C-USA, MWC to dissolve and form new Conference

By Kevin Kelley -

MWC-C-USAConference USA and the Mountain West Conference plan to dissolve and form a new conference, the MWC announced today.

Last October, the two conferences announced that they were combining into one football association. But for legal reasons, both conferences will dissolve and form “…a new intercollegiate athletic association that would begin competition in the 2013-14 academic year.”

This new conference will consist of 18 to 24 universities that span from the East Coast to Hawaii. Furthermore, the conference will have a championship football game that will include two semifinal match-ups.

“This is an exciting development that will stabilize the current conferences and create the first truly national conference with members in five time zones and television viewership from coast to coast. This partnership brings together like-minded institutions to improve the integrity and stability of intercollegiate athletics,” said UNLV President Neal Smatresk. “We are moving our plans forward rapidly and expect to complete our conversations in the near future. Look for further announcements soon as we work together on this exciting new venture.”

The new conference, which has not been named, is expected to initially consist of C-USA teams East Carolina, Marshall, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB and UTEP and MWC members Air Force, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, UNLV and Wyoming. Each school would join the conference in all sports except Hawaii, which would be a football-only member.

CBSSports.com reports that the Temple Owls are a possibility for the 17th member.

Football Schedules:

Comments (28)

But they’ve already registered the names the Big 18 Conference and the Big 24 Conference. So that rules out 16.

This will help give the mid major schools a chance to show how a college football playoff can work or not work. The Big West Schools must be a target as are the Sunbelt schools. So 4 divisions, with each division winner playing in a 4 team playoff. So if Southern Miss, Arkansas St., Air Force, and Utah St. win there divisions,then they would play USM vs ARK.St and AFA vs Utah ST. The winners USM vs AFA in a championship game. there are alot of things that can come out of this, the Big Eastis the conference that is in real trouble.

I would think the WAC would be targeted before both the Sun Belt and the Big West, especially since the Big West isn’t a FBS Conference. Texas State, UTSA, and UT-Arlington (which is supposedly working on restarting their football program) would give them 3 desirable Texas locations and allow a full Texas division to be made with Rice and UTEP (possibly New Mexico State as team #6 in the group). Salt Lake is a market they’ll want to pick back up as well, and Utah State would provide that access.

I like it. Could call it the “Coast to Coast Conference” and for short “C2C”. Awesome set of teams!!!

the Big American conference,wow what a good idea.I think it will benefit both conferences. Marshall,Air force,Colorado State, Hawaii……. great conference. cant wait for the start……

WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD THEY WANT MORE THAN SIXTEEN TEAMS? EIGHT WEST AND EIGHT EAST, THAT’S PERFECT. COAST TO COAST CONF SOUNDS GOOD, C2C. I HOPE THEY DON’T DELUTE THE CONF WITH IDAHO, SAN JOSE STATE AND THE LIKE. IT’S DIFFICULT ENOUGH TO DEFEAT 12 OR 16 TEAMS FOR A CONF CHAMPIONSHIP, 18-24, RIDICULOUS.

I have often thought about a college football playoff. I have a plan that would keep the traditional bowl games plus add a football playoff which would be extremely profitable for the NCAA in terms of additional TV revenues. Money is the name of the game.

To me, the ideal conference size is twelve teams split into two six school divisions with a conference championship game. Each school in a conference would play the other five teams in its division every year plus three of the six teams from the other division. That is eight games automatically scheduled. The other three games in an eleven game schedule would be traditional rivalry games such as USC – Notre Dame and Army – Navy.

Here is my proposal: All college fopotball teams must join a conference. After the dust settles about which team joins which conference, the four strongest conferences would be termed the “Majors”. The eight teams playing in the four “major” conference championship games would be in the sweet sixteen of the college football play off.

All other college conferences would finish their schedules a week before the Majors and have their conference championships the week before the Major’s conference championship games. Twelve of the less than major conference champions would be selected to play for an additional six slots in the sweet sixteen. Those twelve teams would play for the six sweet sixteen slots the same week-end as the Major’s championship games. The other two teams in the sweet sixteen would be the two strongest teams from the four major conferences who are not participating in the major’s conference championship games.

Pairings and game sites would be at the discretion of the NCAA.

The existing bowl games would remain and could select whatever teams they wanted with the only stipulation being that a team could not be selected to play in a bowl game as long as it was still alive in the football playoff.

Think of the interest that would be generated by such a play off. It would put “March Madness” to shame. The bowl games would continue with their profitable TV contracts and the NCAA would sell the playoff TV contract for big bucks. Talk about a win – win for everybody, football fans, University Presidents, and the NCAA.

I think the name should stay Conference USA. I mean it spans from Hawaii to the East Coast for cryin out loud!

agree! Also, since folks like to “silly speak”, will this new conf. require 100% round robin for baseball, women’s tennis & softball, golf, cross country, etc? I’d love to see the new travel budgets for these schools!!

So…basically the shitty reject teams from the MWC and C-USA combined into an ultra shitty mega conference. Cool.

Maybe a lot of teams but it would mean a sort of playoff in major college football. An added plus is this conference’s champ would mean something. Ask LSU how important winning the SEC regular season title was last year.

Frequent Flyer Conference (sponsored by JetBlue). Maybe take in the losers from the Big Least like UConn, Temple, Rutgers, USF, Boise State, San Diego State.
Louisville and Cincinnati will find a home in the SEC or ACC.

Name Conference USA is just fine. I forsee this conference growing in status over the new few years and becoming the No 1 football conference in the nation. When that happens, please DO NOT allow any current SEC, Big 12, or Big East to apply for entry into Conference USA. No matter how much they plead, their entry into Conference USA should be denied for at least 35 years.

Idk about number one but this conference will pave the way for a new type of football competitiveness

I agree that C-USA would fitting for a conference that spans the country. They’d also have some good teams as Nevada is solid, Tulsa and Fresno State are good. Although I’d like to see some more quality teams join though.