It might just be that our Tulane Green Wave suffered a pretty dramatic smackdown on its trip to Hattiesburg this week... but has anyone considered that there are too many teams in this conference?

On the real. Just remembering who is in Conference USA at this point is a feat in itself.

But more importantly, Conference USA has to be one of the more interesting non-major, non-mid major conferences around. Why? Well, it's weird. There are four pretty clearly divided and totally different tiers of teams in this Frankenstein of a league:

Tier Four: The Young and the Hopeless: Rice, ECU, Marshall, and probably North Texas are just getting practice time at this point. Winning 4+ games in conference is probably a goal for these squads.

Tier Three: The Three Win Wonders: Next up, there is a huge group of teams that are almost identically shaky: Tulane, UTSA, Florida International, Florida Atlantic, and UAB. They win against each other and then typically suffer pretty catastrophic drubbings against the next two tiers.

Tier Two: Shoulda Coulda Woulda: Tulsa, Old Dominion, and Charlotte all could be contenders in this type of conference in the future. But not yet. They are a pain in the neck for the better in-conference opponents, but they are all saddled by stupid losses, either out of conference or to lesser squads in the good ol' C-USA.

Tier One: Sure, every conference has this. I truly think this is a three horse race, at best, but you can make the argument that Middle Tennessee could be a Cinderella in the league tourney.

Every conference is going to have a spread of teams; I just find it funky that C-USA has this eclectic bunch of teams either just joining a superior or conference or desperately fleeing it for greener pastures in the AAC.

Here are the rankings. Last week's ranking is next to each.
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16. Rice (6-15 / 1-7 CUSA) [15th] 
Notes: Started from the bottom, now we're here. The Owls are in an all-out fight for last place with the Pirates of East Carolina. The bowl of sadness between the two teams will be on Feb. 22. 

15. East Carolina (12-10 / 1-6 CUSA) [16th]  

14. Marshall (8-15 / 2-6 CUSA) [14th]  
Notes: The Thundering Herd have not been a threat against any competent team so far this year.

13. North Texas (11-10 / 2-5 CUSA) [11th] 
Notes: Two losses this week. Plus, they suffered a 31 point drubbing at the hands of Tulsa. Stock falling.  

12. UT San Antonio (7-13 / CUSA 3-4) [13th] 
Notes: Snapped a 3-game losing streak with a win over Rice. They get to move up one, but at least they have the tough part of their schedule in the books.  

11. Florida International (11-11 / CUSA 3-4) [9th] 

10. Tulane (11-11 / CUSA 3-4) [10th] 
Notes: Probably should defense this, since the Green Wave took a beating from Southern Mississippi this weekend. Like a big one. Very similar to what we saw against Louisiana Tech earlier this year. So why keep them in the same place? None of the teams below in the rankings would have fared better, and FIU took two weaker losses. So hey, we aren't moving backwards.   

9. Florida Atlantic University (8-14 / CUSA 3-4) [12th] 
Notes: Whatever happened with their football coach? I kind of blocked that part of the football season out of my mind immediately afterward. FAU beat Marshall and stuck around a better Charlotte team. Stock rising slightly above the rest of these teams.  

8. UAB (14-7 / CUSA 3-4) [7th]  

7. Tulsa (10-11 / CUSA 5-2) [8th] 
Notes: If you want a deep sleeper pick in this conference, it should be Tulsa. They are using in-conference games to pad their winning column. They even have a win over a tourney team (home vs. Southern Miss). Good start to this half of the season. Let's see if they can keep it up.  

6. Old Dominion (10-12 / CUSA 4-3) [5th] 
Notes: Last week, I said Old Dominion's descent was about to commence. And it did. They suffered double digit losses against both Middle Tennessee and UAB. Their stock is starting to fall.

