2014 Conference USA football season

The 2014 Conference USA football season was a part of the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season and was played from August 2014 through January 2015. The 2014 football season marks the 20th season of the Conference USA's existence and 19th of football competition; although C-USA was established in 1995, it did not begin football competition until 1996.

2014 Conference USA football season
LeagueNCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
SportFootball
DurationAugust 29, 2014
through December 26, 2014
Number of teams13
TV partner(s)Fox Sports, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, American Sports Network
2015 NFL Draft
Top draft pickCB D'Joun Smith, FAU
Picked byIndianapolis Colts, 65th overall
Regular season
Season MVPQB Brandon Doughty, WKU
East championsMarshall
West championsLouisiana Tech
Championship Game
ChampionsMarshall
  Runners-upLouisiana Tech
Finals MVPK Justin Haig, Marshall
2014 Conference USA football standings
Conf  Overall
Team W L    W L 
East Division
No. 23 Marshall x$  7 –1     13 –1  
Middle Tennessee  5 –3     6 –6  
Western Kentucky  4 –4     8 –5  
UAB  4 –4     6 –6  
Old Dominion*  4 –4     6 –6  
FIU  3 –5     4 –8  
Florida Atlantic  2 –6     3 –9  
West Division
Louisiana Tech x  7 –1     9 –5  
Rice  5 –3     8 –5  
UTEP  5 –3     7 –6  
UTSA  3 –5     4 –8  
North Texas  2 –6     4 –8  
Southern Miss  1 –7     3 –9  
Championship: Marshall 26, Louisiana Tech 23
  • $ – Conference champion
  • x – Division champion/co-champions
  • * Ineligible for postseason bowl due to transition from FCS
As of 22:24, 20 December 2014 (UTC); Rankings from AP Poll

Previous season
Main article: 2013 Conference USA football season

Rice won the conference championship for the first time, defeating Marshall 41–24.[1]

2014 season

Before the season

Conference USA football added two new members in 2014 (Old Dominion (transitioning from FCS) and Western Kentucky (from the Sun Belt Conference)) and lost three from the previous season (East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa) to the American Athletic Conference.[2][3]

In preseason polls, Marshall was favored to win the East Division and the 2014 conference title followed by North Texas to win the West Division.[4] Marshall was also the only team in the conference to have received votes from the AP and Coaches' Poll Preseason Rankings before the season.[5]

East Division

In the first East Division game of the season, Middle Tennessee defeated WKU 50–47 in triple overtime, bringing the Blue Raiders to the top of the division and the Hilltoppers to the bottom. A week later after the Blue Raiders defeated the Hilltoppers, newcomers Old Dominion defeated the last year conference champions Rice, putting the Monarchs to first in the east division surpassing Middle Tennessee. In the following week, Old Dominion received its first conference loss against Middle Tennessee, bringing the undefeated Blue Raiders back on top on the East Division standings. After winning 3 conference games, Middle Tennessee then lost for the first time in conference play to the undefeated Marshall Thundering Herd, the projected winner of the conference. Marshall would go on to become East Division champions after defeating the defending conference champions, Rice, and after FIU defeated Middle Tennessee to put the Thundering Herd into the conference championship for the second time in back to back seasons.

West Division

In the first conference game of the season, the projected division winner, North Texas lost 21–42 to Louisiana Tech, bringing the Bulldogs to the top of the division and the Mean Green to the bottom. Louisiana Tech would go on to win the West Division 7–1, with wins over North Texas, Southern Miss, UTEP, UTSA, Southern Miss, Western Kentucky, UAB, and Rice and with a loss to Old Dominion.

Championship Game

At the conclusion of the 2014 regular season the tenth C-USA championship game was played at Marshall on December 6, 2014 where the East Division Champs, Marshall, defeated the West Division Champs, Louisiana Tech, 26-23 to claim the conference championship.

After the season

On December 2, 2014, UAB announced that the school will be cutting their football program after the 2014 season.[6]

Bowl games

Bowl eligible
  • Louisiana Tech
  • Marshall
  • Middle Tennessee
  • Rice
  • UAB
  • UTEP
  • Western Kentucky

Bowl ineligible
  • Florida Atlantic
  • Florida International
  • North Texas
  • Old Dominion
  • Southern Miss
  • UTSA

[7]

Results

Conference USA bowl games for the 2014 season are:

Bowl Game Date Site Television Time (EST) C-USA Team Opponent Score Attendance
New Mexico Bowl December 20 University Stadium • Albuquerque, New Mexico ESPN 2:20 PM UTEP Utah State L 6–21 28,725
Boca Raton Bowl December 23 FAU Stadium • Boca Raton, Florida ESPN 6:00 PM Marshall Northern Illinois W 52–23 29,419
Bahamas Bowl December 24 Thomas Robinson Stadium • Nassau, Bahamas ESPN 12:00 PM WKU Central Michigan W 49–48 13,667
Hawaii Bowl December 24 Aloha Stadium • Honolulu, HI ESPN 8:00 PM Rice Fresno State W 30–6 25,365
Heart of Dallas Bowl December 26 Cotton Bowl • Dallas ESPN 1:00 PM Louisiana Tech Illinois W 35–18 31,297

All times Eastern Time Zone.

