Last week, Conference USA announced the additions of FAU and Middle Tennessee State for the 2013 season, followed by the conference’s divisional alignment.
Seeing as the roulette wheel of realignment never really stops spinning, that setup could be altered in the not-too-distant future with the losses of East Carolina and Tulane to the Big East, and the additions of Old Dominion and UNC-Charlotte. It’s possible that Tulsa could be departing as well.
The Tulsa World reported earlier this month that a Big East invitation could be coming soon, and that Tulsa could even be on the Mountain West’s radar. Tulsa president Steadman Upham told the Tulsa World in December that he would like to be in the same conference as SMU and Tulane, two schools with similar academic profiles.
But there could be a hang-up with the Big East because of the ongoing negotiations for the conference’s television contract. The USA Today reports that the Big East would prefer to make Tulsa the conference’s 12th member, but that “a final decision won’t be made until the league is closer to finalizing a television contract.”
The Big East has been in negotiations on the open market since an exclusive window with ESPN closed last year. There’s no doubt the process has taken longer than the Big East expected (thanks, realignment!), but a new deal should be coming soon.
The Big East will operate as a 10-team football conference in 2013. Louisville and Rutgers will likely depart for the ACC and Big Ten, respectively, in 2014 with East Carolina and Tulane joining that year. Navy is scheduled to join as a football-only member in 2015. That schedule of additions and subtractions would put the Big East at 11 members. The addition of a 12th team, which the Big East has made no secret about wanting, would give the conference an opportunity for a championship game.