Conference USA Football Championship Game
| Conference USA Football Championship Game | |
|---|---|
| Conference Football Championship | |
 | |
| Sport | College football |
| Conference | Conference USA |
| Current stadium | Rotates yearly to home site of team in game |
| Played | 2005–present |
| Last contest | 2016 |
| Current champion | Western Kentucky |
| Most championships | Tulsa, UCF, East Carolina, Western Kentucky (2) |
| TV partner(s) | ESPN/ESPN2, ABC |
| Official website | ConferenceUSA.CSTV.com Football |
The Conference USA Football Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Conference USA's season champion since 2005. The championship game pits the CUSA East Division regular season champion against the West Division regular season champion. It is typically played on the first Saturday of December.
Five of the fourteen current CUSA members have played in the CUSA Football Championship Game. The overall series between both divisions is led by the East Division, 8–4.
While five CUSA members have played in the game, only four have won: Marshall and WKU of the current East Division members, and Southern Miss and Rice of the current West Division members. WKU is the current CUSA champion.
The CUSA Football Championship Game has been aired on ESPN or their affiliates since 2005.
– East division
– West divisionResults
Conference USA champions (1996–2004)
Before 2005, each member of the conference played in a round robin scheduling to determine the champion of the conference. In this time period, Southern Miss won the most with 4 titles. Historically the winner of the C-USA Championship customarily receives a berth to play in the Liberty Bowl against a member of the Southeastern Conference.
- AP final rankings shown, following bowl games
| Season | Champion(s) | Conf. record |
Overall record |
Bowl result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Houston | 4–1 | 7–5 | lost Liberty Bowl |
| Southern Miss | 4–1 | 8–3 | ||
| 1997 | #22 Southern Miss | 6–0 | 9–3 | won Liberty Bowl |
| 1998 | #7 Tulane | 6–0 | 12–0 | won Liberty Bowl |
| 1999 | #14 Southern Miss | 6–0 | 9–3 | won Liberty Bowl |
| 2000 | Louisville | 6–1 | 9–3 | lost Liberty Bowl |
| 2001 | #17 Louisville | 6–1 | 11–2 | won Liberty Bowl |
| 2002 | #23 TCU | 6–2 | 11–2 | won Liberty Bowl |
| Cincinnati | 6–2 | 7–7 | lost New Orleans Bowl | |
| 2003 | Southern Miss | 8–0 | 9–4 | lost Liberty Bowl |
| 2004 | #6 Louisville | 8–0 | 11–1 | won Liberty Bowl |
Conference USA Championship Game (2005–present)
Results by team
Current members
| Appearances | School | W | L | Pct | Year(s) Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Southern Miss | 1 | 2 | .333 | 2011 |
| 2 | Western Kentucky | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 2015, 2016 |
| 2 | Marshall | 1 | 1 | .500 | 2014 |
| 2 | Louisiana Tech | 0 | 2 | .000 | |
| 1 | Rice | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 2013 |
- Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, FIU, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Old Dominion, UAB, UTEP, and UTSA have yet to make an appearance in a Conference USA Championship Game.
Former members
| Appearances | School | W | L | Pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Tulsa | 2 | 2 | .500 |
| 4 | UCF | 2 | 2 | .500 |
| 3 | Houston | 1 | 2 | .333 |
| 2 | East Carolina | 2 | 0 | 1.000 |
| 1 | SMU | 0 | 1 | .000 |
- Memphis and Tulane did not make an appearance in an Conference USA Championship Game when a member of the conference.
Game location
The team with the best overall conference win percentage will be the team that hosts the championship game. Four venues have hosted two title games—Houston's Robertson Stadium of Houston, UCF's Bright House Networks Stadium, Tulsa's Chapman Stadium, and WKU's Houchens Stadium.
In most recent years, Marshall and Rice both finished with 7–1 records in conference play in 2013, and did not play one another in the regular season, the site was chosen based on the BCS rankings at that time on December 1. Although only 25 teams were explicitly ranked, the ranking formula could be used to determine the relative rankings of any two teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Since 2014, when the BCS was replaced with the College Football Playoff rankings (CFP), national rankings have been removed from the tiebreaker process.
As of the 2016 contest, the home team is 9–3 overall in CUSA football championship games.
MVPs
| Season | MVP | Team | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Garrett Mills | Tulsa | TE |
| 2006 | Vincent Marshall | Houston | WR |
| 2007 | Kevin Smith | UCF | RB |
| 2008 | Travis Simmons | ECU | CB |
| 2009 | Dwayne Harris | ECU | WR |
| 2010 | Latavius Murray | UCF | RB |
| 2011 | Tracy Lampley | USM | RB/WR |
| 2012 | Trey Watts | Tulsa | RB/PR/KR |
| 2013 | Luke Turner | Rice | RB |
| 2014 | Justin Haig | Marshall | K |
| 2015 | Brandon Doughty | WKU | QB |
| 2016 | Ace Wales | WKU | RB |
Selection criteria
Division standings are based on each team's overall conference record. Often, two or more teams tie for the best record in their division and each team is recognized as a divisional co-champion. However, tiebreakers are used to determine who will represent the division in the championship game.
Two-team tie-breaker procedure
- Highest regular season winning percentage based on overall Conference USA play.
- If tied, head to head between tied teams.
- If still tied, team with highest CFP ranking.
NOTE: Although all division rivals meet during the season and NCAA overtime is played in case of a tie game, the CUSA has provisions in case a game ends in a tie under NCAA Rule 3-3-3 (c) and (d), Suspending the Game, or if the two tied teams did not play an official game because of weather. As such, CUSA rules still contain the remaining procedures if those circumstances were to happen.
Three or more-team procedure
(Once the tie has been reduced to two teams, go to the two-team tie-breaker format.)
- Highest regular season winning percentage based on overall CUSA play.
- If tied, head to head between tied teams.
- If still tied, highest winning percentage within division.
- If still tied, compare records against divisional opponents in descending order of finish.
- If still tied, compare records with common cross-divisional opponents.
- If still tied, compare records against cross-divisional opponents in descending order of finish.
- If still tied, team with highest CFP ranking.
- If still tied, the representative will be the team that has not participated in the championship game most recently.
- If at any point the tie is broken in a multiple team tie, the remaining teams will begin the process again at #2.