Sonny Cumbie may have entered the 2025 college football season facing a little bit of pressure, but the head coach of the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs might just have his team positioned well to compete for the Conference USA title this season.

It’s early, but after three weeks of play, Cumbie and the Bulldogs are leading CUSA in the FPI rankings. The Bulldogs also apparently have a pretty good shot at making it to a bowl game right now.

And that should be exciting for a fanbase that has seen its team struggle in recent seasons. The folks in Ruston deserve to have a team that can compete at a high level in this conference and it looks like that might just be the case right now.

Here’s how Conference USA looks right now, according to ESPN FPI rankings

La Tech takes the top spot in Conference USA according to ESPN FPI rankings

• Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (Rank #86 nationally)
• Jacksonville State Gamecocks (Rank #87 nationally)
• Florida International Panthers (Rank #96 nationally)
• Liberty Flames (Rank #101 nationally)
• Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (Rank #104 nationally)
• UTEP Miners (Rank #107 nationally)
• Delaware Blue Hens (Rank #117 nationally)
• Missouri State Bears (Rank #121 nationally)
• Sam Houston Bearkats (Rank #124 nationally)
• Kennesaw State Owls (Rank #125 nationally)
• Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (Rank #131 nationally)
• New Mexico State Aggies (Rank #133 nationally)

Clearly ESPN’s FPI rankings don’t exactly view the entirety of Conference USA in all that positive of a light. that said, the Bulldogs are situated well within their conference, which is a good thing.

The Bulldogs have the best FPI rating in the conference at -5.0. Which, uh, not great, but there will be some chances to improve that as the season goes on. As long as Louisiana Tech keeps winning (and a few other teams across the conference also keep winning), then that rating should go up a bit.

It’s also worth noting that there is a 0.7 point gap between La Tech and the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. Oh, and the Bulldogs have a 97 percent chance of making it to a bowl game this year.

Which would be huge.

Elsewhere in Conference USA, a few teams are struggling

Take New Mexico State, for example. The Aggies, fresh off of a loss in Ruston, are at the bottom of the FPI rankings in both the conference and the country. But they’re 2-1 on the season as well.

Another 2-1 team, the Delaware Blue Hens, rank right in the middle of the conference.

The Sam Houston State Bearkats have a chance to keep stumbling though. I liked the hire they made in the offseason of Phil Longo, but things just aren’t clicking in Huntsville just yet as Longo and Sam Houston State are 0-3 on the season and they’re not having a fun time right now.

See also the Liberty Flames. A team that was thriving just a few seasons ago is off to a 1-2 start and an 0-1 start in conference play.

How many Conference USA teams are going bowling this season?

Probably not very many! Not at this rate. And not if some teams don’t get a few things figured out!

It’s worth noting that Louisiana Tech technically has the best chance of any CUSA team to make it into the College Football Playoff this season. But that’s at a 0.8 percent chance, according to ESPN’s FPI.

Just three of these teams are in the top 100 of the FPI rankings nationally.

Also, just six of these teams have a greater than 50 percent chance of making it to six wins, according to ESPN’s FPI number crunching. Louisiana Tech, unsurprisingly given the rest of this context, currently leads the way with 97 percent.