The Mountain West Conference and Conference USA have agreed to merge into one football league. The conferences hope the alliance will provide stability as the Big East has targeted five of their current members for admission to the Big East.

The Big East plans to formally invite Air Force and Boise State of the Mountain West and Houston, Southern Methodist and Central Florida of Conference USA to join the conference. Air Force and Boise State would join for football only.

Right now, though, the 12-member Conference USA and 10 football-playing members of the Mountain West will combine in an unprecedented move in college football.

‘The potential of this association is very exciting,’ Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said in a statement. ‘By taking an innovative approach, we feel we can offer tremendous opportunities for exposure and stability without breaking up the regional rivalries that truly make up the college football tradition.’

The merger of the conferences was announced Friday. Later in the day, ESPN reported the Big East sent conditional invitations to Air Force, Boise State, Houston and SMU. The Big East sent a separate invitation to UCF.

If all the schools stay in the new conference, it will have 22 members located in 16 different states, spanning five time zones. The winner of each conference will then meet in a conference championship.

The conferences will merge into a football-only conference without affecting their NCAA status.

Banowsky said in the conference call about the merger that he knew UCF was in discussions with the Big East, but was unaware the Big East contacted Houston and SMU. Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said on the conference call he was aware that Air Force and Boise State were in contact with the Big East.

A Big East spokesman said on Saturday the conference was focused on its own plan to stabilize for the future. After Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Texas Christian left for the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12 Conference, the Big East has just six football-playing schools. The conference needs eight to maintain its Bowl Championship Series status and wants to expand to 12 football-playing schools overall.

The spokesman confirmed the reports of the programs targeted by the Big East, but said he was unaware of any formal invitations being sent out. He said he wouldn’t expect anything formal to happen until Monday at the earliest.

Before formal invitations can be sent to the schools, the Big East presidents must decide what exactly the right course of action is for the conference, the spokesman said.

The Big East also plans to increase the exit fee, according to the spokesman. Reports indicate the exit fee will double from $5 million to $10 million for each time a team leaves the league.

As the Big East finalizes its plans, the Mountain West and Conference USA can only wait and hope the merger is enough to keep their top programs on board. They are hoping the new league also improves their chances to obtain a BCS automatic qualifying bid.

Though the newly created conference expects more national exposure, the move was made to solidify its future as conferences continue to realign.

‘The role of a conference is to provide its members with the best possible environment in which to conduct their intercollegiate athletics programs,’ Thompson said in a statement. ‘Rather than await changes in membership due to realignment, it became clear the best way to serve our institutions was to pursue an original concept.’

rjgery@syr.edu

 

Published on October 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu