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ARLINGTON, Texas – Conference USA celebrated the unofficial start of the 2026 football season this week as student-athletes, head coaches, administrators and media gathered in Arlington for the league’s annual Football Kickoff at Texas Live! and the Loews Arlington Hotel & Convention Center.
Representatives from each of CUSA’s 10 institutions participated in three days of events that showcased the conference’s student-athletes, celebrated the start of a new season and provided national exposure across a variety of media platforms.
The event opened Sunday evening with the CUSA Playbook Leadership Session, bringing together the league’s student-athlete representatives for leadership programming. The group also participated in an
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to show support for former All-CUSA running back
Chris Johnson.
Monday’s festivities at Texas Live! Featured the league’s CUSA Football Kickoff Show, hosted by ESPN’s
Mike Corey on ESPN+, along with recordings of the CUSA Insider Podcast and other official conference content creation. The broadcast is available on ESPN+ on demand
here.
Student-athletes also took part in the CUSA Leadership Lounge, connecting with conference partners and participating in professional development opportunities designed to prepare them for success beyond the playing field.
Tuesday shifted to the Loews Arlington Hotel & Convention Center, where head coaches and student-athletes participated in various media availabilities and additional content capturing opportunities, including press conferences, breakout interviews and content for league social media channels as they previewed the upcoming season.
Throughout the CUSA Football Kickoff, the league’s coaches, student-athletes and Commissioner
Judy MacLeod consistently reinforced the league's identity as one of the nation's most competitive conferences. Discussions centered on the depth and parity across the league, the continued growth and investment of its programs, the national exposure created by "Weekday CUSA," and the momentum generated by returning production and recent postseason success.
“Across the board, I think you’re seeing a lot of depth in our conference,” MacLeod said in her press conference. “We had the highest winning percentage in bowl games for a Group of Six conference and three teams with at least nine wins. We’re really becoming one of the nation’s most consistently competitive and exciting football conferences. We have close games. We have hungry, rising programs and national exposure. Weekday CUSA has been great for us to educate the nation on what Conference USA is all about. We’ve had meaningful football throughout the season. Every time a team steps on the field, we don’t know what’s going to happen because of the depth and the quality throughout the league.”
Coaches emphasized that there are no easy games in Conference USA and that every week requires a complete four-quarter effort, while student-athletes highlighted the opportunity to compete on a national stage. Collectively, the messaging positioned CUSA as a conference defined by meaningful games, close finishes, ascending programs and an exciting brand of football entering the 2026 season.
“I have a ton of respect for the teams in this league,” Jax State head coach
Charles Kelly said. “I have a ton of respect for the coaches. There are some great coaches in this conference and it is very competitive every week. I think in our bowl season, it showed how competitive our conference is. You’ve got to come prepared to play every week.”
“We have to be more vocal about how good our conference is,” Missouri State head coach
Casey Woods said. “Our coaches in this conference are putting fantastic, quality products on the field. We’ve talked at length about how close our games are, how entertaining they are and the national exposure that we get from a midweek standpoint, but we don’t need to be apologetic about that.”
“We had an exciting year last year,” WKU head coach
Tyson Helton said. “It seemed like every game came down to the wire in the last drive. I’m sure it will be that way again.”
The Conference USA slate opens with a pair of Week Zero tilts on Saturday, Aug. 29, with Jax State visiting North Dakota State at 4:30 p.m. CT on CBS Sports Network and NM State taking on Florida State at 6 p.m. CT on The CW. The league’s 22
nd Conference USA Football Championship Game is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 4.
Additional Comments from CUSA Commissioner Judy MacLeod
On the Protect College Sports Act…
“I think Sens. [Ted] Cruz and [Maria] Cantwell deserve hearty praise for the work that they’ve done. Conference USA early supported the Protect College Sports Act. We realize it’s not perfect. We’ve been trying to engage and work with relevant stakeholders to make some changes. We understand it’s going under revisions now. Some of what we’ve heard seems like positive changes. It’s desperately needed. The state law preemption, the agent regulation, codifying transfer and eligibility regulations, the student-athlete protections. We’ve got to have something, because it’s not working and it’s not sustainable.
We don’t know what the final legislation will actually look like, but we do understand that it’s a compromise. We’re not going to get everything we want. In order to get something done, I think the saying is ‘it’s not perfection, it’s progress.’ We are supportive and we’ll continue to work in that area.”
On success of recent expansion…
“We’ve been very strategic in our expansion decisions and we’ve focused on universities that increase our reach, visibility, and also on academic and competitive profile. Our two newest (Delaware, Missouri State) played in bowl games last year, and [Missouri State] won our women’s basketball championship. We’ve been really proud that our new members have come in ready to compete. People ask if we’re going to stay at 10. We’re always going to explore, but we’re going to do it in a very strategic way. We’re very happy with the 10. It’s a really committed group that is working very well together, but [expansion] is always something that we will examine and explore.