This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/J5kB84Fd on 2024-06-24 14:16:24+00:00.

Currently consisting of 9 members including:

  • FIU
  • Jacksonville St
  • Liberty
  • La Tech
  • MTSU
  • NM State
  • Sam Houston
  • UTEP
  • WKU

To go back to the origins of the conference you need to go back to the Metro conference, founded in 1975 and included:

  • Cincinnati
  • GT
  • Louisville
  • Memphis
  • St Louis
  • Tulane

GT and Tulane were both founding members of the SEC that had left to become independent. The Metro conference, so called because the founding members were all located in larger cities, did not host football, so their respective football programs would remain independent. The following year the conference would add:

  • FSU

One school would only stick around for 3 years opting to join the ACC in 1978:

  • GT

They would be replaced by:

  • VT

In 1982 one school would leave for the Horizon:

  • St Louis

The following 2 years would then add:

  • Southern Miss
  • South Carolina

The conference would now be comprised of the following schools until 1991 when the first mass exodus occurred:

  • Cincinnati
  • Louisville
  • Memphis
  • Tulane
  • FSU
  • VT
  • Southern Miss
  • South Carolina

In 1991 2 schools would leave to found the Great Midwest conference, they would be joined there by former Metro member St Louis:

  • Cincinnati
  • Memphis

Another would leave for the ACC:

  • FSU

And a final would leave for the SEC:

  • South Carolina

They would be replaced the same year by:

  • VCU
  • UNC-C
  • USF

The conference, again changed quite a bit, was now comprised of:

  • Louisville
  • Tulane
  • VT
  • Southern Miss
  • VCU
  • UNC-C
  • USF

The conference, now down to 7, still did not host football. They had lost several members to football playing conferences and decided to make a move. In 1995 they merged with a conference they had lost several member to - The Great Midwest, which now consisted of:

  • Cincinnati
  • Memphis
  • St Louis
  • DePaul
  • Marquette
  • UAB
  • Dayton

The combined conference was functionally the Metro absorbing the Great Midwest, but legally both conferences were dissolved and the new Conference USA was formed. Except there were a few schools they didn’t want. The following were effectively booted from the conference, with 2 going to the A10 and the other going to the CAA:

  • VT
  • Dayton
  • VCU

The following year in 1996 CUSA would begin competing in football for their members that supported the sport, as well as adding one more school from the dissolving SWC:

  • Houston

In 2001 the league would add two more schools:

  • TCU
  • ECU

In 2005 would come the next mass exodus from the conference with the following members departing to the Big East:

  • Cincinnati
  • DePaul
  • Louisville
  • Marquette
  • USF

Two to the A10:

  • UNC-C
  • St Louis

And one to the Mountain West:

  • TCU

They would be replaced by a new large crop of schools:

  • UCF
  • SMU
  • Tulsa
  • Marshall
  • Rice
  • UTEP

The conference would remain the same until the 3rd mass exodus in 2013 & 2014 resulting from the split in the basketball Big East and the football American Conference, which would see the following schools depart to the American, including CUSA’s final founding members:

  • Memphis
  • Tulane
  • Houston
  • ECU
  • UCF
  • SMU
  • Tulsa

CUSA would replace them with most of it’s current members, and one re-joining:

  • FIU
  • FAU
  • LA Tech
  • MTSU
  • North Texas
  • ODU
  • UTSA
  • WKU
  • UNC-C

In 2022 a 4th mass exodus to the Sun Belt would occur, seeing the following schools depart:

  • Southern Miss
  • Marshall
  • ODU

And the following year a 5th mass exodus to the American seeing the following schools depart:

  • UNC-C
  • Rice
  • North Texas
  • UTSA
  • FAU
  • UAB

The conference would replace them with a batch of new schools in 2022 - 2025 including:

  • Jacksonville St
  • Liberty
  • NM State
  • Sam Houston
  • Kennesaw St
  • Delaware
  • Missouri St