The league office would like you to know that CUSA Kickoff is open to the public, “with exclusive fan interactions, giveaways, and more.” Does the conference actually want this event to be an in-person fan activation? If so, holding it on a Monday morning in Arlington is an interesting call, to say, the least. Only one CUSA school is located within 400 miles, making it the rough equivalent of holding SEC media day in Cincinnati or sending the Sun Belt to Philly.
There’s probably a decent metaphor to pull from the time slot and setting, a sanitized suburban pregame factory that people visit because of its proximity to the big leagues. Show up, drink a couple beers, and then move on to the main event. Stop by later to ride the bull and keep the night alive. Broadcasting the show hours before a weekday Rangers game gives us the full, uncut CUSA experience. I don’t think the venue has acknowledged the league yet, and the restaurant doesn’t even open until 11AM local, an hour into the show. We’re a Venmo QR code short of the Talkin’ Season version of a guy playing acoustic covers during lunch service. Nothing’s wrong with that in theory, but this league already struggles to find the balance between the two distinct audiences that encounter CUSA football: Those who care deeply in the individual fan bases, and those who see the conference as unserious weekday background noise. The league’s serious enough to fly in 30+ players and coaches for media day, yet not important enough to join the World’s Largest Pickle Party and musical bingo on Texas Live’s public event calendar.
I will try not to hate from outside the club over the next couple days. Yes, I’m moderately bitter about the league rejecting my credential request with a template email with a fake encouragement to “continue covering the league.” Ok then. I’m interested enough in the league - and just love the blind optimism of media day in general - that I would tune in for every second anyway.
Later this morning, the studio show portion of media days will kick off on ESPN+. For those unfamiliar with the CUSA Kickoff format, this will be the state-media mega-cast from Texas Live where Jerry Mack, Nikola Milovac, and Baron Hopson spend 15 minutes answering friendly questions together. The traditional press conference and breakouts will take place on Tuesday, when we may get a little more insight.
The main storylines as the league arrives in Arlington:
State of the Union. CUSA Kickoff usually functions as ten separate media days without much cohesion or intent. Commissioner Judy MacLeod’s address will be the one exception where headlines converge. Louisiana Tech (Sun Belt) and UTEP (Mountain West) are out the door, the fifth straight season with program movement. What’s next for the league amid changes - and potential legislation - across the country?
Victory lap for Jerry Mack. The reigning, undisputed CUSA champion hit the national podcast circuit this offseason, sitting down with on3, The Athletic, and more, in the same way that your senator might pop up at the Iowa State Fair eating funnel cake. He’s running. I think we’ll get a moderately clear picture this week on what Mack thinks about his chances to repeat.
Can WKU or Liberty take control? For all the cringeworthy extracurriculars and embarrassing fans in this league, the football is actually in a pretty decent spot. Every team except MTSU has been to a bowl since the 2023 reset, which has produced three different champions in as many years. All the parity helped the FCS call-ups, but the relative blue bloods of the league will want to assert themselves in 2026. Otherwise, Jamey Chadwell and Tyson Helton are probably on the move.
What’s different this year at the bottom of the league? File Sam Houston, MTSU, and NMSU under this category. Can these three coaches come to Arlington and pitch a believable vision for a turnaround?
Only one newcomer at head coach this year. Casey Woods takes over at Missouri State after Ryan Beard and the rest of the Petrino cinematic universe left town. There’s a bit of stability on the coaching front this year, a welcome change after the league broke in five new coaches last season. With this much player turnover, let’s take all the continuity we can get.
CUSA uses Central time, for the uninitiated.
I’m not sure any of this is worth your time, but here’s the full run of show for Monday’s ESPN+ broadcast. KSU (12:10) and CUSA (12:20) posted two different start times for the Owls segment, so take this schedule for what it’s worth.
11 AM: Show kicks off with Mike Corey in the host chair. It’s always a welcome surprise anytime CUSA doesn’t use the Liberty crew for league-wide events.
11:05 AM | Judy MacLeod: The commissioner speaks publicly for the first time since the finalized departures of UTEP and Louisiana Tech, the latter of which was an outright calamity in schedule-making. The $800,000 question: Does the league want to ramp back up to 12?
11:20 AM | Delaware: HC Ryan Carty, QB Nick Minicucci, DE Noah Matthews. This year’s returning production darlings are the first team out on the stage. The Blue Hens will be an interesting test case on whether or not that level of continuity is actually a positive thing at our level.
11:40 AM | FIU: Willie Simmons, QB JJ Kohl, DB Shamir Sterlin. CUSA Kickoff pales in comparison to Simmons’ biggest media appearance of the offseason: Burying the “Check In” controversy by appearing on Uncle Luke’s podcast. Bringing a transfer QB - from App State, with a stop at Iowa State beforehand - is certainly an endorsement.
12:00 PM | Liberty: Jamey Chadwell, TE Caleb Ryan, LB Derrell Farrar. Draftkings slapped a +260 favorite tag on the Flames and they’re listed at 100% in the Bowl Confidence Index. I don’t think the Liberty press corps is built in such a way that allows for criticism, and you certainly won’t see much pushback during the kickoff show. The SBC will excommunicate him for anything less than 9 wins, though.
12:20 PM | Kennesaw State: Jerry Mack, RT Nikola Milovac, LB Baron Hopson. No CUSA coach will arrive in Arlington with a higher approval rating and more job security than the reigning champion. Would anything move the needle other than outright naming Rickie Collins QB1?
