Saturday Blitz Conference Power Rankings Week 3
6. Conference USA (C-USA)
Three weeks into the season, the Conference USA has still not lost to a non-Power Five FBS team. That’s remarkable for a group of teams that once made up the former Sun Belt, which was the laughingstock of college football then as much as it is now.
This past weekend, Southern Miss’s blowout loss to Alabama is obviously excusable, as is Rice’s blowout loss to Texas A&M and Texas-San Antonio’s blowout loss to Oklahoma State. Florida International’s loss to Pittsburgh can also be excused when comparing the C-USA to other non-Power Five conferences.
And when it came to those conferences, the C-USA dominated again, with Florida Atlantic beating Tulsa in an upset, Marshall blowing out Ohio, Old Dominion beating Eastern Michigan, and Texas-El Paso beating New Mexico State. Those are wins by the C-USA against the AAC, MAC, and Sun Belt, and so far the conference has shown itself to be more impressive than the Mountain West Conference, which is why it has earned its position as the best non-Power Five conference.
Despite a massive overhaul of teams the past few years, the Conference USA ironically looks to be as good as ever while the American Athletic Conference is slipping. That has been ironic.