UAB AD Stating 4 Options on the Table

Harry · April 18, 2012

UAB's AD, Brian Mackin was on local radio this morning talking about yesterday's reports that the merger was off.

He answered that question bluntly: The full merger is one of 4 options still on the table. Those stories were false and were not from a legitimate source.

He touched on the options still being considered briefly:

• Full merger of Conference USA & the Mountain West Conference, effective July 1, 2013.
• Graduated merger of Conference USA & the Mountain West Conference, probably beginning with football and eventually leading to a complete merger.
• Marketing & scheduling alliance with both conferences maintaining their separate identities.
• Remaining as is. In this case he stated C-USA would add 4 new members to get back to 12.

He felt that the 16 presidents should make a decision at their meeting late this month.

Read more: http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=566174

Bottomgreen · April 18, 2012

Its starting to feel like cusa mwc is hazing us with random alliance news. Membership is ours after hell week.

NorthTexan95 · April 18, 2012

Hopefully they will make some decision this month. One interesting comment from that thread linked to is if they merge slowly then all the MWC football teams could play in the CUSA as a starting point to a future full merger.

shaft · April 19, 2012

This is great information. It makes a lot of sense. But it is also from a thread with Charlotte fans creeping on construction cam to claim guys in suits = merger.

PlummMeanGreen · April 19, 2012

Only reason merger sounded good to some of us was if it got North Texas admitted and better TV revenues for all than the 2 leagues previously received as separate conferences .

If UNT gets into CUSA the merger sounds kind of like some kind of quasi-security blanket but moreso security for 2 conference commissioners than the schools themselves seems to me.

Not really sure about this delay in announcing some of the schools who will be getting in if not all, though. Sure didn't take the Big East any time in doing so and if AQ is taken off the table (which it should) then their stock will have gone a bit south while CUSA and the MWC will have gone, uh, north.

GMG!

Edited April 19, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen