With its championship planted firmly at Western Kentucky, Conference USA will unveil its all-conference teams, all-freshman team and major awards this week. It will serve as a final insult to suddenly suffering Marshall fans.
In the previous four years, those fans have been spoiled by all the excellence rightly honored by league coaches. In 2015, 15 players made the first team, second team or honorable mention all-conference teams, and/or the all-freshman team. The breakdown was three on first, five on second, seven honorable mention and one all-freshman player.
Evan McKelvey was named defensive player of the year.
(Deandre Reaves was honored in two categories, accounting for a 16th honor.)
That represented a slight decline from 2014, when 19 were honored including an unthinkable 10 on the first team. None of the 13 other teams had more than three.
The Herd had two second-teamers, five honorable mention and three all-freshmen. Tommy Shuler was named twice, accounting for a 20th honor.
Rakeem Cato was named offensive player of the year and Neville Hewitt was the defensive player of the year.
In 2013, the Herd had 20 players honored - four on first team, five on second, seven honorable mention and five all-freshman picks. (Corey Tindal was an all-league and all-freshman selection.) Cato was the offensive player of the year.
Even the 5-7 team of 2012 had nine honorees - two on first team, three on the second and four all-freshman. Cato was the most valuable player.
And keep in mind the Herd's 2012 honors came in the former C-USA alignment, with a stronger lineup top to bottom.
Did you become spoiled? You know what's coming this week - a possible skunking on the first and second teams. That hasn't happened in MU's Conference USA era, which began in 2005.
In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1985, a 7-3-1 season in the Southern Conference, for the Herd to get blanked. (That league honored a single unit in those days.)
So who would qualify on this year's 3-9 Herd?
The offensive line will get blanked. Michael Selby and Clint Van Horn were the preseason picks, but they were less than 100 percent (and eventually, out) much or all of the season. The Herd was last in C-USA in yards per carry (3.3) and rushing yards per game (108.2).
Tight end Ryan Yurachek should be an honorable mention pick because the coaches know how good he really is. He split playing time and catches with Emanuel Byrd, and both may have been underused.
Forget the running back committee (see above numbers). Forget quarterback Chase Litton.
Defensive ends Gary Thompson and Ryan Bee are honorable mention possibilities, but that's it. Thompson was a preseason pick, but had only five sacks and eight tackles for loss, well down the league rankings. Bee had 6.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks.
None of the linebackers stood out. Cornerback Rodney Allen is the Herd's best candidate for the second team, as he led the league in pass breakups (12) and passes defended (14, 12 breakups and two interceptions).
The all-freshman team is tougher to handicap, as the pool of candidates varies. Really, MU has two candidates: Center Levi Brown and cornerback Chris Jackson.
So when the all-league teams roll out this week, you can count the players from Western Kentucky, Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion, Middle Tennessee, etc. You'll have to look hard to see a Marshall representative.
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In 2013, linebacker Stefan Houston and cornerback Corey Tindal were named to the all-freshman team. In 2014, wide receiver Angelo Jean-Louis and defensive back Antavis Rowe were honored.
Tindal was an honorable mention selection in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Tiquan Lang was honorable mention in 2015.
Yeah, you know what those gentlemen had in common - they left before exhausting their eligibility. From a purely talent perspective, they all were missed this fall.
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I refuse to end this on a negative note. The women's basketball team shall bail this column out.
Like the men's team, the Herd lost its game Saturday, but that loss was more impressive to the eye - an 82-80 setback to Penn State. That comes a few games after a season-opening 55-53 win at Illinois.
Taylor Porter scored a career-high 24 points, though the Nittany Lions foiled her chance to give the Herd the lead with 19 seconds left.
Yes, I know Penn State and Illinois combined for a 21-40 record last year, with Illinois 2-16 in league play. But I also know how low the MU program sank not many years ago, and saw it advance to the C-USA tournament semifinals last March.
On Wednesday, the Herd (5-2) takes the floor at North Carolina for the last nonconference road game.
Underdogs? Yes. Confident? You bet, for that game and beyond.
Four-plus years are paying off for coach Matt Daniel, who has that program on a serious uptick.