University of Tulsa football: Will the Hurricane’s conference change?
Has the Big East finished its plundering of the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA? According to ESPN, Big East commissioner John Marinatto says his league is finished after taking San Diego State and Boise State from the Mountain West, and Central Florida, SMU, Houston and now Memphis.
So now Conference USA and the Mountain West, which had been talking about a loose confederation anyway, are talking full-fledged merger. Which is probably the best alternative for the beleaguered leagues. But not necessarily the best thing for the University of Tulsa.
Here are the remaining schools in Conference USA: Tulsa, Southern Miss, Texas-El Paso, Rice, Tulane, East Carolina, Alabama-Birmingham and Marshall.
Here are the remaining schools in the Mountain West: Nevada, Fresno State, Nevada-Las Vegas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force and, for football only, Hawaii.
Conference USA would be an apt name for such a 16-team league. Five time zones represented.
Tulsa would be in the geographic center of such a conference. Generally speaking, being in the geographic center of a conference is a good thing. Not this time.
The conference is too wide spread. Tulsa’s closest conference member would be Rice, 500 miles away in Houston. The Hurricane would be without its other recent neighbors. Houston U., SMU and Memphis.
After Rice, the closest conference members are Southern Miss (621 miles), UAB (636 miles), New Mexico (650 mileS), Air Force (677 miles), Tulane (700 miles) and UTEP (800 miles).
That’s a killer travel conference.
And check out a few other mid-major conferences:
Western Athletic: Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State and Utah State, with Denver, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State, Texas-Arlington and Seattle joining soon. Denver, UTA and Seattle don’t play football.
Sun Belt: Arkansas State, Troy, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Arkansas-Little Rock, South Alabama, Troy and Western Kentucky. UALR and South Alabama don’t play football.
Think about that. The state of Louisiana alone has mid-majors in three conferences: the WAC, Conference USA and the Sun Belt. The state of Texas has mid-majors in the same three conferences.
Isn’t it about time we had some conference realignment based on geography? I know, there’s a world of difference between Tulsa and New Mexico State, in terms of commitment to football. Between Tulsa and Texas State.
But wouldn’t it make a lot more sense for TU to be in a league with Arkansas State and North Texas and Louisiana Tech, than in a league with Marshall and East Carolina and San Jose State?
An Oklahoma/Texas/Arkansas/Louisiana league — heck, include Southern Miss, too — would be a decent football conference. Tulsa, North Texas, Texas-San Antonio (which just finished its first year of football), Texas State, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Tulane and Arkansas State.
That’s not like the 1990s, when Tulsa joined a revamped WAC that included the likes of Utah and Brigham Young. But it’s not half bad. And it makes a ton more sense economically.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Quick correction, South Alabama is transitioning into FBS football this year and will be a full member of Sun Belt football in 2013.
The driver for more realignment with a focus on regional conferences is the next BCS contract. The Big East expanded into the mid majors to try and keep its automatic bid. The mid majors across the country joined the Big East because it has the automatic bid. If that goes away in the next round of BCS contract then the rationale for these teams being in the Big East goes away. Why spend all that money for travel and get nothing in return? That may open the possibility for teams to focus on a more regional conference alignment. Why not revive the name SWC? If you had Rice, SMU, and Houston they could claim to be the revival of the conference. You then add Tulsa, North Texas, UTEP, Texas State, Arkansas State, LA Tech, LSU Lafayette, LSU Monroe and you have a nice compact 12 team conference.
Would make aot of sence for sure. Fans want to travel to cities that they like , and not too far. Athletics are for the Fans, and should be the main consideration .Houston, Tulsa, Lafayette, Dallas, Hattiesburg are all nice places to visit and easy to get to.. a winning combination.
Makes sense to this North Texas alum.
I like this “a bit more tweaked” consortium of schools, though.
(1) Tulsa U
(2) Southern Miss
(3) Tulane U
(4) La Tech
(5) U of Louisiana
(6) Middle Tennessee
(7) North Texas
(8) New Mexico State U
(9) Arkansas State U
(10) UTSA