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Nothing says college football quite like Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night games for the entire month of October.
If you are one of the unfortunate football members of Conference USA, that is your fate for the four weeks in October.
They’re calling it “Weekday C-USA”.
There will be no Saturday home games for your school. Don’t bother scheduling Homecoming during October in Conference USA. Most of your alumni won’t be able to attend on a weekday.
Like most of major college football, Conference USA appears to have sold out to the influence of television.
What will the league receive in return?
On Tuesday night this week (yes, TUESDAY night) in a game televised on CBS Sports Net, 5-0 Liberty University needed overtime to beat 2-4 Florida International 31-24 (attendance of 16,343 in Lynchburg, VA).
Last night (Wednesday), the 3-3 Jacksonville State (AL) Gamecocks obliterated hapless 1-5 New Mexico State 54-13 on ESPN2. The attendance was 16,555 in Jacksonville, Alabama.
Tonight, a C-USA midweek doubleheader awaits!
With both games starting at 7PM CDT, 1-3 Louisiana Tech hosts 1-4 Middle Tennessee in Ruston, LA on CBS Sports Net. At the same time, 0-5 UTEP travels to 3-2 Western Kentucky on ESPNU.
Assuming your cable operator carries either one of those networks, that is.
There will be no Conference USA games on Saturday this week or for the remainder of October. This week’s lucky twosome not having to play on a weekday is 5-1 Sam Houston and 0-5 Kennesaw State. It is their “bye” week.
The Group of Five football conferences get very little respect (or TV money)
As the major football conferences like the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12 continue to sign more lucrative television deals with the major television networks and cable outlets, members of the so-called “Group of 5” conferences have been left behind. Many are settling for much less money and a lot less television exposure.
The Group of 5 conferences include the American Athletic (AAC), Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sunbelt.
Those five conferences comprise 62 of the 134 (46%) teams in the upper division FBS this fall. However, it literally takes an undefeated season by one of these schools to gain any significant national attention during the college football season.
This week, the AP still has not given a Top 25 ranking to 5-0 Navy and 5-0 Army (AAC) or 5-0 Liberty University of Conference USA. Those three teams are part of only 12 remaining unbeaten teams in the major college group.
Teams from the Group of Five conferences can rival Rodney Dangerfield when it comes to getting “No Respect”!
How can you find the Group of 5 teams during Saturday television?
If you answered, “Not very easily”, give yourself a high five!
Outside of the AAC’s current deal with ESPN, you’ll have a hard time finding a Saturday afternoon or evening football game involving most Group of 5 schools this weekend.
Their games will be carried by internet-based ESPN+ along with minor cable channels ESPNU, ESPN2, TruTV and CBS Sports Net.
That’s a primary reason why Dallas-based SMU (formerly of the AAC) is literally playing for free (no TV money) in order to become a member of the ACC beginning this year.
The Mustangs financial backers are expecting another split coming for the so-called “Big 4” conferences (plus Notre Dame) soon and desperately want to be part of the next TV deal.
Outside of a few teams in the AAC, most of the Group of 5 schools play football in front of smaller crowds in mid-sized stadiums with most teams located in middle-to-smaller TV markets.
Compare their home attendance to the massive crowds seen at many supersized stadiums in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC.
LSU (now 4-1) will have 102,000 fans in Baton Rouge for this Saturday night’s game with 4-1 Ole Miss.
There will likely be 5 million or more television viewers watching the game at home Saturday at 6:30PM CDT on ABC.
Tonight in Ruston, Louisiana Tech will be thrilled if more than 15,000 fans come to watch the Bulldogs host the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee. Sadly, there will be less than 200,000 viewers watching this game at home as CBS Sports Net was only carried on an estimated 66% of cable television systems in the US.
Why has Conference USA disappeared on Saturdays during the month of October?
Conference USA signed a five-year media rights agreement with ESPN and CBS which runs through 2027-2028 for many of its sports (including football).
Though the names ESPN and CBS sound impressive, you won’t find C-USA football games being played on those primary channels. Look for C-USA games on ESPNU, ESPN2, ESPN+ along with CBS Sports Net.
ESPN+ is a streaming service which is raising its price to $11.99 per month beginning October 17. The other cable channels may or may not be part of your cable television package.
If that wasn’t bad enough, C-USA’s new media deal included the right for these TV pirates to show October’s football schedule exclusively during mid-week.
Who agreed to such a lousy deal for football fans?
Meet Conference USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod.
She became the league’s Commissioner in 2015. Below is an excerpt from Commissioner MacLeod’s bio on the C-USA website:
“MacLeod helped write the next chapter of CUSA’s illustrious story as she navigated the league through the latest wave of realignment with the addition of Jacksonville State, Liberty, New Mexico State and Sam Houston on July 1, 2023, as well as Kennesaw State in 2024 and Delaware in 2025. The remaining additions will bring the league’s membership to 11 schools, along with Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, UTEP and Western Kentucky.”
The Delaware Blue Hens are joining Conference USA in 2025? Hooray (said virtually no one.)
The Commissioner’s bio did not mention that several long-time C-USA members left in recent years:
2022 – Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss joined the Sunbelt Conference
2023 – UAB, Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, Rice, and UT-San Antonio moved to the AAC
Why did those eight teams leave C-USA in the past two years of Commissioner MacLeod’s leadership?
Each school likely had their own reasons. Perhaps it was a chance for more television money and exposure, a better geographic fit for the school, and/or a more stable long-term conference.
Here is another statement from the Conference USA Commissioner’s bio page:
“In addition to emphasizing accessibility and providing better exposure for member institutions, the (new media) partnership substantially increased the per-school payout and featured an array of standalone midweek broadcasts on linear television.”
Speaking of revenue, one media report estimated that each Conference USA school will receive about $750,000 annually (all sports) as part of this new media package.
In that report, Commissioner MacLeod said that C-USA will be gaining television exposure in this new arrangement:
“Obviously, revenue is important, but what kept coming up with our membership was exposure. How do we maximize our potential and move forward? … This is our chance to prove ourselves and then hopefully we’ll go back to the market (in five years) and increase our value.”
Call me old fashioned, but playing major college football in the middle of the week in October isn’t exactly elevating the status of your conference.
Can you imagine the SEC telling LSU that this week’s game with Ole Miss was being moved to a Wednesday night?
Full disclosure – I am a 1981 graduate of Louisiana Tech University
For Bulldog football fans, the month of October generally marks the first chance for cooler weather in Louisiana since April.
Though we must survive 90+ degree temperatures during September’s opening month, most Southern football fans are practically giddy to attend games during October.
Unless they are played on weeknights.
Conference USA thinks that Louisiana Tech and other C-USA members need the television exposure…in mid-week?
Are a few hundred thousand home television viewers worth moving your college football games from Saturdays to weekdays during the month of October?
Did the C-USA forget about building loyalty with kids who must attend school the next day?
How about their Moms and Dads who have to work on weekdays?
What about thousands of out-of-town alumni who are only able to travel on weekends?
Did anyone both to ask local hotel/motel operators, restaurants, and other local businesses about how much revenue they would lose by moving Saturday football games to mid-week?
There is a good reason why high school junior varsity teams play in the middle of the week. I played in many of those JV football games early in high school.
A smattering of parents, friends, and family are there to cheer the JV team early in the week prior to the varsity’s big game which is played at the end of the week.
Conference USA’s October mid-week schedule makes the league look like the JV of major college football.