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Wood Selig was athletic director at Western Kentucky for nearly 11 years until his departure for the same position at Old Dominion in 2010. Now, Selig is taking ODU from the Football Championship Subdivision level to the Football Bowl Subdivision level in Conference USA. ODU resides in the Norfolk-Portsmouth (Va.) media market, which ranks 44th in the nation. C-USA has since added Sun Belt Conference members Florida International, North Texas, Florida Atlantic and Middle Tennessee, and WKU has been buzzed about in regard to future expansion. Selig had a heavy hand in many of the facilities renovations at WKU, along with the program’s move to the FBS. He also hired football coach Willie Taggart. The Daily News’ Zach Greenwell talked to Selig by phone Thursday night about Conference USA, the Sun Belt, future realignment and all things WKU. The conversation has been edited for length. Daily News: How do you feel about the current status of Conference USA? Wood Selig: “I really like the direction of Conference USA. The additions that Conference USA has made have been very similar in that they’re large, metropolitan universities in large, metropolitan media markets. ... You’re talking about some of the top major media markets and upcoming metro universities with medical schools and dozens of doctoral programs. It’s universities and athletic programs on the rise.” DN: Just how important are media markets during this time of realignment? WS: “They’re trying to build their TV value – their cable network value. It’s all eyeballs and TV households. Those are primary factors for expansion, and they also want to get quality academic institutions that either fit within their footprint or strategically allow them to expand their footprint.” Read more: http://www.bgdailynews.com/sports/selig-keeping-eye-on-c-usa-sun-belt-wku/article_9111226e-3b03-11e2-9963-0019bb2963f4.html

Losing East Carolina, which along with Tulane announced earlier this week that it was joining the Big East, was a huge blow to Conference USA. There’s no way to sugarcoat that news, and frankly, most C-USA officials didn’t try. The Pirates have the most rabid football following in the league, who loyally fill Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium’s 50,000 seats. The Pirates have a long tradition of winning. And for Old Dominion, especially, it was a tough loss. ECU is the closest Football Bowl Subdivision team to Norfolk. Officials envisioned a spirited rivalry between the two schools when the Monarchs begin playing C-USA football in 2014. Yet C-USA officials reacted quickly, adding Middle Tennessee State and Florida Atlantic on Wednesday, and in the process, improved the league's television profile. The league added two pretty good football programs. Middle Tennessee has the Sun Belt’s best team. The Blue Raiders have won the Sun Belt Conference all-sports trophy eight times and their football team, 8-3 entering its regular-season finale on Saturday, upset Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Florida Atlantic, also from the Sun Belt, opened a breathtakingly beautiful $70 million, 30,000-seat stadium on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in 2011 and although 3-8 this season, has won two bowl games. Neither has the football resume of ECU, but both programs will be stronger than Tulane, a C-USA bottom feeder whose games at the Louisiana Superdome draw embarrassingly small crowds. Big East officials touted the New Orleans media market when they welcomed the Green Wave. But having lived in New Orleans as a child, and having visited there a dozen times since, I can tell you that Tulane is but a footnote in New Orleans market. The Saints and Hornets and LSU football are all the rage in the Big Easy. Read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2012/11/conference-usa-responded-well-it-could-have

