Kennesaw State is close to joining Conference USA, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Friday.
Founded in 1995, C-USA was once the home of schools like Louisville, Cincinnati and TCU, but found itself on the brink of collapse during the latest wave of realignment, which started with the SEC starting Texas and Oklahoma in July 2021.
As part of the chain reaction started by that move, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA to the American moved up to the American, while Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss noticed C-USA's fall on the totem poll and bailed for the Sun Belt. Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky also considered leaving for the MAC but ultimately chose to stay, leaving C-USA at that point with those two schools, FIU, Louisiana Tech and UTEP as its FBS membership.
MTSU and WKU opted to stay, and C-USA fortified its ranks by pulling Jacksonville State and Sam Houston up from FCS and by adding FBS independents Liberty and New Mexico State.
Kennesaw State would then become C-USA's 10th active member, and the 33rd university to hold Conference USA membership in less than 30 years of existence.
Sources: Kennesaw State has emerged as the favorite to become Conference USA’s tenth member. That addition is expected in the near future for Kennesaw to join effective 2024.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 7, 2022
Kennesaw State is located in Kennesaw, Ga., on the northwest fringe of Metro Atlanta. The school was founded as Kennesaw Junior College in 1966 and now enrolls close to 40,000 undergraduates. Adding Kennesaw State helps re-connect the C-USA map, as the conference would now touch every state from New Mexico to Florida (with the exception of Mississippi), a northern arm in Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.
Kennesaw State football launched in 2015 under head coach Brian Bohannon, who remains the Owls' head coach. KSU is 63-19 under Bohannon, with Big South Conference championships in 2017, '18 and '21, FCS quarterfinals trips in 2017 and '18, and FCS second round appearances in 2019 and '21.
As these moves always do, a Kennesaw State departure would have a chain reaction at the FCS level. The Owls have been Olympic sports members of the Atlantic Sun while maintaining football membership in the Big South; however, KSU has joined the ASUN's attempt to launch a football conference.
That effort has been a melancholic success. A long with the WAC, the ASUN keeps losing team to the FBS. Already the two leagues cross-schedule and share an FCS auto bid, with Sam Houston (WAC) and Jacksonville State (ASUN) leaving after this season for C-USA. At present, the ASUN has six football-playing members.
And now Kennesaw State could join them after the 2023 season.