College Football will be here before we know it, and while Colby Dant and Moneyline Mac are kicking out team preview episodes, we’re breaking down conference previews! The season starts in a little over a month with Week 0 on August 27th. Today we are previewing the C-USA conference. Let’s dive into the C-USA preview, take a look at the odds, and share a few best bets.
Conference USA may be a conference made up of some smaller schools. However, the competition is always fierce. This year, they have ten teams in the conference after Louisiana Tech and UTEP moved. Last year, Kennesaw State won the conference championship. They’re 10/1 to win this year.
The favorites are Liberty, who are still a nice +260. They had high expectations last year too and finished 4-8. Looking at all the teams in the conference, some underwent significant changes. Meanwhile, others maintained the players and coaches they had to keep building momentum. Before breaking down our C-USA best bets, let’s take a look at what some of the teams did in the offseason.
Delaware returns its quarterback Nick Minicucci, who was second-team All C-USA. However, I don’t expect them to blow the doors off of everybody. FIU welcomes new starting quarterback, App State transfer JJ Kohl. Jacksonville State is returning their quarterback Caden Creel, a dual-threat passer who could make them a real threat.
The defending Kennesaw State Owls will be under a new quarterback, Rickie Collins, a transfer from Syracuse. They had a lot of offseason turnover. The hardest part of picking Liberty to win the conference is not knowing who their quarterback will be. They expect to have a competition between three different guys.
Middle Tennessee also has a new starting quarterback in Roman Gagliano. However, he is familiar with the team. Missouri State welcomes new head coach Casey Woods and will have a quarterback battle on his hands. New Mexico State is still going under a rebuild and will also likely have a quarterback competition.
For the last two, Sam Houston State will likely be led by Landyn Locke. They have an extremely young roster and not a lot of experience for backups. One injury could really derail their season. Last, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers will be led by Rodney Tisdale (unless Brock Glenn beats him out). They have a new offensive coordinator and a lot of offensive firepower.
Odds to Win C-USA Championship
Liberty +260
Western Kentucky +280
Jacksonville State +450
Delaware +700
Kennesaw State +1000
FIU +1100
New Mexico State +2500
Missouri State +2800
Middle Tennessee +5500
Sam Houston +80000
2026 C-USA Best Bets
Jacksonville State To Win The C-USA (+450)
We’ll start our C-USA best bets with a juicy one! I’m taking Jacksonville State to win the C-USA at +450. Jacksonville State has been a competitive team for several years now and returning their starting quarterback, as well as their main core, will have them primed to take this conference.
They are a heavy running team and hard to defend. The Gamecocks have a winning culture and recent championship game experience, losing to Kennesaw State last year 19-15 in the conference championship game.
Despite knowing his dual-threat abilities, it is hard for teams to game plan against Caden Creel, especially with RPO’s and his athletic ability. This is a team that feels they should have won it last year. They should be set up to win at least six or seven games within their conference. Outside of their conference, they have games against teams like Eastern Kentucky, GA Southern, and Ohio that should all be very winnable games. Two of those games are in their home stadium.
Look for Jacksonville State to play in the championship game. As long as they make that, they’re winning this conference in 2026.
Jacksonville State Over 7.5 Wins +105
Obviously, if I’m picking Jacksonville State to win the conference, I think they’re going to win a decent handful of games. They’re currently +105 to win over 7.5 games. I think they finish right around 8-4 or 9-3.
Therefore, for my second best bet in the C-USA conference is for them to hit the over. Let’s ladder it up though (the Laddy Daddy CJ Sullivan would be so proud of us!). I’m taking them over 7.5 games at +105 as well as over 8.5 games at +215.
This team really feels like one of the most dangerous teams in the conference. Not only because of their defensive capabilities, but their run game is almost unparalleled in this conference, and I think it’ll cause problems for opposing defenses. As I said above, for non-conference games, they have some easy ones that should be automatic wins. They should be able to win six in conference games, maybe seven. That only leads them to needing one or two others to cash our bet.
Western Kentucky Over 7.5 Wins (+125)
It’s not that I don’t like Liberty, the conference favorites. It’s just hard for me to talk about my C-USA best bets and put them in there after they had such a disappointing season last year. High expectations last year coming off a 13-1 season, and they fell to 4-8. Salter is gone, and I just don’t know if I trust this team in another season of high expectations.
Therefore, I do think it comes down to Jacksonville State and Western Kentucky. For it to come down to those two, they both have to win a lot of games, including Western Kentucky. They are +125 to win over 7.5 games. I don’t think there’s any reason they don’t go at least 8-4. The new offense should have more firepower and move the ball quicker.
They have a much harder schedule than Jacksonville State. I expect they’ll lose to both Georgia and Indiana. However, that should have them in great shape to defeat teams like Mercyhurst and the other teams in the conference. They also open the season against Nevada in Nevada in a winnable game. Western Kentucky is -3 point favorites in that one right now, and I think they’re a smash bet at -3.
