C-USA Notebook

Tulsa head football coach Todd Graham is leaving for Pittsburgh. Graham will be the only C-USA football coach not returning next season:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11010/1116961-142.stm

ESPN College Basketball analysis Andy Katz says C-USA is eating its self alive:

It’s one of the more competitive leagues this season, which is great for balance but not so much for separation. UCF could afford to lose at Memphis, UAB or UTEP but not at Houston. Southern Miss can afford to lose to Marshall on the road, but not by 30. Memphis can’t afford to squeak by East Carolina by just three points. Conference USA teams will beat each other up. But the challenge for the league is to prove to the selection committee that it is worthy of multiple bids in March. The league won’t lack for quality, entertaining games, as evidenced by the triple-overtime affair between UTEP and UAB, but that still doesn’t help impress the committee. There needs to be a clear separation from the top to the bottom in this conference.

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/20882/katz-thoughts-from-the-week-that-was

According to UCFAthletics.com writer Marc Daniels the Liberty Bowl might not be C-USA’s champion destination. Apparently the SEC does not like losing to a C-USA school and the Liberty bowl would much rather keep its SEC affiliation. Daniels report could be a bit premature, C-USA, the SEC, and the Liberty Bowl agreed to a four year extension of the bowl series in 2010.

And while we are on the subject of bowls, don't look for the league to stay with the Liberty Bowl in the future. The Memphis based bowl wants the SEC because of the amount of fans those schools bring. But the SEC is not going to want to possibly lose to a non-BCS team as Georgia did to the Knights. They would rather play the 11th place team in the ACC then lose to a C-USA team. My prediction is the Ticket City Bowl in Dallas becomes the destination for the league winner. The league office is based in Dallas and the league champion would likely face a Big 12 or Big 10 opponent.

http://ucfathletics.cstv.com/sports/knights/spec-rel/010911aaa.html