Girls of Conference USA

Conference USA is among the nation's newest collegiate conferences, and at first glance it seems an odd collection of schools gerrymandered on a bender. DePaul and the University of Southern Mississippi? Marquette and Louisville? Whose zip code logic is this, anyway? We had to know what these schools have in common, so we packed our bags, and audited some classes. Our mission revealed the secrets of Conference USA: great basketball and the collective pursuit of academic excellence. Then there are the girls, who stopped our hearts. Join us as we give you the highlights.

Meet the lucky guys of UNC--Charlotte (opposite) and five of their beautiful friends. Erica Wally (upper left) pumps iron in the gym when not crunching the books for her history major. Communications major Nicole Ratliff (bottom left) divides her spare time between surfing, soccer, biking and swimming. Business major Sarah Coleman (bottom center) is a model and a preschool teacher. Honolulu native Dannette Stanley (bottom right) is a communications major. She's also an artist and a member of the National Honor Society. Structurally sound Jennifer Lyn Harris (upper right) is an engineering student who teaches aerobics. We imagine that Amy Barnett (above left), a senior English major at the University of Southern Mississippi, is the object and the subject of many love sonnets. Terah Chin (above right), a journalism major, is proud to be part Filipino, part Chinese and part Jamaican and a dancer for the Memphis Redbirds.

University of Memphis senior Natalie Trask (below) arrived at our photo shoot with her mother's blessing. Shannon Kirby (right) says she likes to ride horses. Bareback, apparently. She is a marketing major at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. The admirers of this trio of University of Alabama-Birmingham students (below right) could fill a stadium. Though only a freshman, Jessica Carmichael (center) works as a legal secretary and studies premed, while Nicole Reno (right), a marketing major, volunteers for the March of Dimes. Anna Harris (left) is an Alabaman poised to hit the books.

Education major Elizabeth Edmondson (left) knows her way around a lab. She's a junior at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and is half American, half Asian. Chicagoan Nicolette Reeves (below left) wants to be a chief executive. Last year she won the Presidential Scholarship from DePaul University. Better bone up on your conversation skills, boys. She hates boring people. How would you like to be frisked by Stephanie Heinrich (below)? She's a criminal justice major at the University of Cincinnati who wants to be a cop or probation officer. Still, she says she likes "sweethearts."

The University of Louisville's basketball team is eclipsed by Brittany Leigh, Eva Reneé, Heather Malone and Julie Geoghegan (opposite, from left). East Carolina University sophomore Jessica Mauch (opposite, lower left) is a fashion merchandising major. We found Cara Waronicki, Erin Stubbe and Alicia Goldman (opposite, lower right) e-conferencing at the University of South Florida. DePaul senior Amy Warner (below) showers after a long day studying communications. Dancer Mandy Fisher (right) is a member of the Midwest bikini team, and she wants to be on Broadway someday. For now, she's a senior at the University of Cincinnati. Linda Hubacova (below right) grew up in Czechoslovakia. She's the first person in her family to go to college, and she graduates this year.

Brooke Moore (left) takes time from her East Carolina University class schedule to relax before she pulls up her socks and goes to work. She's a ballet dancer in the top 10 percent of her class, and she volunteers at an animal shelter. University of North Carolina-Charlotte freshman Ami Holley (below) placed second in a recent bikini contest but plans to build a solid career in her major, engineering. Sidra McCain (bottom right) of the University of South Florida wants to be an environmental scientist. She likes people with free spirits who don't judge others by their outsides. Premed major Jennifer Cross (bottom left) of St. Louis University had them standing up and cheering. Imagine if there had been a game.

Southern Mississippi freshman cheerleader Jennifer Johnston (opposite, upper left) could upstage any football game. She's an unconflicted psychology major who spends time working in her garden. To top it off, she's married. Nicole Washington (opposite, lower left) may look at home in the kitchen, but she's also a Southern Mississippi computer engineer. Our Milwaukee readers will bang their heads against a wall when they discover that Marquette's Lauren Marie (opposite, lower right) volunteers in the Brain Injury Unit of a local hospital. Finally, ex-tomboy Skylar Brobson (opposite, upper right) of Tulane is a classical studies major. She knows what actually happened at the original toga parties.

Here are six reasons why the nightclubs of the University of South Florida are hotter than 10 suns (left, from left): Jennifer Boehm, Erika Jasen, Dana Sestokas, Helene Kersey, Genevieve Almodovar and Tiffany Sneed. Tulane senior Laura Langdon (below left) says she's from a small Southern town with "a very conservative culture," and that she wants to be a "self-made woman." She's a cell and molecular biology major, has designed her own website, belongs to two honor societies and will be the first in her family to graduate from college. Consider the mold broken. Vanessa Rains (below) wants to move to New York and work in advertising. And it shouldn't surprise us that at the sweltering University of Houston, the showers turn out to be a gathering place. Here we find Tiffany Richmond, Sabrina Treviño, Ampy Basa, Shiley Coverdale and Carmen Mendes (opposite, from left) just a few precious moments before they towel off for the day.

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