College News: Conference USA Adds Four Teams; What are the Softball Implications?

On Friday afternoon, Conference USA formally and officially announced the addition of four new teams – Liberty, Jacksonville State, Sam Houston, and New Mexico State. All four programs will join the league full-time effective July 1, 2023.

The announcement is the first good news of the realignment cycle for Conference USA, which has already lost nine of their current member teams to other conferences. The American picked off six CUSA schools, while three additional programs are moving to the Sun Belt.

Liberty and Jacksonville State will both leave the ASun upon moving to the C-USA; Sam Houston and NMSU are coming from the WAC. Of note, both Jacksonville State and Sam Houston are currently in their first years in their current conferences and will spend just two years there, respectively, before heading to Conference USA.

Conference USA will now stand at nine members – for now. Current members Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State are possibilities  for continued realignment; both schools are being looked at for membership in the MAC.

From a softball perspective, the quartet of additions are a home run for C-USA, all things considered. In Liberty, the C-USA acquires a perennial NCAA tournament team that plays a tough non-conference schedule every year. New Mexico State is another program that is used to making NCAA tournament appearances regularly. Jacksonville State and Sam Houston are again similar as contending teams in their previous leagues that have not yet had a chance to establish their place in their new homes.

Now, neither team need get too comfortable in conference play – the unfamiliar foes will by unfamiliar again soon enough.

Remaining teams in Conference USA include Louisiana Tech, FIU, and UTEP, plus WKU and Middle Tennessee (as of now). While football might have been a driving force behind the addition of these teams, the combination of historical success and present-day promise also shores up the league’s softball offering in impressive fashion.

A random, yet important note: Conference USA will now also be home to two of the finest softball facilities in mid-major softball in Louisiana Tech’s Dr. Billy Bundrick Field and Kamphius Field at Liberty Softball Stadium.