In recent years we've seen how the power in mid-major college basketball has shifted around. The Missouri Valley conference was considered the top for a couple years gaining 4 or 5 bids a year to the NCAA tournament. More recently has been the Atlantic-10 and the Mountain West Conference. In my opinion, it's our turn.
Granted it's still extremely early in the season but Conference USA teams are off to a great start. Only Rice, who just took nationally ranked Texas to the wire, is under .500 at 3-4 through the first seven games of the season. Memphis is nationally ranked at no. 15 in the nation, while UCF may not be far away from the national rankings after dropping no. 16 Florida 57-54 on the road.
The top 6 in Conference USA are currently 34-5, and are 7-3 versus the power 6 conferences. A lot will be settled in the coming weeks as Memphis takes on no. 4 Kansas and no. 14 Georgetown, UCF plays Miami, Southern Miss has Ole Miss and Cal, UAB has Georgia and no. 1 Duke, ECU has Clemson, and UTEP has Texas Tech.
There are some real opportunities here for C-USA to put themselves on the map this year. Sure Memphis has always been on the map, but it's time for us to do it as a conference. If we can do well in these big games and come up with some wins, look for Conference USA to have 4 to 5 teams in the discussion come March. Be on the lookout cause C-USA is on the rise.