What Does 2013 Have in Store for UH?

[Harry]

5. Conference USA Is Dead, Long Live Conference USA

The Cougars are moving from C-USA to the Big East once the upcoming baseball season has ended. The Cougars are making this move in order to up the school's profile and to get in line for better bowl games and more TV money. But the Big East is imploding, and by the time this is posted, the conference could probably have lost two or three or four or five more schools. Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Syracuse have left. Rutgers and Louisville are also leaving. Seven non-football schools have announced they're leaving the conference (these are the so-called Catholic Seven basketball schools). And Boise State and San Diego State are still trying to decide whether to stay or go.

The Big East has started to raid other conferences to stop the bleeding, and the conference raided the most has been Conference USA. Houston, SMU, UCF, Memphis, ECU and Tulane are all in line to join the Big East, and it appears the Cougars have left C-USA for another version of C-USA. So instead of upgrading to a better conference, the Cougars are moving into another equally mediocre conference that might not even be able to get a TV contract that is as good as what they have in the real C-USA.

Read more: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2012/12/houston_cougars_2013.php