AP: Regents approve UT-San Antonio move to Conference USA

Harry · May 3, 2012

AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas System regents have approved letting UT-San Antonio move to Conference USA in 2013
The Roadrunners went 4-6 in their inaugural football season as an independent in FCS last year, but the program has sought to accelerate its national profile. The school will play in the Western Athletic Conference this year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/regents-approve-ut-san-antonio-move-to-conference-usa/2012/05/03/gIQAXsdyyT_story.html

Harry · May 3, 2012

More updates from the other Dan McCarney's blog:

Update, 9:30 a.m.

The UT System Board of Regents has granted UTSA permission to accept an invitation to join the Conference USA. The league is expected to make a formal announcement regarding its new additions around this time tomorrow morning.

Update, 4 p.m.

UTSA’s bid to join Conference USA has received unanimous approval from the UT System Board of Regents academic affairs sub-committee, and will be voted on Thursday in Austin by the full board.

Some quick comments from university president Dr. Ricardo Romo:

* “(The bid) is going good. We had a really good meeting (with the academic affairs sub-committee). They were very accepting. They understand what’s going on, the dynamics, and why we need to be accepting this invitation. Hopefully it will get through. You never know until it’s over. We feel pretty good. We’re not finished on it, but we’re running well.”

* “A year ago, nobody could have anticipated these dominos falling. With luck and opportunity and good people, we were in a strong position to do something like this.”

* “Very few schools, if any, have gotten this far, this fast. The three conferences we talked to (C-USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt), they just loved the market, they loved the enthusiasm of the fans, and they loved that, because of coach (Larry) Coker, we have already signed up some really good (non-conference) games. That’s a real good signal we’re taking this seriously. It was really impressive to the conferences. That’s another indication of the level we’ve arrived at, by simply noting who wants to play us. That spoke really highly for what we’ve been doing.”

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OK, after checking in with Dr. Romo’s handler, what we saw today online was apparently the academic affairs sub-committee of the UT System Board of Regents. The approval there was to move UTSA’s bid along to the full board for tomorrow’s rubber stamping.

So the original timeline, as far as I’ve been told, remains:

Thursday: Rubber stamp

Friday: Official announcement from C-USA, followed by press conference

Read more: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/utsa/2012/05/utsa-gets-c-usa-approval-friday-announcement-pending/