CUSA West: Who? Whoosh! Whish!

A longtime NCAA baseball power expanded its prowess in another field last season.

Rice is the defending Conference USA champion, defeating Marshall 41-24 in the title game. This season, the Owls are one of the favorites in the Western Division, so defending their title is a realistic goal. RIce has gone to consecutive bowl games and a third this season might mean they can stop writing letters to cats in order to recruit top talent.

The quarterback position is up for grabs, and the schedule starts out tough at Nôtre Dame and Texas A&M. Still, Rice should rebound from that mini-gauntlet with important games against North Texas and UTSA at home.

North Texas is coming off a bowl win, but they'll have to rebuild their offense to contend in 2014. The Mean Green, under coach Dan McCarney, finished 9-4 last year and has a decent offensive line but is light in the ball-skills positions.

UTSA was 7-5 last season, and coach Larry Coker is looking to make the Alamodome a packed house in 2014. The Roadrunners will feature Tucker Carter at quarterback who will have most of his offensive line back. UTSA has a brutal opening schedule, traveling to Houston, hosting Arizona, and playing at Oklahoma State, and if they survive that, the Roadruners will be battle-toughened sufficiently to win the division. They'll be pegging their chances on a strong defensive performance.

Skip Holtz finished his first year at Louisiana Tech with a 4-8 record. This season he must find a quarterback and defensive line. Holtz's career arc has gone downhill after coaching at Connecticut, East Carolina, and South Florida, and if the Bulldogs have another losing season or two, his patootie will again be searing.

Southern Mississippi and UTEP will fight it out for the cellar unless they can knock off Louisiana Tech. The Golden Eagles, once a small school power, are 1-23 over the past two seasons, with that victory coming in the final game of 2013.

UTEP, which finished 2-10 last season, is hoping that quarterback Jameill Showers -- with his what-might-have-been backstory -- will help second-year coach Sean Kugler get more out of the Miners.

North Texas, Rice, and UTSA are the class of this divsion. The defending champion Owls get both contenders at home and that just may be enough for them to make another appearance in the title game.