News/Commentary

CUSA Releases 2024 Football Schedules as Kennesaw Moves Up From FCS

February 27, 2024 by Staff

Three of Conference USA's first-year members - Liberty, NMSU and Jax St. - were the top three teams in the league a year ago. What will 2024 hold?

As the 2024 NFL Draft creeps closer and Spring Football Practice begins to move into full swing around the nation, this is a beautiful time of the year for sports fans. In addition to the draft and college spring ball, the Masters is less than two months away, Major League Baseball is set to begin, the NBA is heating up for the stretch run, and college basketball is moving into March Madness. It's a great time to be alive for sports fans and sports betting.

CUSA announced its football schedules earlier this month with Kennesaw State moving up from the FCS to become the 10th member, just as former FCS schools Sam Houston and Jax State did in 2023.

Each of the ten teams will play 8 conference games and 4 non-league contests. A total of 120 games are scheduled over 14 regular season playing weeks, kicking off with all 10 teams in action on Saturday, August 31.

In 2023, the Liberty Flames were not only in a new league, but were also playing with a new head after Hugh Freeze moved to Auburn. None of that mattered as they claimed the championship with a 49-35 win over NMSU in Lynchburg, Virginia after the runner-up Aggies finished just a head of the Jax St. Gamecocks of Jacksonville, Alabama. The 2023 Season Preview at CollegeFootballPoll.com had Liberty picked to finish 6th and MTSU favored to win the conference, while the media favored Western Kentucky.

SHSU suffered several excruciating early losses, but took 3 of its last 4 to finish strong at 3-9. The Bearkats lost 5 games by 7 points or less, and by a combined total of just 26 points.

Because they were in transition from the FCS to the FBS, neither Jax State or SHSU were eligible for the conference championship. This year, Rich Rodriguez' Gamecocks and KC Keeler's Bearkats are eligible while Brian Bohannon's Owls of Kennesaw, Georgia will have to wait until 2025.

Jax State was one of the nation's feel-good stories in 2023, joining James Madison as bowl teams in spite of their eligibility being limited to what amounts to emergency fill-in status. In short, there were not enough 'eligible' schools with non-losing records to fill all of the slots, so the Owls and Dukes (Sun Belt) were called up to take those spots. Jacksonville St. came out as the winner of the New Orleans Bowl with a 34-31 win over Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns, a postseason staple. JMU fell 31-21 to Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Conference USA teams were a combined a 2-2 in bowl games this past season with WKU picking up the other victory with a scintillating rally from a 28-0 deficit to beat ODU 38-35 in overtime. NMSU came up on the short end of a 37-10 New Mexico Bowl result against Fresno State.

NMSU is one of three schools that will be led by new head coaches in 2024 as Jerry Kill resigned from the Aztecs after just two seasons that produced two of the best seasons in school history.

The other programs that changed leaders are MTSU and UTEP.

The Blue Raiders fired Rick Stockstill and hired former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason. Stockstill was the fourth-longest tenured current head coach in the FBS at 18 seasons, going 113-111 overall with a solid 82-58 conference record and a 4-6 mark in bowl game that included two bowl wins in the previous two seasons.

UTEP ran off Dana Dimel after six seasons and plucked Scotty Walden from the FCS Austin Peay Governors.

2024 marks the second season that sees all October league matchups played on midweek evenings after a successful launch in 2023. CUSA’s broadcast partners will share the October weeknight football games on linear television across CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. Of last season’s 19 midweek contests during this time frame, 14 of those games were decided by two scores or less, while nine were one-score games, including two in overtime.

It is important to note that all games are subject to date changes and some dates may move in the coming weeks in order to accommodate national television selections. A schedule of televised games will be released at a later date.

Conference USA’s 20th annual Championship Game, pitting the top-two finishers during conference play, will be played on Friday, December 6, on CBS Sports Network during championship week. The kickoff time for the title game will be announced at a later date.

2024 CUSA Football Schedule

Week Sat. Date FIU Jax St. Kenn. St. Liberty LaTech MTSU NMSU SHSU UTEP WKU
1 8/31 at Indiana* Coastal* at UTSA* Campbell (FCS)* Nicholls (FCS)* Tenn Tech (FCS)* SEMO (FCS)* at Rice* at Nebraska* at Alabama*
2 9/7 Central Michigan* at Louisville* Louisiana* at NMSU BYE at Ole Miss* Liberty at UCF* So Utah (FCS)* EKU (FCS)*
3 9/14 at FAU* at E. Michigan* SJSU* UTEP at NC St.* WKU at Fresno St.* Hawaii* at Liberty at MTSU
4 9/21 Monmouth (FCS)* So. Miss.* BYE E. Carolina* Tulsa* Duke* at SHSU NMSU at Colorado St.* Toledo*
5 9/28 LaTech BYE UT-Martin (FCS)* at App St.* at FIU at Memphis* New Mexico* Texas St.* BYE at Boston Coll.*
6 10/5 BYE at Kenn. St. [Fri] Jax St. [Fri] BYE BYE BYE BYE at UTEP [Thu] SHSU [Thu] BYE
7 10/12 at Liberty [Wed] NMSU [Wed] BYE FIU [Wed] MTSU [Thu] at LaTech [Thu] at Jax St. [Wed] BYE at WKU [Thu] UTEP [Thu]
8 10/19 at UTEP [Wed] BYE at MTSU [Tue] BYE at NMSU [Tue] Kenn. St. [Tue] LaTech [Tue] WKU [Wed] FIU [Wed] at SHSU [Wed]
9 10/26 SHSU [Tue] MTSU [Wed] Liberty [Wed] at Kenn. St. [Wed] UTEP [Tue] at Jax St. [Wed] BYE at FIU [Tue] at LaTech [Tue] BYE
10 11/2 NMSU [Tue] at Liberty [Wed] at WKU [Wed] Jax St. [Wed] at SHSU [Tue] at UTEP at FIU [Tue] LaTech [Tue] MTSU Kenn. St. [Wed]
11 11/9 BYE at LaTech at UTEP at MTSU Jax St. Liberty WKU BYE Kenn. St. at NMSU
12 11/16 at Jax St. FIU SHSU at UMass* at WKU BYE at Texas A&M* at Kenn. St. BYE LaTech
13 11/23 at Kenn. St. SHSU FIU WKU at Arkansas* NMSU at MTSU at Jax St. at Tennessee* at Liberty
14 11/30 MTSU at WKU at LaTech at SHSU Kenn. St. at FIU UTEP Liberty at NMSU Jax St.

* denotes non-conference game. Games are on Saturday unless otherwise noted.

Also See:

2024 CUSA Football Composite Schedule

2024 CUSA Football Team-By-Team Schedule