Too early to know impact of Memphis' departure on UTEP By Bret Bl

[Harry]

With numerous published reports confirming that Memphis is close to joining the Big East for the 2013 football season, UTEP athletic director Bob Stull said it's too early to know what the impact will be on the Miners.

Conference USA, which is on track to have eight teams by fall of 2013, has announced plans to merge its football programs with the Mountain West, which currently has eight football teams (seven schools in all other sports). Stull said the leagues are discussing a merger in all sports.

UTEP has widely been assumed to be a leading candidate to relocate to a Western division with the Mountain West schools such as New Mexico, and Stull said Memphis' defection would likely not impact this.

"A bunch of people want to join the conference on both sides," he said. "Once a commitment is made on both sides, then we'll meet to discuss who goes where, how it will be set up, etcetera etcetera.

"I don't think any one team leaving is going to affect anybody."

There is no official timeline to formally announce a merger of the Mountain West and C-USA in all sports, as membership is too fluid at the moment, but Stull said it could come this summer.

The C-USA league office has said it and the Mountain West are exploring a partnership in sports other than football, but has given no specifics.

As for adding teams, the Mountain West shares a geographic footprint with the WAC and C-USA with the Sun Belt.

"We could add one team on the East side, two teams on each side, there are a lot of options," Stull said

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