by Garrett Helmers

Conference USA revealed the final 2022 football schedules on Tuesday. Included in this schedule are Old Dominion, Marshall and Southern Miss, despite the three universities announcing their intentions of leaving C-USA in favor of the Sun Belt Conference after the 2021-2022 athletic year ends in June. 

While ODU, Southern Miss and Marshall are planning on joining the Sun Belt Conference for the 2022 football season, Conference USA, however, made clear on Tuesday that they intend to ensure the three programs remain with C-USA until 2023. 

Conference USA released a statement regarding the status of the three programs on Tuesday. 

“Conference USA intends to conduct the 2022-23 athletic year with the full 14 institution members intact,” the statement read. “The C-USA Board of Directors will exhaust all necessary legal actions to ensure all members meet their contractual obligations as defined by and agreed to in the Conference USA bylaws.” 

The Conference has been in rebuild mode since UAB, Charlotte, FAU, Rice, UTSA and North Texas announced their plans of moving to the American Athletic Conference in 2023. 

Amidst the turmoil, C-USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod announced in November that New Mexico State, Jacksonville State, Liberty and Sam Houston State would be joining C-USA in 2023.

Despite the efforts of MacLeod and C-USA and MacLeod, programs have continuously left the conference for better opportunities elsewhere. Since the conference was established in 1995, 23 schools in total have left for other conferences.  

It appears that trend will continue to haunt C-USA for at least the near future. 

UAB is scheduled to play both Marshall and Southern Miss during the 2022 slate. If both teams do in fact leave the conference before then, the Blazers and C-USA will have quite the scheduling mess for the upcoming season. 

Below is the 2022 schedule for the Blazers. Times and television networks will be announced closer to the start of the season.