mothership" of Conference USA. They have the only B baseline prestige, are in a decent recruiting area, and IMHO a pretty good place to build a team from. That all being said,,, pjtrader has 7 open schollys... and hasn't shown up yet. This team went 20-7 and 13-3, with an RPI of 124... and was probably one of the top 2-3 teams in the conference if not the best. They, however, return no starters from last season... and the five guys who return played very few minutes. (46 of 200). This was going to be a tough season in Memphis allready,,, but if Elvis doesn't show up soon... it could be tough for seasons to come for our top program.

S. Mississippi - (D+) - Weena - (First Season after 14 seasons of sim). This team returns 7 players at an average of 666, from a team that went 13-16 and 6-10 in conference.... 3 Starters come back and they return 131 minutes of the 200 from last season. 44 ppg returning so they should be about on par with a couple of the others who I mentioned earlier as a front runner for the East title.

The East could very well end up with (3)   9-7 teams ... (2) 6-10 teams ... and a 2-12. Or someone like Marshal. Memphis, or S. Miss.. could run out to 13-3 and leave us all behind.... Hard to predict who will try to win today... and improve those horrid prestige ratings... and who will just punt and play for tomorrow. (ECU), LOL.

The West  - sorry didn't have time to do much looking at the west but this will give us a beginning spot.

UTEP - (D) - (Southern3pri) - (First season. They return 6 guys from a 9-18 team with a 227 RPI last season. Most of the players returning are young so this team may not do much better this season... but the future should hold some promise as UTEP will have some big classes in a couple seasons with alot of upperclassmen.

Tulane - (C+) - Simmie....(past 2 seasons as sim)  The Green Wave returns 10 players from a 19-10 team that went to the PIT last season with a 79 RPI. I would expect them to have one more good season before we begin to overtake them. I would have to give them the inside track on winning the West Division.... and it will take some decent work to keep them from being our only NT team this season.

Tulsa - (D) - Simmie (sim coached for 7 seasons)... Bad... returning 6 bad players from an 11-16 team with a 217 RPI... beat em up guys.

Rice - (C) - Storm2425 (First season after 3 seasons of sim). Rice returns 6 players, 4 of which are sr's I believe,,, They went 22-8 last season with an 81 RPI and played a game in the PIT.... I would think Rice should finish in the top half of the West and be one of the better teams this season.

SMU - (D-) - Budlit (second season in the C-USA). This team returns 8 players from a team that went 14-14 with a 208 RPI. I would also think they would be in the top 2-3 teams in the west this season.

Houston - (D) - Daveymac (First season after 7 sim). This team went 8-19 with a 265 RPI last season... returning 9 players from that awesome squad... so I guess as with most of the rest of us.... "Sky's the Limit" here LOL.  

Let's get everyone's beginning prestige in here, too.

UAB is a D+.  Eventually I expect that I'll raise that.

Updated the above and got it.

	School	Coach	Conf. W-L	Overall W-L	Home W-L	Road W-L	Top 25 W-L	Last 10	STRK	RPI	SOS
	Marshall	girt25	14-2	25-4	13-1	10-2	0-0	8-2	L1	78	311
	Central Florida	dacj501	11-5	17-11	10-4	6-6	0-0	7-3	L1	149	235
	S. Mississippi	Weena	9-7	19-10	10-4	7-5	0-0	4-6	L1	152	290
	UAB	options	6-10	12-16	6-7	5-8	0-1	3-7	L1	255	301
	E. Carolina	zags27	4-12	7-20	2-11	5-8	0-0	2-8	L5	273	209
	Memphis	pjtrader21	1-15	2-25	2-13	0-11	0-0	1-9	L1	310	163

Marshall made the PIT. (far and away the best human coached team in the conference).

Tulane represents us in the NT. (truely better than anyone else in the conference, even sim controlled).

Glad that's over, next season will not be a huge improvement for most of us... but we should be getting better by the end of it and the following season there should be several teams beginning to play decent.
Just glancing at E. Carolina, we began this season around 600 overall rating. (after adjusting for walkons).
Next season we "should" begin around 650 overall after walk-ons are removed.
and the following season "should" be in the 685-700 range.
Most of the conference is in some similar type of situation... so 3 seasons in we, again, "should" be looking more like a conference that will be about the 7-10th ranked in Rupp.
At that point hopefully, our prestige for our individual teams will have revived to a point that most of us will be able to land some better talent and then begin the move to really becomming a "Big-6" type conference.
I hope my time-line is a little slow and we get there sooner, rather than later... but I would guess that to be about as quickly as you can turn around this dreadful C-USA we dropped into.

 Just Because            Pts   RB    Ast  Blk  Stl   Pf     To    Fg%   3%   Ft%

1.	UTEP	27	78.2	35.7	17.3	2.9	9.4	25.4	17.0	45.0	27.5	71.2
2.	Central Florida	28	78.0	36.1	16.0	2.8	6.4	18.9	13.5	46.4	39.1	72.3
3.	Marshall	29	75.5	34.6	16.2	3.6	6.5	14.0	11.9	50.1	39.7	76.8
4.	Houston	28	73.5	35.0	14.1	4.0	6.1	16.4	13.5	44.1	36.5	76.7
5.	Tulane	29	73.3	37.0	17.1	3.9	6.1	14.1	13.4	46.3	39.8	70.3
6.	SMU	27	73.1	31.4	16.0	3.1	5.8	16.0	12.9	47.3	40.5	78.8
7.	S. Mississippi	29	71.3	33.2	15.0	3.4	6.8	15.5	13.0	46.2	34.4	73.2
8.	UAB	28	71.1	33.2	11.8	3.4	8.8	22.8	14.3	43.8	32.3	67.4
9.	Rice	28	68.9	31.3	14.2	3.8	6.0	18.3	13.0	46.5	37.2	68.8
10.	Tulsa	27	66.2	33.2	11.0	2.3	6.6	19.2	15.5	40.8	32.6	70.5
11.	Memphis	27	62.0	29.5	12.3	1.9	6.9	18.6	14.4	41.7	32.1	76.5
12.	E. Carolina	27	60.8	29.1	13.5	2.0	5.5	18.0	11.9	43.6	38.5	74.1

Glad that's over, next season will not be a huge improvement for most of us

... so 3 seasons in we, again, "should" be looking more like a conference that will be about the 7-10th ranked in Rupp.
 

... but I would guess that to be about as quickly as you can turn around this dreadful C-USA we dropped into.
 

Hey, check out that Atlantic 10!

Over the past 8 seasons (including the current season in progress), the A10 has 30 NT bids, 8 Sweet 16s, and 3 Final Fours.  

Not far off from the BCS in conference rpi, either.

5. Big East .5476 
6. ACC .5443 
7. A10 .5400 

8. WCC .5150
9. MEAC .5095

 

We'll be better than the A-10 in 3-4 seasons -- possibly sooner. That's a guarantee.

Bold guarantee, girt.  Bold guarantee.

3-4 seasons, eh?  I can't even predict what will happen for my next recruiting class! 

Posted by survivor45 on 4/8/2011 1:09:00 PM (view original):
Bold guarantee, girt.  Bold guarantee.

3-4 seasons, eh?  I can't even predict what will happen for my next recruiting class! 

That's why we'll be better...