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TULSA FINDS ITSELF in an odd situation this fall as a member of Conference USA but with an eye on the American Athletic Conference. The Golden Hurricane will be the favorite in C-USA football this fall and one of the favorites in C-USA men's basketball this winter. However, what's happening in the American Athletic Conference will be important to Tulsa's long-term success. TU will enter its final school year in C-USA as the king of the league. The Golden Hurricane has won 49 conference championships in C-USA, more than twice as many as the second-place school during the same period. Tulsa will leave that all behind when it moves to the AAC next July. How TU fits into the new league will be interesting. Actually, how that league fits together should be a study in modern college athletics. The league will stretch from Connecticut to Houston. The AAC, the old Big East Conference, is basically the old Conference USA. If this all sounds confusing, it should. The AAC was formed to save Connecticut and Cincinnati. To be honest, it would have been easier for Conference USA to add UConn, Cincinnati, South Florida and Temple. Still, the reality is a handful of C-USA schools jumped early to the Big East before the Big East imploded. Thus, when it came time for C-USA teams to make the leap if possible, the natural home was the AAC. "We think the landscape has stabilized and there's a pretty good chance things will stay stable for the foreseeable future," American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco said in a press briefing earlier this summer. Tulsa got caught in the middle. TU would be far more comfortable, and make far more sense, as a member of the Mountain West. Tulsa has geography in common with much of the Mountain West. Read more: http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/TU_watching_closely_as_schools_start_transition_from/20130712_203_B1_TULSAF956545

It is an uncomfortable alliance that brings together 12 schools for the Conference USA Basketball Tournament in Tulsa this week. Why teams are leaving C-USA for a new league with no name and basically the same teams is emblematic of everything that is wrong with conference realignment. Much of what has happened in conference realignment makes little sense. However, the shifting alliances between Conference USA and a yet-to-be-named league with pretty much the same lineup is the strangest move of all. Many believe Tulsa, in the very near future, will join the C-USA defectors in a new league formerly known as the Big East. Any resemblance between the old Big East and the new version, whatever it's called, is pure coincidence. Seven Catholic school members of the Big East are taking the name of the league with them to form a new basketball-only league. That means the league so many C-USA schools seem eager to join has no name, no history and no details of an agreement. There are good reasons why Boise State and San Diego State jumped at the first chance to abandon the no-name league and return to the Mountain West Conference. One has to wonder why some Conference USA schools wouldn't follow the lead of Boise and San Diego State and stay in C-USA. Read more: http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=203&articleid=20130313_203_B1_ITISAN567879

Tulsa may already be in the best position possible for the new BCS formula and playoff. In 2014, just one slot will be available to the highest ranked team from five conferences, the so-called "group of five." That group includes Conference USA, the Big East, Mountain West, Mid-America and Sun Belt. The five power leagues will each be guaranteed one slot in the new BCS bowl and playoffs. Those leagues are the Big 12, Big 10, Southeastern, Pac-12 and ACC. The "group of five" conferences will get an average of about $17.25 million (25 percent of the new contract's payout) each, and the five power conferences will each receive an average of about $91 million (75 percent of the payout), according to an ESPN report. So it begs the question: If moving conferences doesn't involve moving up to one of the five power conferences, why do it? That's the question facing Houston, SMU, Memphis, Boise State and the others that have jumped from one "group of five" league to another. In other words, what's the advantage? Answer? None. Maybe you'll get a little more television revenue, but even that is in question. There is no way anyone with the Big East can predict what the new television deal will be for the Big East or how it will stack up against the Conference USA deal. It might be wise for TU to follow the path of Northern Illinois, which turned a Mid-America Conference championship into an Orange Bowl invitation. Or Boise State, which beat up on a weak WAC to become the darling of the non-BCS leagues. Read More: http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?articleid=20121224_203_B1_TULSAM110266

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Read more: http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=203&articleid=20120429_203_B1_Itwoul112647