With Loss os SMU/UH UTEP Looks West

[Harry]

Whenever someone with an opinion asked UTEP Athletic Director Bob Stull if the Miners would ever rejoin their old rivals from what used to be the Western Athletic Conference, Stull would always play the good Conference USA soldier.

His point was that UTEP was fine staying on board with other Texas schools such as Houston and SMU.

That east-bound train pulled out of the station Wednesday.

With Houston, SMU and UCF now all officially moving to the Big East, UTEP's future suddenly has a west-looking feel.

Stull confirmed that the Mountain West and C-USA, which had already announced a football merger, are now examining a union in all sports.

The MWC's membership is slated to be at eight teams for the 2013-14 season in football, and seven in all others after the departures of Boise State and San Diego State for the Big East.

C-USA is slated to have nine members and there's an easy way to balance the two sides in a merger.

"The real value of Conference USA, the reason we went when the WAC was being dismantled, is we wanted to stick with Houston, Rice, SMU, people we had connections with," Stull said.

"With two of those teams now departing, geographically it makes more sense at this point to be more aligned with the West side, the original WAC."

If UTEP was moved to a West division of the merged conference, it would be in with UNLV, Wyoming, New Mexico, Color ado State, Air Force, Nevada and Fresno State in all sports, with Hawaii in football only

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Read More: http://www.elpasotimes.com/minersmania/ci_19494570

[kalebschumann]

Don't forget about your other Texas Universities!

[wardly]

AFA officially told Big East today that they are staying in MWC. if UTEP does move from CUSA to MWC, that would give the MWC 9 football programs and CUSA only 8, leaving a spot open.in addition, while the Big East presently has 8 football programs, they will be losing Pitt,Syracuse,and WV in next 2 years.the addition of SMU,Houston,UCF,Boise,and SDSU for 2013 will only get them to 10 football programs. with their stated goal of 12 schools and West/East divions, they still are 2 programs short. Navy is having 2nd thoughts, but both Temple and ECU are waiting in the wings. problem with Temple is Nova is dead set against their inclusion as they want Philly all to themselves. bottom line is that CUSA needs one program now, and perhaps another later if ECU is invited to Big East.bottom line, we still have hope for inclusion into a merged CUSA/MWV,which i refer to as "The Continental Conference".