In 2010, Conference USA ceased issuing a preseason poll, and continues to be the only conference in America that doesn’t. The decision is questionable since it deprives the member teams and the media that cover them of a noteworthy blurb leading into the season.

In order to fill the void, kenpom.com commissioned an expert panel to rank the conference’s twelve teams. The panel consisted of USA Today’s Dan Wolken, CBSSports.com’s Matt Norlander, UW-Superior head coach Paul Eberhardt, and 23 other randoms on twitter. But anyone willing to make the effort to rank C-USA teams from 1 to 12 is someone that truly cares about the conference, so don’t disrespect the randoms.

Memphis was the unanimous selection for the top spot, followed by Marshall, UCF, and UTEP.  There’s not a lot of confidence on what’s going to happen in the middle of the conference. Both Tulane and Tulsa received at least one vote for each position except first.

The full voting breakdown is below. Point totals were determined using 12 points for a first-place vote, 11 for second, etc. A sincere thanks to our voters. Because of you, a 2012-13 Conference USA preseason poll will forever be part of the historical college hoops record. (Voters: @TulsaHop, @goad, @otarmy, @jacoblyon, @ShayCrawford87, @BigH1313, @ToddGerkens, @ben336, @OliverBabbles, @nas38117, @thejemily, @c_pete3, @UltimateCrans, @bjpierson, @CoachEberhardt, @L0rv, @jmullen, @owlsblog, @RealDSean, @ConnorPelton128, @thejmquiston, @PKellyMLB, @scottvicker, @MattNorlander, @rhettumpress, @DanWolken)

             1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12  Tot  
 1 Memphis  26  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  312
 2 Marshall  -  8  9  7  1  -  1  -  -  -  -  -  255
 3 UCF       -  9  5  6  3  -  1  1  1  -  -  -  242
 4 UTEP      -  5  3  5  7  3  -  1  2  -  -  -  220
 5 So. Miss  -  1  -  4  5  8  4  2  1  1  -  -  184
 6 UAB       -  1  2  1  5  2  2  6  4  2  1  -  160
 7 Houston   -  -  2  1  1  4  4  6  7  1  -  -  150
 8 Tulane    -  1  1  1  3  5  2  1  1  4  5  2  134
 9 Tulsa     -  1  3  1  1  1  1  4  1  3  7  3  121
10 ECU       -  -  1  -  -  1  9  2  6  3  2  2  120
11 SMU       -  -  -  -  -  1  -  3  2  8  7  5   73
12 Rice      -  -  -  -  -  1  2  -  1  4  4 14   57