2013 Conference USA football season

The 2013 Conference USA football season is an NCAA football season that was played from August 2013 through January 2014. The 2013 football season marked the 19th season of the conference's existence and 18th of football competition; although C-USA was established in 1995, it did not begin football competition until 1996.

2013 Conference USA football season
League	NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
Sport	Football
Duration	August 29, 2013 through January 1, 2014
Number of teams	14
TV partner(s)	Fox Sports, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, CSS, CST
2014 NFL Draft
Top draft pick	DT Khyri Thornton, USM
Picked by	Green Bay Packers, 85th overall
Regular Season
Season MVP	QB Shane Carden, ECU
East champions	Marshall
West champions	Rice
Championship Game
Champions	Rice
Runners-up	Marshall
Finals MVP	RB Luke Turner, Rice

2013 Conference USA football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
East Division
Marshall x		7	–	1					10	–	4
East Carolina		6	–	2					10	–	3
Middle Tennessee		6	–	2					8	–	5
Florida Atlantic		4	–	4					6	–	6
UAB		1	–	7					2	–	10
Southern Miss		1	–	7					1	–	11
FIU		1	–	7					1	–	11
West Division
Rice x$		7	–	1					10	–	4
UTSA		6	–	2					7	–	5
North Texas		6	–	2					9	–	4
Tulane		5	–	3					7	–	6
Louisiana Tech		3	–	5					4	–	8
Tulsa		2	–	6					3	–	9
UTEP		1	–	7					2	–	10
Championship: Rice 41, Marshall 24
$ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

Previous season

Main article: 2012 Conference USA football season

Tulsa won the conference championship for the second time, defeating former members Central Florida Knights 33–27.[1]

2013 season

Conference USA added several new members this season after losing four.[2]

In preseason polls, Tulsa was projected to be top of the 2013 season followed by East Carolina.[3]

East Division

Projected as the winner of the East Division, East Carolina lost its first conference game of the season to Tulane in triple overtime, 36-33. Marshall then topped the standings until they lost 51-49 to new member Middle Tennessee, which returned East Carolina to the top spot. Until the East Carolina–Marshall game at the end of the season, East Carolina was number one followed by Marshall. Whoever ended up winning the game would then be crowned winners of the East Division. Marshall defeated East Carolina 59–28 to earn the division title.

West Division

As Tulsa was projected to be number one in conference, the team lost their first conference play against Rice in overtime bringing Tulane on top of the western division standings. Tulane became up-top with a conference record of 4–0 after close wins against North Texas, East Carolina, and Tulsa. Tulane then lost their first conference game of the season to Florida Atlantic in early November bringing new member North Texas to the top of the division after North Texas defeated Rice. Projected in being last in the division, UTSA defeated Tulane and North Texas in November, which brought UTSA second in the standings after Rice being brought up to first. At the end of the season, Rice had to defeat Tulane in order to be crown the winners of the west division or Tulane or UTSA would have then been crowned winners of the division. Rice defeated Tulane 17–13 and crowned winners of the West Division for the first time and their first appearance in the championship game as well.

Championship Game

After the 2013 season, the ninth C-USA championship game was played in Houston, Texas, for the third time since 2011, when former member Houston Cougars hosted the Southern Miss Golden Eagles at Robertson Stadium. It was the first time that Rice Stadium would host the Championship game series after Rice won the West Division.[4] Both Rice and Marshall enter the game with 7-1 conference records. Rice was crowned Conference USA Champion for the first time ever after defeating Marshall by 17–points. Rice represented the conference in the 2013 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, a 44-7 loss for Rice.

Bowl season

Eight teams earned bowl eligibility during the season, but UTSA is still transiting into the FBS level and will not be eligible for bowl games until after the 2014 season.

