Conference USA Preseason Position Reviews: The final tally

Our Conference USA Position Reviews are completed. If you wish to go back you can review them here.

Now that we are done I figured it would be cool to compile the results from each position review to see where teams stand. When I first started the series I couldn’t wait to see what the results yielded.

What results am I talking about? Well, I’ve decided to award each team points based on where they were placed in our categories. Each team received three points for a "Great Shape," two points for a "Good Shape," and one point for a "We'll See."

Because certain positions are more crucial than others, I decided to give a weighted value for quarterbacks and decreased the value of kickers and punters.

As a result, "Great Shape" at kicker or punter netted a team two points, “Good Shape” received one point, "We'll See" got you zero.

"Great Shape" at quarterback earned a squad four points, “Good Shape” was rewarded two points, and "We'll See" granted you one point.

“Great Shape” at quarterback should be valuable so I treated it as such. I thought about knocking down tight ends but decided not to. Spread offenses have almost rendered the position extinct but they could still be extremely useful if utilized correctly.

Here are the results...

Old Dominion - 24

Western Kentucky - 22

UTSA - 21

Middle Tennessee - 18

Louisiana Tech - 18

FIU - 17

FAU - 17

Marshall - 17

Southern Miss - 16

UTEP - 15

Rice - 14

North Texas - 13

Charlotte - 12

UAB - 10

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Notes & Thoughts

• The more reviews I did, the more I realized Old Dominion was going to rank No. 1. The only question marks on this team is linebacker and quarterback. That’s it. The latter will decide if ODU will contend for a conference title.
• Unfortunately for ODU, two of the best quarterbacks in the conference reside in C-USA East and unlike last season, the Monarchs will have to play both the Tops and the Blue Raiders.
• North Texas seems a bit low. Didn’t think Rice or UTEP would finish higher than them but here we are. I will note that the Mean Green was just below the cut-off line from “Good Shape” territory in several position reviews.
• Many project WKU and La Tech as the two best teams in the conference. Neither ended up as the points leader in their respective divisions.
• The points ranged from 24 to 10 with no team separated by more than three points than the next team. The conference is extremely muddled in the middle as seven teams are separated by just three points. On any given Saturday anyone can lose.
• The point disparity from 24 to 10 still shows that the bottom of C-USA has a long ways to go to compete with the best teams in this conference.
• Besides UAB for obvious reasons, Charlotte was the only team to not appear in “Great Shape” at any position.
• Positions with the most “Great Shapes”: punter (6), running back (5), wide receiver (4), defensive back (4)
• Positions with the most “We’ll Sees”: tight end (8), offensive line (7), kicker (6)

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The Conference USA preseason ballot... according to the position review series

Conference USA East

1. Old Dominion

2. Western Kentucky

3. Middle Tennessee

4. FAU

4. FIU

4. Marshall

7. Charlotte

Conference USA West

1. UTSA

2. Louisiana Tech

3. Southern Miss

4. UTEP

5. Rice

6. North Texas

7. UAB