Individual conference honors

2014 Conference Player of the Year and Coach of the Year awards[8][9]

Award Player School
Most Valuable Player Brandon Doughty WKU
Offensive Player of the Year Rakeem Cato Marshall
Defensive Player of the Year Neville Hewitt Marshall
Special Teams Player of the Year J.J. Nelson UAB
Freshman of the Year Ray Lawry Old Dominion
Newcomer of the Year Cody Sokol Louisiana Tech
Coach of the Year Doc Holliday Marshall

All-Conference players

Coaches All-Conference Selections[10]

Attendance
Team Stadium Capacity Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Game 5 Game 6 Game 7 Game 8 Total Average % of Capacity
FIU FIU Stadium 20,000 14,053 9,981 10,147 10,826 12,544 13,163 12,097 12,917 95,728 11,966 59.8%
Florida Atlantic FAU Stadium 29,419 14,112 13,928 10,915 17,724 9,566 — — — 66,245 13,249 45.0%
Louisiana Tech Joe Aillet Stadium 27,717 26,004 18,157 18,071 20,011 18,029 — — — 100,272 20,054 72.4%
Marshall Joan C. Edwards Stadium 38,227 25,106 31,710 30,210 27,236 30,680 23,576 23,711 — 192,229 27,461 71.8%
Middle Tennessee Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium 30,788 15,605 24,911 14,022 18,717 18,952 12,243 — — 104,450 17,408 56.5%
North Texas Apogee Stadium 30,850 22,398 16,998 21,323 19,127 20,957 14,824 — — 115,627 19,271 62.5%
Old Dominion Foreman Field 20,118 20,118 20,118 20,118 20,118 20,118 20,118 — — 120,708 20,118 100.0%
Rice Rice Stadium 47,000 17,558 17,465 18,430 19,464 18,164 — — — 91,081 18,216 38.8%
Southern Miss M. M. Roberts Stadium 36,000 26,448 21,836 24,756 23,343 22,949 17,103 — — 136,435 22,739 63.2%
UAB Legion Field 71,594 27,133 29,604 16,133 20,365 9,457 28,355 — — 131,047 21,841 30.5%
UTEP Sun Bowl Stadium 51,500 35,422 32,979 25,509 24,673 24,222 27,455 — — 170,260 28,377 55.1%
UTSA Alamodome 65,000 33,472 30,419 25,318 31,956 20,281 24,012 — — 165,458 27,576 42.4%
WKU Houchens Industries–L. T. Smith Stadium 22,113 17,215 14,923 17,886 18,472 16,819 12,518 — — 97,833 16,306 73.7%
Total – – – – – – – – – – 1,587,373 –

Membership
Main article: 2010–13 Conference USA realignment

East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa left Conference USA, and joined the American Athletic Conference, the football-sponsoring offshoot of the original Big East, on July 1, 2014.[11]

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 has an established FCS program that played as an FCS independent in 2013, and will join C-USA football as a provisional FBS member in 2014, and become fully bowl-eligible in 2015. Also Western Kentucky will join the conference from the Sun Belt Conference on July 1, 2014.[2] Charlotte, which is a football team, that is initially provisional FBS member in 2014 and will bring football to C-USA in 2015. The 49ers joined from the Atlantic 10 Conference.

With Old Dominion and Western Kentucky makes the conference at 13 teams which will be both in the East Division, while Southern Miss moves from the East Division to the West. The East division consist of 7 members while the West division consists of 6 members.

East DivisionWest Division
Florida AtlanticLouisiana Tech
FIUNorth Texas
MarshallRice
Middle TennesseeSouthern Miss
Old DominionUTEP
UABUTSA
Western Kentucky

References
  1. "Marshall Thundering Herd ve Rice Owls – Drivechart". ESPN. 2013-12-07. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  2. Kevin Kelley (April 1, 2013). "Western Kentucky to join Conference USA in 2014". fbschedules.com. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  3. "Conference USA adds 5 schools". ESPN. Associated Press. May 4, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
  4. "C-USA Football Preseason Poll Announced". Conference USA. July 16, 2014. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  5. "2014 Preseason Amway Coaches Poll Released; FSU No. 1". FB Schedules. July 31, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  6. "UAB shuts down its football program", USA Today, 2014-12-02, retrieved 2014-12-02
  7. "NCAA FBS (Division I-A) Football Standings - 2014". Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2014-12-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-12-10. Retrieved 2014-12-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. Brett McMurphy (April 4, 2013). "Old Big East now American Athletic". ESPN. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
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