(C-USA teams in italic and winning teams in bold)

Bowl Game	Date	Stadium	City	Television	Time (EST)	Away Team	Home Team	Score	Attendance
New Orleans Bowl	December 21, 2013	Mercedes-Benz Superdome	New Orleans, LA	ESPN	9:00 P.M.	Tulane	Louisiana–Lafayette	21–24	54,728
Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl	December 23, 2013	Tropicana Field	St. Petersburg, FL	ESPN	2:00 P.M.	Ohio	East Carolina	20–37	20,053
Military Bowl	December 27, 2013	Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium	Annapolis, MD	ESPN	2:30 P.M.	Marshall	Maryland	31–20	30,163
Armed Forces Bowl	December 30, 2013	Amon G. Carter Stadium	Fort Worth, TX	ESPN	11:45 A.M.	Middle Tennessee	Navy	6–24	39,246
Liberty Bowl	December 31, 2013	Liberty Bowl	Memphis, TN	ESPN	4:00 P.M.	Rice	Mississippi State	7–44	57,846
Heart of Dallas Bowl	January 1, 2014	Cotton Bowl	Dallas, TX	ESPNU	12:00 P.M.	UNLV	North Texas	14–36	38,380

Other bowl eligible teams

• Florida Atlantic (6-6) became bowl eligible on November 29 after defeating FIU but did not get a bid to a bowl game.[5]

Membership

Main article: 2010–13 Conference USA realignment

Houston, Memphis, SMU and UCF left Conference USA, and joined the American Athletic Conference, the football-sponsoring offshoot of the original Big East, on July 1, 2013.[6]

Louisiana Tech and UTSA joined C-USA from the WAC. Florida Atlantic, FIU, Middle Tennessee, and North Texas joined C-USA from the Sun Belt.[7] Old Dominion, which had moved five of its sports from its former home of the Colonial Athletic Association to C-USA for the 2012–13 school year, moved the rest of its athletic program to C-USA. ODU had an established FCS program that played as an FCS independent in 2013, joined C-USA football as a provisional FBS member in 2014, and became fully bowl-eligible in 2015. Charlotte, which was starting a football team this season, was initially an FCS independent before becoming a provisional FBS member in 2014 and a C-USA football member in 2015. The 49ers joined from the Atlantic 10 Conference.

East Division	West Division
East Carolina	Louisiana Tech
Florida Atlantic	North Texas
Florida International	Rice
Marshall	Tulane
Middle Tennessee	Tulsa
Southern Miss	UTEP
UAB	UTSA

After the 2013 football season East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa moved to The American on July 1, 2014, at the start of the 2014 football season.[6] On the same day, Western Kentucky joined C-USA from the Sun Belt.

Rankings

See also: 2013 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings

Legend

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll

Ranking Movement

		Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Final
East Carolina Pirates	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	RV
	C	RV	RV	RV	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	RV	RV
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	RV	RV
	BCS	Not released
Florida Atlantic Owls	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
FIU Panthers	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
Marshall Thundering Herd	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
North Texas Mean Green	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
Rice Owls	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
Southern Miss Golden Eagles	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
Tulane Green Wave	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
Tulsa Golden Hurricane	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	RV	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
UAB Blazers	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
UTSA Roadrunners	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released
UTEP Miners	AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	C	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	HAR	Not released							NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
	BCS	Not released

References

1. "UCF Knights vs. Tulsa Golden Hurricane - Drivechart". ESPN. 2012-12-01. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
2. "Conference USA adds 5 schools". ESPN. Associated Press. May 4, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
3. Chip Patterson (July 18, 2013). "Tulsa, ECU picked atop the Conference USA preseason poll". CBSSPORTS. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
4. "Rice to Host Marshall in 2013 Football Championship Game" (Press release). Conference USA. December 1, 2013. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved December 2, 2013.
5. Dieter Kurtenbach (December 8, 2013). "FAU not invited to bowl game". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved December 9, 2013.
6. Brett McMurphy (April 4, 2013). "Old Big East now American Athletic". ESPN. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
7. "FAU, MTSU leaving Sun Belt early to join C-USA in 2013". Retrieved April 24, 2013.