It's hard to say right now if the most recent bomb to drop on college football will have any fallout on Appalachian State.
Conference USA, long rumored to be a preferred landing zone for the Appalachian State football program, merged with the Mountain West Conference on Feb. 13. The leagues had already formed an alliance during the 2011 football season to share certain resources. Now, they'll be one big-happy merged conference.

It's just unclear who will be in that conference.

Reports say that the mid-major mega-conference could have as many as 24 programs. Since both have been raided from mostly the Big East, plenty of good slots are still available.

Appalachian State's and Charlotte's names have been mentioned recently. East Carolina chancellor Steve Ballard said following the merger that both schools would make welcome additions to the league.

His reasons are basic — both are located in North Carolina. East Carolina, the only North Carolina team in CUSA, is located in Greenville, which is located far away from any potential ECU rival.

It's why East Carolina is open to playing Appalachian State in football and men's basketball, the two biggest money-makers. The Pirates should be even more open to the point of playing a football game at Kidd Brewer Stadium, or at least a men's basketball game at the Holmes Center, some time in the near future.

Both programs would benefit from a potential rivalry. Conference USA members for the 2013-14 school year are down to East Carolina, Marshall, Alabama-Birmingham, Tulane, Southern Mississippi, Tulsa, Texas El-Paso and Rice. That's after CUSA lost Memphis, Southern Methodist, Houston and Central Florida to the Big East.

Programs left in the Mountain West for 2013-14 include UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado State and Air Force. Hawaii would play just football in the MWC, but play everything else in the Big West.

ECU's travel miles is already heavy. Playing more games out west will push those miles off the charts.
It's risky enough for Appalachian State to make the move to the FBS. The FCS has been good to the Mountaineers. Thanks mostly to its upset of Michigan in 2007, Appalachian State has national name recognition, which is rare for an FCS team.

Green Gang: It has been well documented that North Texas was on your radar for WAC expansion over the past several years. What made North Texas attractive as a university and more specifically as an athletics department?

Benson: It goes all the way back to 1999, which was the first time that I was on the North Texas campus. I was on the campus a year ago at this time, trying to convince North Texas to come to the WAC. I've seen the new stadium, I've seen the unbelievable growth of the university. To look at the University of North Texas today and to see the 30,000-plus students, the new stadium, the commitment that starts at the top with President Rawlins, the fact that there has been continuity with Rick Villarreal, and the fact that it is 35 miles from Dallas and Ft. Worth, those are all components that make it attractive. As I said before, North Texas has been attractive to the WAC for the last 10 years and is currently on the radar for Conference USA. It is one of the premiere programs in the Sun Belt and I'm looking forward to finally being able to work with Rick and President Rawlins and the outstanding group of coaches that are there. Everyone always talks about "Who is the next Boise State" and I can honestly say why not North Texas?

18. TONY MITCHELL, NORTH TEXAS: 18 pts, 15 reb, 6 blocks, 2 assists, 1 steal, 6-14 FG, 1-3 3PT, 5-10 FT – 2/16 vs. Louisiana-Monroe
Mitchell is like a can of athleticism read to burst on the court. Mitchell's leaping ability and quickness allow him to play above the rim. A versatile forward that can guard multiple positions, Mitchell was a human fly swatter against Louisiana Monroe with six blocks.

f you don't know Ed Weiland yet, you will.

He's the guy who works as a FedEx delivery driver in Bend, Ore., and is a basketball numbers enthusiast whose work appears at the Hoops Analyst website. He's the guy the Wall Street Journal reminded us this week predicted that Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin might make a top NBA point guard.

"Jeremy Lin is a good enough player to start in the NBA and possibly star," Lin wrote in May 2010.

Weiland told the Wall Street Journal there were two current college players his numbers say give them high upsides on the NBA level. One of them is Marquette forward Jae Crowder. The other is 6-8 forward Tony Mitchell of North Texas.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_bianchi/2012/02/ucf-is-hoping-firing-of-ad-tribble-will-lessen-ncaa-blow.html/comment-page-1

UCF will appear before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions in April, but the school announced Monday several self-imposed sanctions in both football and basketball.

On the basketball side, there were no self-imposed postseason bans, but scholarships, recruiting hours and wins were taken away. From the Orlando Sentinel:

Vacate all wins for the three seasons from 2008-2011.
Remove one scholarship for the next two seasons, from 13 to 12.
Reduce the number of coaches allowed to simultaneously recruit off-campus from three to two, while also prohibiting all basketball coaches from engaging in off-campus during two of the three July evaluation periods for the next two years.
Reduce the number of recruiting days to 25.
Issue letters of reprimand to head coach Donnie Jones and assistant coach Darren Tillis. Jones was suspended for the first three Conference USA games, while Tillis was suspended for two.
Jones and Tillis cannot receive bonuses or salary increases for the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years.

There will only be five home football games in the 2012 season. Why?

MASSARO: At some point when you do 2-for-1 (game contracts), you get caught in an odd year. So the return game to Georgia Tech catches you, and the home-and-home with Memphis catches you at the same time. And then there was the NCAA legislation, which at the time had been passed and now it’s on hold, that (allows universities to pay student-athletes full cost of attendance rather than just a scholarship). So thinking of the budget, (I) decided to go ahead and do a guaranteed (road) game until we see the financial impact of that.

What I’d like to do is avoid 2-for-1s because they do make scheduling hard in some years. We’d like to start some home-and-home (series) that we would consider competitive and also challenge ourselves with some modest guaranteed games in the future.

How far along is the construction of the new Floyd Stadium club level?

MASSARO: The center section is out, and we’re going to build it up with a wall. Basically, on the club level in the center section, the first five rows or so will be removed and that’s where the glass wall will be. The exterior look will be different, but once you go inside it’s going to be real nice.

It’s scheduled to be finished in July. (Club membership is available) with a $2,500 level into your BRAA membership. You also get other benefits in that category, obviously. And then it’s $350 per seat, which is far less than Florida Atlantic and North Texas charge (in their new stadiums).

There are currently 13 FBS teams that have at least one spot on their 2012 schedule open, with seven of those teams being in the Big East. Those remaining six teams are:

Star-divide

- Florida State
- Louisiana-Lafayette
- Middle Tennessee
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- North Texas

How about the non-AQ schools? Well, they are all in the Sun Belt conference. Excited yet?

Louisiana-Lafayette has six home games scheduled. Normally, Sun Belt teams are fine with five home games, so they must be giddy to already have six. So the Ragin' Cajuns are definitely an option for a trip to Tampa.

Middle Tennessee already has games at Mississippi State and at Georgia Tech scheduled, and they only have five home games, so they aren't a likely opponent.

North Texas has, gulp, four home games, and games at LSU, at Kansas State, and at Houston. They are probably more desperate for a home game than USF is.

So the best likely FBS opponent for a USF home game is Louisiana-Lafayette. Not exactly inspiring, but better than the alternative: adding a second FCS opponent with Chattanooga already scheduled.

DENTON, Texas — North Texas football coach Dan McCarney is out of the hospital following a stroke last week.

McCarney felt his left side go numb Feb. 12 and was taken to an area hospital. Doctors later confirmed he had a stroke.

A university spokesman says McCarney was released last Thursday and has returned to the office for about an hour each day. McCarney has said he expects to lead the Mean Green through spring drills, which begin on March 28.