Conference USA, Mountain West Plan Football Merger
The Mountain West Conference and Conference USA say they are combining their football programs to form a 22-team league.
The new conference will spread across five time zones from North Carolina to Hawaii.
Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson says the leagues made the move to join instead of waiting for teams to be poached or otherwise affected by conference realignment.
Commissioners of the two leagues formulated this creative and innovative plan with the support of the presidents, chancellors and athletics directors.
The 12 members of Conference USA and 10 football-playing members of the Mountain West will join forces for this strategic landmark in college football.
“This creative partnership between C-USA and Mountain West will position both conferences to achieve stability, leverage our exposure and renew old rivalries, and enable UTEP to continue to compete in Texas. We strongly support this exciting development,” UTEP President Diana Natalicio said.
UTEP Athletic Director Bob Stull said this concept provides a tremendous opportunity to maximize our exposure, revenue and postseason opportunities, while stabilizing both conferences through a footprint that stretches from Hawaii to Florida.
“The idea was first presented last year, and we would like to thank Commissioner Banowsky and Commissioner Thompson for bringing it to fruition in a relatively short period of time. We’re excited about maintaining our current rivalries and perhaps rekindling some old ones,” Stull said.
“We’re ecstatic about the move,” UTEP football coach Mike Price said. “I’m all for increasing revenue and exposure, and I know our fans will love playing schools from our past. It should be a lot of fun.”
The current 22 members are located in 16 different states, offering a prospective 16-hour window for competition. Conference USA has existing television partnerships with Fox Sports and CBS Sports, as well as ESPN for its championship game. The Mountain West has partnerships with CBS Sports and Comcast/NBC Universal. The two conferences will merge into a separate football-only entity without affecting their status within the NCAA structure.
The conferences did not say when the merger would take place, nor what the new association would be called.
