End Of An Era For Tulsa In Conference USA

As The University of Tulsa's membership in the American Athletic Conference begins on Tuesday, July 1, it also closes a chapter of great success in Conference USA for the Golden Hurricane.

In nine years as a C-USA member, Tulsa teams won a league-high 56 conference championships. The 2005 football team won the school's first Conference USA championship with a 44-27 road win at UCF to earn the league's automatic representation into the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

Tulsa teams won seven league titles in that first season (2005-06). In addition to the football title, Tulsa also captured regular season and post-season league crowns in women's basketball and softball, while also claiming the men's tennis championship.

In Tulsa's C-USA tenure, student-athletes also excelled in the classroom as 22 Hurricane athletes were selected as C-USA Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award winners in Tulsa's first eight years a league member (2013-14 winners have yet to be announced). The C-USA Scholar Athlete of the Year award is presented to the top student-athletes in each conference-sponsored sport and is based on academic achievement (GPA), athletic achievement and service.

The Hurricane also had large numbers of student-athletes named to the Commissioners Honor Roll (3.0 GPA or better), more than 1,600 in nine years, and included among that list were Academic Medalists (3.75 GPA or better). Tulsa closed out its final year in C-USA with 216 student-athletes earning Commissioners Honor Roll accolades, while leading the league with 63 Academic Medalists for the 2013-14 season.

Tulsa won a high of eight C-USA crowns in the 2011-12 season with titles in the sports of men's cross country and indoor track, men's tennis, women's golf, women's tennis, softball and volleyball. Tulsa also won seven league crowns in 2007-08, 2008-09, 2012-13 and this year (2013-14).

Men's tennis captured a league title in seven of nine seasons, while the softball team garnered nine titles in five years, including four seasons in which the Hurricane softball team won both the regular season and tournament crowns.

Tulsa men's soccer also won a total of seven league crowns, coming in four seasons, while volleyball and football had six titles. The volleyball team won both the regular season and tournament titles in 2012-13 and single titles in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011. The football team won West Division titles in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2012, while winning the conference championship game in 2005 and 2012. Tulsa tied SMU for the west division lead in 2010, but SMU won the tiebreaker for the West division crown and an appearance in the C-USA title game.

Men's cross country (5), women's tennis (5), women's basketball (3), men's basketball (2), women's cross country (2), women's golf (2), men's golf (1) and men's indoor track (1) also won C-USA championships in the school's nine years as a league member.

Tulsa's softball team captured the school's final league title this season when the Hurricane won the regular season crown with a 19-4 conference record and claimed the tournament championship with an 8-0 victory over Marshall in the C-USA Championship game.

Tulsa began its membership in Conference USA on July 1, 2005 following nine years as a member of the Western Athletic Conference.