No less an FAU visionary than Howard Schnellenberger — founder of the football program and former Owls coach — was pleased with move … and aware of the high stakes. “As conferences eroded, this appeared to be our moment of truth,” Schnellenberger said. “Imagine it? I planned for it. This was our long-range strategy.” Schnellenbeger’s biggest dreams, to be honest, had to do with someday joining a higher-profile group than Conference USA, but his measure of satisfaction is understandable given current circumstances. FAU Athletic Director Pat Chun recognized Schnellenberger’s grasss-roots efforts on what he called a “momentous day” for the Owls. “This provides stability for us,” Chun said. “This puts us in a different scope. This is a big win for us.” That victory is spelled m-o-n-e-y. Chun estimated that FAU’s annual take from television revenues alone will increase from “something less than $50,000” as a Sun Belt member to “between $750,000 and $1 million” as part of Conference USA’s lineup. “It’s a huge reason why we’re doing this,” Chun said. There also will be more opportunities for participation in bowl games. Chun applauded FAU President Mary Jane Saunders for her organizational skills in allowing the school to prepare an application to Conference USA in quick response to the “chain reaction” of realignments. Chun and Saunders also thanked rival FIU for its support of FAU’s membership initiative to Conference USA. They thanked FIU President Mark Rosenberg and Athletic Director Pete Garcia, but Chun couldn’t resist a dig by saying, “I can be in rivalry mode. That school to the south helped us.” The Shula Bowl, which appeared to be in danger of ending had FAU and FIU existed in different conferences, now will be saved. Read more: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/sports/college-football/greg-stoda-moving-to-conference-usa-a-victory-for-/nTJpK/

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - After Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky welcomed Middle Tennessee State and Florida Atlantic to the league on Thursday, he took time to share his own opinions on the sudden realignment and changes to conferences over the past week. It started with Maryland and Rutgers joining the Big Ten, making it soon to be a 14-team conference. The Atlantic Coast Conference picked up Louisville from the Big East. The Big East had already swiped Tulane and East Carolina from Conference USA before Conference USA took Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic from the Sun Belt Conference. "I believe the volatility around conferences is not healthy and particularly harmful to higher education," Banowsky said during a Thursday media teleconference. "Every time the system gets shocked, it's harder to restore trust and collaboration among universities and conference at a time where we really need to be thinking how we make American higher education better for everyone. "When we start ripping the fabric or start putting a lot of stress on the fabric, things separate. When it's not woven tightly, it's not good for the United States. It's not good for higher education. It's just a mess." Read more: http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/11/conference_usa_welcomes_two_ne.html

This is a tough one that I started thinking about in the Pick ems contest with South Alabama and UT San Antonio playing each other. I think in the end though I wish South Alabama well, I decided to pull for the Road Runners and Coach Larry.

Curtis Johnson, age 29, struck a hip pose among the youth in New Orleans in 1991. He even had hair back then. Tulane football coach Curtis Johnson has area players considering his program Clad in a suit and tie, Johnson stepped into his hometown as a top recruiter/assistant coach from San Diego State, promising his head coach to pull some big fish out of the Big Easy and Louisiana-wide. Twenty-one years later, Johnson is the 50-year-old first-year Tulane head coach, tasked with the same thing — reaping talent from the local area. But one recruit changed everything for Johnson and it explains Johnson’s charisma. To understand what Johnson is doing now, you have to hear the original Coup d’état recruiting story — the tale of how Johnson stole Hall of Fame talent Marshall Faulk out of LSU’s back yard. Faulk was a gifted Carver player with 4.3 speed in the 40, but was coveted for his play at defensive back — not his preferred position of running back. And he wasn’t Johnson’s top target in the state — Fred Harris, a defensive end from Shreveport, was. But after seeing film in the Carver fieldhouse of Faulk, Johnson promised Faulk a recruiting visit and swore to Faulk he could play tailback at San Diego State. But it wasn’t until the logistics of the official recruiting trip got so tangled that Johnson positioned himself for perhaps the biggest recruiting heist in the history of the area. Faulk’s father died in the days before his visit to San Diego State, something many would have thought would have given LSU or a closer school an edge. But Faulk still agreed to come visit Johnson and the Aztecs in California. Back then coaches could escort recruits on their visits, and Johnson arrived at the New Orleans airport to find Faulk ready to go. But instead of boarding a plane, fog delayed their flight for hours. Then fog delayed their flight in Houston. Young, hip coach and kid-whose-dad-just-died stiffly regarded each other in the airport. “I didn’t know what else to say,” Johnson said. “I’ve never been a suit-and-tie guy, so I looked at Marshall and said, ‘Hey, this is the bottom line with this trip: we’re going to make the best of the trip.’ I said I’m taking my tie off and I’m getting on some shorts and we’re just going to sit back, kick it, and have some fun. So I took my suit and tie off, he took his suit and tie off and put on shorts and we just started talking and laughing and joking. We didn’t arrive in San Diego until about midnight.” Never had a botched travel agenda reaped so much advantage. Though Faulk barely uttered a word on his visit once stepping on campus, the bond had been established.

