From the Birmingham News, "C-USA has how many teams?"

C-USA has how many teams?

The Conference USA men's basketball preseason guide arrived in the mail earlier this week. The entire cover was dedicated to Memphis. You have to flip over to the back to see small pictures of each of the other 11 C-USA teams.

You would be silly to argue against Memphis being the marquee men's basketball program in C-USA the last two years. Celebrating the Tigers' 16-0 C-USA mark and preseason No. 1 mention by some outlets make sense.

Conference officials have spent the past two seasons trying to send out the message that the newly-configured C-USA will consistently become a league that deserves more than one bid into the NCAA Tournament. But what does this cover suggest? Yep, it suggests that the only conference team that's worthy of mention is Memphis.

Some C-USA men's basketball coaches have suggested that Memphis gets preferential treatment. This seems like another example the opposing coaches can use in that argument.

Steve Irvine --