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“It makes it exciting,” said North Texas coach Dan McCarney. “We’ve all studied each other in the out-of-season, watching tape and seeing what they have and all that. But you get a lot better feel when you’re coaching against those teams and those coaches and those programs year in and year out — the tenacity, the style, the toughness. How does that team or coaching staff or program handle adversity, how do they handle success in your experiences coaching against them, as opposed to just watching them on tape?” In a reconstituted league like this, a team with a good offensive line or a good quarterback or a couple of playmakers on defense can almost count on scoring an upset over a favorite like Tulsa or East Carolina. read more: http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/post.aspx/Lack_of_familiarity_with_new_C_USA_scary_kind_of_crazy/54-21402

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