The proposed marriage between the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA ended before it got to the altar. The two conferences agreed in October to merge, but after running into difficulties forming an alliance, they tried to create some sort of working relationship. That didn't pan out, either. So Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson, speaking Wednesday morning at the conference football media days at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, said the deal is off - for now at least. He said several factors played into the split, such as different TV contracts, scheduling issues and C-USA's expansion to three schools in the Eastern time zone. "The decision was made several months ago - take care of your own," Thompson said. "Our people said, 'We're not really interested in flying to Miami and Charlotte (N.C.) and Norfolk, Va., no offense to those three institutions. Nor were they interested in flying to Fresno (Calif.) and Logan, Utah, etc. Read more: http://www.lvrj.com/sports/mountain-west-goes-it-alone-163824886.html

Banowsky expects to have an "ongoing conversation" with the league's officials this year as they consider expansion. At the start of the 2015 season, C-USA is set to have 14 all-sports members. On Wednesday, Banowsky said he wasn't sure on how that league would be divided geographically. "We haven't gotten into the discussion of divisions," he said. "Some of that will depend on maybe our future expansion strategies." That statement by Banowsky indicates a league that's not close to settling for 14 teams, and the league's coaches said Wednesday they support the commissioner's efforts to strengthen the league. "There's a lot of change, but I really mean this - the commissioner has attacked this with a very strong strategic play," Rice Coach David Bailiff said. "We're losing SMU, but we're gaining North Texas that's a (Dallas/Fort Worth) Metroplex school. We lost UCF, but we're getting FIU. The footprint is where we want it in the conference."

Tulsa head coach Bill Blankenship sees a lot of similarities when it comes to the Golden Hurricane and the Mean Green when it comes to their football programs. Tulsa upgraded its facilities and saw the investment pay dividends quickly. Blankenship foresees a similar payoff in the future for UNT, which opened Apogee Stadium last season. Read more:http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2012/07/tulsa-coach-sees-unt-as-a-perfect-fit-expects-new-stadium-to-pay-off.html/

I made the trip down to Dallas for Conference USA media days, largely to pick up some material for our preseason football magazine. There are always plenty of other tidbits to come out of events like this that are good blog fodder, though. Houston coach Tony Levine expressed confidence in his team to quickly make the transition to a new era in his first full season as Houston’s head coach. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2012/07/conference-usa-media-day-tidbits-part-i.html/

read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2012/06/thinking-about-the-recruiting-landscape-in-the-region.html/

Read more: http://www.thehullabaloo.com/sports/article_4040532e-b722-11e1-bada-001a4bcf6878.html

Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2012/05/thinking-about-unts-window-of-opportunity.html/

If ESPN lose the bulk of the Big East games to NBC, the ESPN will have major gaps in its programming, this could be an opportunity for the C-USA. If ESPN does retain the bulk of the BIG East, then NBC maybe knocking on the C-USA door.

