McMurphy’s report on Monday stated that Liberty would be one of four schools to join CUSA as the Flames are rumored to join the league alongside fellow FBS Independent New Mexico State and FCS call-ups Sam Houston State and Jacksonville State. The NCAA requires FBS conferences to have at least eight members, so in order to remain alive as a conference CUSA must get to work.

While it looks likely that those two institutions could end up in the MAC, nothing is official as of this moment.ĬUSA’s membership currently consists of UTEP, Louisiana Tech, Florida International and WKU and MTSU. Over the weekend and into the early part of this week, rumors have begun heating up regarding CUSA members Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee being courted by the MAC. Since then, three more schools – Southern Miss, Old Dominion, and Marshall – have all announced their moves from CUSA to the Sun Belt as the conference is currently standing with seven remaining members. That was a strong blow to CUSA, but the moves wouldn’t stop. Just a couple weeks ago, CUSA officially lost six members to the American Athletic Conference as UTSA, North Texas, Rice, Charlotte, FAU and UAB each made the move. Now, with CUSA losing as many as 11 of their 14 members in just a few weeks’ time, CUSA may have to come to Liberty and beg athletic director Ian McCaw and the Flames to help salvage what is left of the conference. In the last conference realignment cycle, Liberty tried to bribe its way into the FBS cycle by reportedly offering $24 million to Conference USA and probably a similar offer to the Sun Belt prior to the NCAA granting the Flames a waiver to move up to the top level of the NCAA to play football. With Brett McMurphy’s report late Monday stating that Liberty is likely to join a new look Conference USA with an official announcement as soon as the end of this week, it opens the door to a conference home for Liberty football at the FBS level that it has craved for decades.

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