From Conference USA

Edited for HI by Woody Woodrum

May 4, 2012

IRVING, Texas - Conference USA, the league Marshall University has belonged to since leaving the Mid-American Conference in 2005, will be adding five schools to replace four who will leave the league after the 2012-13 season.

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte), Florida International University (FIU), Louisiana Tech University, University of North Texas and University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have finalized comprehensive membership agreements with Conference USA, Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced May 4.

“We are excited about adding these new members as part of our bold strategy that focuses on growing institutions in large media markets,” Banowsky said.

“There is a tremendous upside here. This is an opportunity for us to add a mixture of established and emerging programs. We also remain committed to divisional scheduling models that are student-athlete and fan-friendly.

“The more we analyzed it, the more it made sense."

Each new member will join the league in all sports for 2013, Charlotte will begin conference participation in football in 2015, as the 49ers first season of football is set for two seasons at the FCS (I-AA) football for 2013, headed up by former Marshall assistant Brad Lambert as the first coach at Charlotte for football.

The metro area population of these schools is nearly 18 million, including Dallas-Fort Worth for North Texas; Charlotte, who left the league for the Atlantic 10 in 2005; south Florida and the Miami area for FIU; San Antonio for UTSA, the only Division I football program for nearly 80 miles in central Texas; and Ruston, La. for Tech.

Members of Conference USA include those who joined in the 2005-06 season including Marshall University and Rice University, the University of Tulsa and the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP), who joined from the WAC.

Those schools joined members who still belong to the league - East Carolina University, the University of Southern Mississippi, Tulane University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Teams leaving for the Big East Conference in 2013 include Houston, Memphis, SMU and UCF.

In 2005, the league lost Charlotte and St. Louis to the A-10, and lost Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida to the Big East.

Divisions for the new line-up will be set in the near future, as all 12 schools except for Charlotte will play football in 2013.

The conference intends to continue hosting the C-USA Football Championship game, won last season by Southern Miss over Houston.

Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference have and will continue to discuss a future affiliation that could begin as early as 2013.

Both conferences agreed that adding membership at this time was important and have carefully coordinated new membership plans.

Additional expansion remains a possibility, according to the C-USA release.

Old Dominion University in the Hampton Roads area of eastern Virginia, a current member of the Colonial Athletic Association, has been named by a number of news sources as a possible new school for C-USA.

Also mentioned but not addressed in the release include rumors of UTEP possibly being a team to switch from C-USA as it stands to the Mountain West.

“The discussions with the Mountain West are ongoing," Banowsky said.

“What form the relationship will take is still to be determined, but both remain committed to working together.”

The Mountain West Conference will add Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii for football only in 2012 to members Colorado State, Wyoming, UNLV, Boise State, San Diego State, Air Force and New Mexico.

The MWC will lose Boise State and San Diego State to the Big East (for football, other leagues for Olympic Sports) after this season, but Utah State and San Jose State have announced they will join the Mountain West in 2013.

The defection of WAC teams Fresno State, Nevada, Hawaii (football), Utah State and San Jose State, along with Texas State and Texas-Arlington to the Sun Belt and UTSA and Louisiana Tech to Conference USA, will leave the WAC with only New Mexico State and Idaho as football playing members in 2013, with Boise State, Denver and Seattle

Administrators of existing C-USA schools praised Banowsky’s efforts in restoring the league to 12 members in the face of another raid by the Big East, twice taking C-USA schools away in the last seven years.

"The Presidents and Chancellors of Conference USA universities are pleased to welcome these five distinguished institutions to C-USA," said Dr. Scott Cowen, Tulane University president and Chair of Conference USA's Board of Directors.

"Conference USA has always operated in a way that reflects the values of higher education and works very hard to balance the athletics and academic interests of its student-athletes at the highest level. These institutions clearly share those values."

Here is a quick look at the five new members of Conference USA:

• Charlotte has an enrollment of 25,063 and sponsors 16 sports, with football beginning competition in 2013. In 2015, the team will play a full conference schedule in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The 49ers are making a return to C-USA, where they were members from 1995-2005. During that time, Charlotte went to eight NCAA Tournaments in men's basketball, winning the C-USA Championship in 1999 and 2001. Charlotte is the No. 25 media market, reaching more than 1.1 million households. (More info on Charlotte)
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• Florida International has an enrollment of 48,000 and sponsors 18 sports. It is one of the fastest growing universities in the United States. The football team has been to bowl games the past two seasons, including a win in the 2010 Little Ceasars Pizza Bowl. The men's soccer team has been an affiliate member of C-USA since 2005. FIU is located in Miami and the No. 16 media market. (More info on FIU)
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• Louisiana Tech has an enrollment of 11,743 and sponsors 16 sports. In 2011, the Bulldog football team won the WAC Championship and participated in the Poinsettia Bowl. The women's basketball program has participated in 27 NCAA Tournaments, including 25 straight, advancing to 13 Final Fours, playing in eight national championship games and winning three national titles. (More info on Louisiana Tech)
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• North Texas has an enrollment of 35,694 and sponsors 16 sports. Since 2003, North Texas has developed more than 12 new athletics facilities as part of a 200-acre Mean Green Village. Competition venues, training facilities and meeting space have been upgraded for all 16 sports since then, including the crown jewel - brand new $78 million state-of-the-art Apogee Stadium that opened in 2011. UNT has approximately 336,000 living alumni, with 216,000 living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area - the No. 5 media market in the nation. (More info on North Texas)
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• UTSA is a rapidly growing university and has an enrollment of 30,968 and sponsors 17 sports. In their first season of football in 2011, the Roadrunners averaged 35,521 for their games at the Alamodome. UTSA is the only NCAA Division I program in San Antonio, a market that reaches more than 880,000 television households. (More info on UTSA)