5. Charlotte (14-7 / CUSA 5-3) [6th] 

4. Middle Tennessee State (15-7 / CUSA 5-2) [4th]  

3. Louisiana Tech (18-5 / CUSA 6-2) [2nd] 
Notes: This is where I draw the line of contenders and pretenders. Louisiana Tech is a quality team, but they had a big test against UTEP, and the Miners finished the job. Only two tough games left are Tulsa and Middle Tennessee. The bigger dogs are all out of the way.  

2. UTEP (16-6 / CUSA 6-1) [3rd] 
Notes: Time to believe in the Miners of UTEP. They are riding a 6 game winning streak with victories of Louisiana Tech, UAB, and Middle Tennessee State. The matchup with Southern Mississippi on Feb. 22 is going to be a great game.  

1. Southern Mississippi (19-3 / 6-1 CUSA)
Notes: The team from Hattiesburg continues to control their own fate. They rocked our Tulane Green Wave by a margin of 31 points. They outrebound you. They outshoot you. They outplay you. One more week of this, and USM should have a chance to cracking the Top 25.

That's all for now. Follow FearTheWave.com on Facebook too.  

Hope everyone back in New Orleans is enjoying the snow day... It's -10 in Michigan right now. Every day is a snow day.

Anyway, we are getting deeper into the Conference USA season, and the contenders and pretenders are starting to separate. The clear surprise of the season so far has been Old Dominion, but the Monarchs are about to come back to earth.

The bigger mover, in my opinion, is the UTEP Miner squad. They are starting to make a case for a "group of three" sitting atop the league.

Here are my power rankings for Week 13 of the college basketball season. You can see last week's rank next to each listing.
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16. East Carolina (11-9 // 0-5 CUSA) [10th] 
Notes: According to Twitter, some World Wrestling event referred to East Carolina as the "Harvard of the South." Sadly for the Pirates, they don't even stack up to Harvard's basketball team this year.

15. Rice Owls (6-13 // 1-5 CUSA) [16th] 

14. Marshall Thundering Herd (7-14 // 1-5 CUSA) [15th] 

13. UT San Antonio (6-12 // 2-3 CUSA) [14th] 
Notes: The Roadrunners are on a three game losing streak. They luckily will place the Rice Owls on Jan. 30 in a bottomfeeder frenzy. Something's gotta give.

12. Florida Atlantic (7-13 // 2-3 CUSA) [13th] 

11. North Texas (11-9 // 2-4 CUSA) [9th] 
Notes: UNT will probably move up a bit, as they are coming off losses to Charlotte and Middle Tennessee, two of the better team in-conference. At 1-5 so far though, the Mean Green will be most irrelevant this year.

10. Tulane (11-10 // 3-3 CUSA) [12th] 
Notes: The good? Tulane picked up some needed momentum with a home win against Rice followed by a road win against ECU. The bad news? They couldn't pull out a comeback over Old Dominion, and they head to Southern Mississippi next. The Green Wave will have to stay strong in their weaker games if they want to reach .500 in-conference.

9. Florida International (11-9 // 3-2) [11th] 

8. Tulsa (9-11 // 4-2 CUSA) [7th] 
Notes: What a crazy team. Their stock fell after a home loss to UAB, but they have wins over Middle Tennessee and Southern Miss... and an overtime loss to Charlotte wasn't bad. Tulsa doesn't have the consistency to go for the title, but they are dangerous when they're on.

7. UAB (13-6 // 2-3 CUSA) [6th] 

6. Charlotte (12-7 // 3-3 CUSA) [3rd] 
Notes: The 49ers are another team that makes no sense this year. They took down a Michigan team that later toppled an extremely talented Michigan State this past weekend. Would they throw down in-conference? Not looking like it. They suffered a loss to a good Louisiana Tech team... but then they inexplicably dropped to the Rice Owls this week. Yikes.

5. Old Dominion (10-10 // 4-1 CUSA) [8th] 
Notes: My prediction is that this will be the highest I rank Old Dominion this year, as they continue to exceed all reasonable expectations. They take care of business against weak teams, and their only loss is to USM. My guess is that they don't have the talent to handle any of the top tier in this league but will pad their record against the bottom two thirds of the conference. No disrespect, but the Monarchs just don't seem to be a contender team right now.

