C-USA still expects to field 14 in football in 2013

[Harry]

Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said Thursday that he expects a 14-team conference in football in 2013.

In response to recent reports that C-USA members Tulane and East Carolina might be able to play in the Big East in the fall, Banowsky clarified it by saying, ”I think they’re with us next year.”

Banowsky said he hopes to produce a C-USA football schedule with defined Western and Eastern divisions by the end of the month.

UTSA will be in the Western Division, he said, before stopping short of sorting out the two seven-team divisions.

Banowsky said UTSA would play six conference games within its division and two against the East.

Presumably, the West would include UTSA, UTEP, North Texas, Rice, Tulsa, Louisiana Tech and Tulane.

Tulsa is the defending C-USA champion.

Presumably, the East would include Southern Mississippi, Middle Tennessee, Alabama-Birmingham, Marshall, East Carolina, Florida International and Florida Atlantic.

Read more: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/utsa/2013/01/c-usa-still-expects-to-field-14-in-football-in-2013/

[Harry]

"We're planning on being a 14-team league, but it definitely could be a 16-team league if MTSU and FAU want to join for next year," assistant commissioner Courtney Morrison-Archer told Owl Access, an FAU-oriented website, earlier this month.

The situation could be sorted out before or during the meeting of the league's athletic directors, next Tuesday and Wednesday in Miami. It has to happen soon, as football scheduling must be done with teams to be assigned divisions in the revamped league.

On the league's western front, the Tulsa World reported Thursday that the University of Tulsa, the small private school with one of C-USA's best all-around athletic programs, could be heading to the Big East. That became a greater possibility this week when San Diego State decided to stay in the Mountain West Conference.

Academics could pay a big role in Tulsa's decision. President Steadman Upham told the World newspaper in December, "Losing two of the private schools [southern Methodist and Tulane] in Conference USA is damaging to me, in the way I think about the conference."

Indeed, all C-USA newcomers are state-supported schools: North Carolina-Charlotte, Old Dominion, FIU, Texas-San Antonio, North Texas, Louisiana Tech, FAU and Middle Tennessee. Old Dominion and the still-infant Charlotte program are planning to work their football teams into full C-USA competition by 2015.

If Tulsa heads to the Big East, speculation for C-USA's next entrant will center on Western Kentucky, a still-young football program now coached by Bobby Petrino.

Read more: http://wvgazette.com/Sports/Marshall/201301170220