Conference USA announces Kennesaw State will join league in 2024-25

Publish date: 2024-01-19 Conference USA has officially added Kennesaw State as a member, the league announced Friday. Kennesaw State will be the 10th all-sports member in the conference, which also added Dallas Baptist baseball as an affiliate member in the spring. The Owls will join C-USA for the 2024-25 academic year.

Publish date: 2024-01-19

Conference USA has officially added Kennesaw State as a member, the league announced Friday.

Kennesaw State will be the 10th all-sports member in the conference, which also added Dallas Baptist baseball as an affiliate member in the spring. The Owls will join C-USA for the 2024-25 academic year.

Kennesaw State was an appealing candidate to C-USA because of its location in metro Atlanta, its enrollment of nearly 40,000 students and a football program that finished ranked in the top 10 of the Football Championship Subdivision in four of the past five years, despite the Owls only beginning play in 2015. There are some issues that must still be worked out. For example, Fifth Third Bank Stadium’s capacity of 8,300 does not meet the Football Bowl Subdivision’s 15,000 attendance requirement. A C-USA news release announcing the move noted, “the configuration of Fifth Third Bank Stadium, home to KSU football, will allow for phased attendance capacity increases over time as the university engages in competition within Conference USA.”

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The move continues the conference realignment trickle-down that began last year with Texas and Oklahoma announcing moves to the SEC. The Big 12 responded by adding three schools from the AAC, which then added six schools from C-USA, starting after this season. Old Dominion, Southern Miss and Marshall already left for the Sun Belt before this season.

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Last year’s departures left C-USA with nine full members for the 2023-24 academic year, not a tenable number. Multiple administrative sources throughout the conference said the league doesn’t expect to get back to 14 teams, and it may not rush to 12 either.

“We think and our new media partners think 10 is a good place to be,” Western Kentucky president and C-USA board chair Tim Caboni told The Athletic this week. “There is a possibility of 12, but it has to be the right 12. Institutional strength and geography matter there.”

Potential candidates to join C-USA if it expands further include Tarleton State, Eastern Kentucky, Missouri State, Stephen F. Austin and McNeese State, among others, according to multiple league sources.

The addition of Kennesaw State will increase the FBS to 134 teams in 2024. FCS members Sam Houston and Jacksonville State are set to join C-USA next year, along with FBS independents Liberty and New Mexico State.

Conference USA movement

StayingJoiningLeavingLeft 2022

FIU

Jacksonville State

Charlotte

Marshall

Louisiana Tech

Kennesaw State

Florida Atlantic

Old Dominion

Middle Tennessee

Liberty

North Texas

Southern Miss

UTEP

New Mexico State

Rice

Western Kentucky

Sam Houston

UAB

UTSA

Several FCS teams over the past decade have found quick success after moving up to the FBS, including Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina and James Madison, which is ranked 25th in the AP poll just five games into its FBS existence.

“The examples are everywhere,” C-USA commissioner Judy MacLeod told The Athletic about FCS teams finding FBS success. “That doesn’t scare us, as long as the commitment and the plan is there.”

(Photo: Katie Stratman / USA Today)

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