4. Middle Tennessee State (13-7 // 3-2 CUSA) [5th] 

3. UTEP (14-6 // 4-1 CUSA) [4th] 
Notes: The Miners' stock is rising. They have usurped Charlotte as the scrappy dark horse this week with the 49ers various failings. That said, the Miners have done some good in their own right. Four game winning streak? Check. But Louisiana Tech is next for their first big test in-conference.

2. Louisiana Tech (17-4 // 5-1 CUSA) [2nd] 
Notes: Laid a 20 point smackdown on Charlotte. Lousiana Tech basically has a road trip to El Paso followed by a whole lot of nothing after that. If they get past UTEP, it wouldn't be a shocker to see the Bulldogs run the table.

1. Southern Mississippi (18-3 // 5-1 CUSA) [1st] 
Notes: The Golden Eagles are in "don't shoot ourselves in the foot" mode. They already beat Louisiana Tech, so they just need to take care of business this week against Tulane and Marshall. USM is still the clear front runner for the top seed going into the conference tournament.

Follow fearthewave.com on Facebook too. 

Basketball season is over, and the 2013 baseball campaign continues on... So mostly Tulane made headlines for football news this past week. Here is a link roundup.

1. Tulane might be sporting a new helmet look, according to SB Nation. Players showed off 7 new potential helmet designs with a few new logo schemes for the football team.

2. From NOLA.com, the Tulane matchup against new conference foe Louisiana Tech will be moved to a Thursday night (Sep. 12) for a national TV broadcast.

3. Tammy Nunez reports that ex-Tulane guard Ricky Tarrant is making his anticipated visit to Alabama this weekend. The CUSA second-team guard confirmed that report via Twitter.

4. Former Tulane QB merited some attention after his Tulane pro day, held at the Saints practice facility, the Hullabaloo reports. CB Travis Smith laid it down, as well.

That's all for now. Follow Fear the Wave on Twitter.

I caught a question on Twitter as to who, exactly, will be in Conference USA next season and beyond. Unlike the Big East - errr, whatever legal entity currently exists as the league/runs its website/etc. - which has a nice breakdown of changes, Conference USA doesn't seem to clarify that.

Instead, C-USA still has a big ol' map of what the deceased conference looks like.

So this article will clarify what C-USA will look like for the next two seasons, and I hope you find it helpful. Please note, my visitors from the future... this only reflects the league up to 3/25/2013. I have no clue if the NCAA will devolve into a Walking Dead-eque zombie world in April.

First thing's first. Here is where we are today.

Conference USA 2012-2013 All Sports Lineup: 

1. East Carolina
2. Houston
3. Marshall
4. Memphis
5. Rice
6. Southern Methodist
7. Southern Miss
8. Tulane
9. Tulsa
10. UAB
11. UCF
12. UTEP

Next, on July 1, 2013, several schools have already dissolved their contractual ties to C-USA and depart for the Big East** (meaning, the conference that won't ever be called the Big East that also doesn't have the Catholic 7 basketball schools).

Departing for 2013-2014: 

1. Houston
2. Memphis
3. SMU
4. UCF

The membership will look like this in 2013-2014. It's split among the two football divisions that will be created for next year.

C-USA 2013-2014: 

East Division 

1. East Carolina
2. Florida Atlantic
3. Florida International
4. Marshall
5. Middle Tennessee State
6. Southern Mississippi
7. UAB

West Division 

1. Louisiana Tech
2. North Texas
3. Rice
4. Tulane
5. Tulsa
6. UTEP
7. Texas at San Antonio

AND THEN. In the grand finale, Conference USA will lose two schools, at this point.

Departing for 2014-2015 

1. East Carolina (Football Only to Big East)
2. Tulane

Thus, C-USA will lose six football teams and five basketball teams under the current realignment scenario.

There you have it. That's what Conference USA will transform into over the next couple of seasons.