Over the past two days Conference USA has lost two schools, including a charter member, and added two new institutions. Here is a recap of all the action including what the league will look like going forward.
On Tuesday, East Carolina and Tulane accepted invitations to join the Big East. Tulane enters the Big East in all sports while ECU will just play football. With the move, the Pirates have to find a new home for their other athletic programs, presumably in the Southern Conference. Both schools will exit C-USA after the 2013-2014 academic year.
In response to losing two members, C-USA added a couple on Wednesday, Middle Tennessee State and Florida Atlantic, from the Sun Belt Conference. MTSU and FAU will hold press conferences today announcing their moves. Although it is not known for certain, you can presume that they will join C-USA following the 2013-2014 academic year.
Later on Wednesday, a rumor broke that Western Kentucky and New Mexico State are on standby to join C-USA. The league would prefer to be at 14 members but, if it suffers further defections WKU and NMSU are waiting in the wings.
Moving forward, here is the composition of C-USA over the next three years.
2013 - 2014
1) Marshall
2) ECU
3) Southern Miss
4) UAB
5) FIU
6) Tulane
7) Louisiana Tech
8) UTEP
9) North Texas
10) Tulsa
11) Texas San Antonio
12) Rice
* Old Dominion and Charlotte will place their Olympic sports in C-USA including basketball but, they will play FCS football.
2014 – 2015
1) Marshall
2) FAU
3) Southern Miss
4) UAB
5) FIU
6) Middle Tennessee State
7) Louisiana Tech
8) UTEP
9) North Texas
10) Tulsa
11) Texas San Antonio
12) Rice
* ODU and Charlotte play their last year of FCS football.
2015 - 2016
1) Marshall
2) FAU
3) Southern Miss
4) UAB
5) FIU
6) ODU
7) Charlotte
8) Middle Tennessee State
9) Louisiana Tech
10) UTEP
11) North Texas
12) Tulsa
13) Texas San Antonio
14) Rice
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