The future obviously isn’t now for Conference USA. Heck, it’s not even next year. With four members leaving by July 1, 2013, and another six schools joining the league in time frames varying from 2013 through 2015, C-USA hasn’t been discussed in the present tense very much lately. Until now. That’s because as future-oriented as this league appears to be, there are still some decisions about that future which have to be made right now. Scheduling for football is a prime example. Since current Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) members Old Dominion and Charlotte aren’t going to upgrade to FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) status until the 2015 season, it leaves Conference USA unbalanced. How unbalanced? Imagine your tires after driving around Huntington’s pothole-ridden streets. The problem is in the 2013 and ’14 football seasons, C-USA’s East Division will number only five schools while the West will have seven. The East will include Marshall, East Carolina, Southern Miss, UAB and Florida International. But the West Division will feature such holdovers as Tulsa, UTEP, Rice and Tulane along with new members UT-San Antonio, North Texas and Louisiana Tech. That obviously wreaks havoc with scheduling. Read more: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x739985812/Changing-members-put-C-USA-in-a-pickle

UTEP and Louisiana Tech were Western Athletic Conference rivals from 2001-04. We have also played Charlotte, Florida International and UTSA in basketball in recent years, so there’s some familiarity with those schools as well. While we are excited about all the new additions to C-USA, we are particularly thrilled that the league will maintain a footprint across the state of Texas. Our alumni in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio will still have the opportunity to watch our teams play, and it is important for recruiting that we have a presence in those areas. Conference USA and Mountain West presidents and chancellors announced earlier this year that the two leagues would be forming an alliance in 2013. There has been a lot of speculation about what form the alliance will take, with everything from a straight merger to a revenue-sharing model being discussed. The fact is, nothing has been determined to this point but conversations are still taking place. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out in the coming months. In the meantime, it’s clear that Conference USA is as strong as ever, and we’re excited about the future of UTEP Athletics. Read More: http://www.elpasoinc.com/lifestyle/local_features/article_c0c8dfaa-a220-11e1-916d-001a4bcf6878.html

If this is true, you have to think C-USA got the better of the deal essentially locking the Mountain West out of Texas and securing UTEP. I think there will still be a relationship between the two but in the end they will both have to look out for themselves. Read More: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/brett-mcmurphy/19074166/cusa-completes-expansion-by-adding-odu/rss

From East Carolina Pirate Radio and starts at the 11 minute mark: http://www.pirateradio930.com/pod/ftb/ftb051612.mp3

Read more: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20120512/SPORTS/205120344/La-Tech-pay-2M-C-USA-entry-fee

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?articleid=20120514_203_B1_TulsaP806599

Direct Link: http://inhouse.unt.edu/new-conference-usa-membership-begin-2013 May 4, 2012 Dear UNT community, UNT’s been making headlines lately with good news from our athletics program. The latest is an announcement I’m proud to make - we are becoming members of Conference USA in the 2013 season. Moving our competitions to C-USA will be great for our fans because of the many natural, regional rivalries it will create. Having conference members in Texas and in nearby states makes this a logical move so that Mean Green fans can more readily attend games. We’ve been part of the Sun Belt Conference since 2000 and have experienced great success there, including 20 conference championships and four bowl games. We have enjoyed our time in the Sun Belt and look forward to our final season with the conference teams we’ve played for so long. We're also excited about this great opportunity, which will mean a higher level of competition for our teams, more national media exposure and better name-recognition for our university. Raising the level of competition will make our athletics program stronger. We will compete against many successful teams, which will help us raise our level of play. And competing with the other C-USA institutions better reflects the true academic quality of our university. This conference change comes at a time when UNT’s athletics program is on the rise. Since 2003, we have developed more than 12 new athletics facilities. After opening our world-class, first-of-its kind green Apogee Stadium last fall with a $20 million sponsorship, we hosted record crowds - breaking an all-time single-season attendance record with more than 113,000 fans - and had our best football season since 2004. I know it’s only going to get better. We’ve got an even stronger team going into this fall, and Coach Dan McCarney is fired up to make this another winning season. We’ll continue to have great matchups as a member of C-USA. This is a great time to buy season tickets because football at UNT will be more exciting than ever. The Mean Green is your home team! There are great things happening in basketball, too. Tony Benford, the former men’s basketball associate head coach at Marquette University, joined us as the new head coach of men's basketball. We were sorry to lose Johnny Jones to his alma mater, Louisiana State University, but we wish him great success as its new head coach. We’ve also welcomed Mike Petersen, the former head coach of women’s basketball at Wake Forest University, as the new head coach of women's basketball. He replaces Karen Aston, who joined the University of Texas at Austin as head coach. We also wish her continued success. Both Tony and Mike bring plenty of experience and great track records to UNT, and they are taking over winning teams with a lot of talent. We expect a great basketball season this year. There are plenty of other Mean Green milestones to celebrate. The Mean Green tennis team and the men’s golf team won 2011-12 Sun Belt Conference tournament championships, while our Mean Green soccer team won the regular season championship. Our student-athletes continue to excel academically, thanks to the dedication of our athletics staff members and others at the university in ensuring they get the benefits of a first-rate education. These advances are part of UNT’s overall momentum and reflect our ongoing commitment to uphold the three A’s: academics, the arts and athletics. We’re intent on being great across the board because providing a top-quality experience enriched by knowledge, culture, competition and community is what makes great universities stand out. Sincerely, V. Lane Rawlins President