12:40 PM | Jacksonville State: Charles Kelly, QB Caden Creel, S Caleb Nix. We’re paying a lot of deference to a team quarterbacked by Caden Creel, huh? 50+ newcomers in the door for the CUSA championship game runner-up, a haul that ranks second in the league, per 247 Sports. Kelly’s not super interesting in settings like this, so we’ll get a lot of “yeah, that new guy’s working hard” type stuff this week. Will be curious to get his take on the new OC and replacing Cam Cook, who was essentially the entire offense last year.
1:00 PM | MTSU: Derek Mason, QB Roman Gagliano, punter Ashton Logan. “It’s cool how he sees the game through a five-year old’s eyes.” That’s what Mason said earlier this offseason about Gagliano. I wouldn’t love my coach comparing QB1 to a kindergartner, especially if my other CUSA Kickoff representative is the punter. Is this a better comms strategy than last year, when the lead story was about how much money the program saved on helmets and uniforms? Let’s find out.
1:20 PM | WKU: Tyson Helton, OL Karsten Upchurch, DB Jaylen Lewis. Which way, Western Kentucky Man? Behind Door A: Discuss the brewing controversy over a transfer DT who lost his scholarship after his mother passed away during the spring. Door B: You ever gonna win this league? I wouldn’t expect either to get touched on during Monday’s marathon state-media broadcast, but expect a couple questions on Tuesday if the strict CUSA comms staff doesn’t step in.
1:40 PM | NM State: Tony Sanchez, WR TK King, DL Henry Davis. The Aggies are stuck picking sides in the UTEP divorce. For now, they remain in CUSA’s custody even though their Battle of I-10 rivals jumped ship for the geographic sensibilities Mountain West.
2:00 PM | Missouri State: Casey Woods, TE Jeron Askren, LB Jared Floyd. I’m really interested in what’s going on at Missouri State. Woods, the former SMU OC under Rhett Lashlee, also brings a personnel background to the table that could pay off.
2:20 PM | Sam Houston: Phil Longo, QB Landyn Locke, LB Dean Ford. Longo shuffled his schedule around over the weekend, postponing an appearance at the Texas HS Coaching Association due to a “family emergency.” Ceasefire on making fun of the Bearkats until we know everything’s OK. They’ve already dealt with enough this offseason.
WR Brayden Munroe - The Northern Colorado transfer was the most interesting pick out of Kennesaw’s five Watch List guys. Not because I don’t think he’ll perform, but because the Owls brought in 5 transfers in the now-crowded position room. The safer bet would’ve been to flip a coin and pick Latrelle Murell or Triston Morgan at running back. I appreciate the called shot here on Munroe, whose boom-or-bust profile stat profile fits how he’ll be used in the downfield game in Kennesaw. Top to bottom, I think the Owls will have a much better receiver room this season, as crazy as that sounds coming off a year where KSU got three wideouts paid - Benyard to the league, Moss and Coppock to the portal.
RT Nikola Milovac - Mack just hyped up his returning starter at right tackle in a recent appearance on the G5 Hive: “He’s leaned up, he’s dropped his body fat, he’s become a leader on our football team.” Let’s hope the preseason love comes true. Milovac debated transferring before coming back to Kennesaw, making him a rare player to get pulled out of the portal two years in a row by the same team.
DE Marcus Patterson - Ball-knowledge pick from the CUSA coaches. Hanging on to Patterson was an underrated win for the Owls during the offseason. He didn’t rack up the same gaudy pass-rushing numbers (or even underlying metrics) as Elijah Hill or even Donovan Westmoreland, but his combo DE/DT role sets the tone for Marc Mattioli’s ability to show various looks up front.
LB Baron Hopson - Obviously. Hopson earned co-Defensive Player of the Year honors in CUSA last season and picked up solo honors for the same award in the preseason. The graduate linebacker will join Mack and Milovac in Arlington for CUSA Kickoff. Over/under 140 tackles this season?
KR Davis Bryson - To his credit, Bryson is one of the only sensible picks on the special teams list. That’s where the 2/2/1 Watch List concept really fell apart: Every team needed one specialist, even if not warranted. For example: WKU’s KD Hutchinson made the list as a punt returner. He’s racked up 85 total return yards in his career on 28 attempts, with a long of 18. Mo State’s Jmariyae Robinson made it as a kick AND punt returner. He’s never returned a punt before during his three years in college, and has never taken a kickoff further than 28 yards. Darius Copeland, a punt returner selection from Liberty, has returned the same exact amount of punts as you, dear reader. Maybe all of these guys will be electric returners this year. Or maybe the SIDs, voting in place of the coaches, played an incredible game of Let’s Name Some Guys.
Like the Watch List, the Bowl Confidence Index makes sense in theory and sorta tells the story until you spend more than 5 seconds thinking about it. Year two of CUSA’s alternative to traditional preseason polls ends up in the same place as last season: We’re in almost the exact same order as the preseason consensus in most of the popular power ratings, minus any of the nuance and conversations that make those preseason rankings interesting. We should also consider what setting bowl eligibility as the defining preseason measuring stick does to perception.
The league doesn’t trust the media pool to keep up with player and coach movement from the ten members, so the solution is to factor in even more teams. Ranking CUSA in a vacuum only requires a voter to consider 10 schools, with 8 games each. Theoretically, BCI asks them to consider all 12 opponents for every team to do an adequate job. Somebody help me understand how that’s better. In practice, two voters for each school, who may or may not even know that much about the team they actually cover, just give a simple thumbs up or down based on the rest of the rankings already out there.
A legitimate waste of everyone’s time. I can’t help but love it.
