Four big takeaways from Judy MacLeod’s speech at CUSA Media Day

Conference USA Media Day kicked off on Tuesday, and Commissioner Judy MacLeod addressed a multitude of topics surrounding the conference. Here are four of the most interesting things she said during her speech.

On the changing times in athletics:

“I don’t think there’s a day goes by that there isn’t something about one of the topics – whether it’s the House Settlement, Congressional activity, eligibility litigation, college sports commission, NIL Go, other litigation, Presidential activity, the College Football Playoff, transfer portal. I could take my entire 10 minutes up here and just rattle off the list, but I’ll stop there.”

“Obviously it’s a new time, it’s a transformational time in college athletics with so much happening so quickly. We need to continue to modernize and evolve. It’s something that college athletics has been slow to do in the past. It’s been forced on us, for good reason. It’s really important that we have standards and we have rules. That’s going to be a challenge going forward. The opportunity to work with young people and have an impact on them, to work with them towards earning a degree, completing a degree, is still going to be very central to our mission.”

“We need things like the College Sports Commission and NIL Go to work. We need that to work. I know there are naysayers, I know there are people that want it to fail out of the gates, but we need that to work. We need Congressional help. We also need to keep including our student athletes and their voice in our decision-making processes moving forward. It’s taken a ton of work to get to this point, it’s going to take a ton more, but I believe college athletics is worth it. It’s going to take everybody to do that. That’s a tall task, but I think those of us involved in it, that have dedicated our lives to it, believe in that and will work hard to achieve those goals.”

On the 2025 football season:

“We are really excited to welcome our two new schools – Delaware and Missouri State. We have a big game week zero, not too far away. We have a conference matchup that could turn into a real critical game for the standings in Sam Houston and WKU.”

“People ask me, ‘Who is going to be your good team this year?’ It’s really hard to tell these days. There’s a stat for everything these days, we have average returning production of 54%, which leads our peers. That tells me we do have a lot of veteran talent coming back that can help guide our teams and help those teams gel a little more quickly.”

“I have a lot of faith in our coaches. We have had some turnover. We have six new coaches this year, that includes the two that are not new to their school, but are new to Conference USA with Delaware and Missouri State. These men get it. They get why they’re doing what they’re doing. They are ultra competitive and have had success at many places. We are confident with that group.”

On the future of the conference:

“Our media package with CBS Sports Network and the ESPN Family of Networks is entering year three. About half of our games will be on linear and half will be on ESPN+. It’s made it very easy for our fans to find our contests. We continue to embrace and build on weekday CUSA. We didn’t want you guys not to have anything to do on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday so we added some games for you. Last year, we had eight games during that period decided by single digits. We also had seven games with 60 or more points. It is a really exciting brand of football. You get to go unopposed. Sometimes you are the only game on TV. That exposure has been really incredible for us as we continue to build the conference.”

On realignment:

“Realignment is hard. I don’t think it ever gets any easier, but I do feel like we’ve done a great job of rebuilding and continuing to position the conference well. I have to give a ton of credit to our Board of Directors which is composed of all our Presidents. They are in charge of membership, and they have been very thoughtful. I do believe the FCS schools that we have brought in to transition have had a lot of success. I’m obviously biased, but I feel like we’ve made a lot of great choices. We have programs that have histories of success. A lot of times it’s a lot easier when you have a program that’s had success at other levels to transition that success forward, but our staff has done a great job with the administrations of each school and really tried to help them. Help them understand what that step is. I don’t know if that’s something we want to be known for – of transitioning schools, but we have had success and we’re excited with the new two that are coming aboard as well.”

“As far as future, we have membership on our board agenda every time we meet. We have a membership committee. It’s active. It’s always looking at different data and doing it for research about what may happen. We are really excited about the 10 we have moving forward. Unfortunately, I can’t predict things. I don’t think anything is going to happen in the time I’m sitting here, but you never know. I put my phone on silent so I wouldn’t get interrupted. You never want to walk out and get surprised, but I do feel very good about our core schools and continuing to grow.”