I love the Conference USA logo in green, so I decided to make my self a cellphone wallpaper using it. I thought some others might be interested in having it as well so if you want it, here ya go. This post has been promoted to an article

May 4, 2012 North Texas Accepts Invitation for Membership to Conference USA Mean Green and Four Other Schools to Begin New Affiliation in 2013 DENTON, Texas -- Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky today announced that the University of North Texas has been extended and accepted an invitation for Conference USA membership, effective July 1, 2013. North Texas is one of five schools that will be joining Conference USA, along with the University of Texas-San Antonio, Louisiana Tech University, Florida International University and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. “This is validation that the progress we have made in our athletic programs in conjunction with our university’s academic reputation has made us a suitable fit for the high standards of Conference USA,” Director of Athletics Rick Villarreal said. “Conference USA provides a great partnership with several schools in our geographic proximity and will help all of us create outstanding regional rivalries. It is a tremendous opportunity for North Texas athletics.” Each new member will join the league in all sports for 2013, Charlotte will begin conference participation in football in 2015. The metro area population of these schools is nearly 18 million. Existing members are East Carolina University, Marshall University, Rice University, University of Southern Mississippi, Tulane University, The University of Tulsa, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and University of Texas El Paso (UTEP). Divisions will be set in the near future. The 13 members will also allow the Conference to continue to host its annual Football Championship game pitting champions from the East and West Divisions. “The presidents and chancellors of Conference USA universities are pleased to welcome these five distinguished institutions to CUSA,” said Dr. Scott Cowen, Tulane University president and Chair of Conference USA’s Board of Directors. “Conference USA has always operated in a way that reflects the values of higher education and works very hard to balance the athletics and academic interests of its student-athletes at the highest level. These institutions clearly share those values.” North Texas will be joining Conference USA after competing as a member of the Sun Belt Conference since 2001. In 11 years as a Sun Belt member, North Texas won 20 conference championships in 10 different sports. The Mean Green represented the Sun Belt in four bowl games and two NCAA men’s basketball tournament appearances. The new conference affiliation means North Texas will be in a league with three other schools in the state of Texas and three more schools in bordering states. In all, seven members of the new Conference USA will be within 650 miles of Denton. Only three of the football-playing members in the Sun Belt Conference are within 650 miles of Denton. “The welfare of our student-athletes was definitely a key consideration for us in making this decision,” Villarreal said. “With so many schools in relative close proximity to our campus we will minimize the amount of missed class time and minimize the amount of time spent traveling to and from competition.” Conference USA will be the eighth conference that North Texas has been a member of since the inception of its athletics program in 1913.

This is the audio replay of his interview from yesterday and contains some good perspective on the decisions that were made as well as looking to the future of the conference. http://pirateradio1250.com/pod/laf/laf050812.mp3 Direct link