What colleges are joining Conference USA? College athletics conference realignment updates explored

Conference USA has been at the center of the discussion surrounding conference realignment for a couple of years. The conference is one of the most affected by the realignments.

Exploring Conference USA's realignment moves

The conference has lost nine of its members to the realignments, including Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss joining the Sun Belt Conference. The other six members – Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA – joined the American Athletic Conference.

These departures left Conference USA with five members, one short of the NCAA minimum of six and three short of the FBS limit of eight. For it to survive, the conference started a frantic process of adding new members, extending invitations to four schools to join as members; Liberty, New Mexico State, Jacksonville State and Sam Houston State.

The four institutions will start competing in CUSA from the 2023-24 season. Liberty and New Mexico State are both FBS independent schools and will have no need to serve a two-year probationary period after joining. However, Jacksonville and Sam Houston will have to serve the probationary period.

While bringing on new members, two members – Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee – were reported to be also moving out of the conference. But Middle Tennessee made a U-turn to remain, thus making the supposed destination, the Mid-American Conference, desist from inviting Western Kentucky.

In October 2022, it was revealed that Kennesaw State will also be joining Conference USA in 2024 following its transition to FBS. The transition was scheduled to happen after the 2022 football season.

Another twist occurred in April 2022 when Dallas Baptist moved its baseball program from the Missouri Valley Conference to Conference USA. While the rest of their teams compete in Division II, the Dallas Baptist Athletics baseball team plays in Division I. This move is part of the realignment moves the conference is making for sports outside football.

As it stands, all four new football programs will start competing in Conference USA starting from July 2023. Kennesaw State will join in 2024 and bring the number of members to 10.

CUSA has achieved its immediate aim of retaining its status as a conference. However, realignment is far from over, however. And in the coming months, it is possible to see new teams joining the conference or some of its old members leaving.