Mountain West and Conference USA announce association conference

The Mountain West Conference and Conference USA conducted a teleconference last Friday to announce that the conferences unanimously decided to consolidate their football member programs into one association conference.

This announcement comes at the heels of conference realignment, which has been occurring since June 2011.

Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said during Friday's teleconference that Mountain West and C-USA presidents authorized Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky and him to enter into the agreement.

"Initially, it is a football-only entity comprised of current Mountain West and Conference USA members, while retaining the existing conference structure for all other purposes," Thompson said. "This is a concept we've been working on for well over a year and has been studied in depth for the last several months. We've had several conference calls and in-person meetings between our respected boards and athletic directors and on those multiple occasions, have reviewed the plans to get us to the point where we are today."

Banowsky said he is pleased the conversations led to this direction and is excited about the association.

"The structure certainly creates all kinds of fun, competitive opportunities," Banowsky said. "I'm unaware of a structure that's ever been put together like this. The idea that we could have five time zones of football going on under one league structure is really, truly exciting."

Rumors have circulated that Boise State and Air Force of the Mountain West and SMU, Houston, ECU and UCF of C-USA have been invited to the Big East over the last few weeks.

Thoughts are that the announcement from the Mountain West and Conference USA came to prevent those schools from leaving for the Big East.

Thompson said the stability question entered into the discussions and saw no reason to wait on the announcement.

"If we've agreed as 22 presidents and two commissioners, and presumably 22 athletic directors, why sit on it and why wait?" Thompson said. "This didn't just happen overnight as we've said. It's taken several months to get to this point and if it makes sense now, do it now."

The two conferences will become one conference but will initially play in two divisions.

Hopes are to play a conference championship game in 2012, with a division champion from the now-Conference USA and now-Mountain West.

For a conference championship game to take place next season, emergency legislation would need to be passed by the NCAA.

The new conference, which has yet to be named, will attempt to set up divisional champions and create a tiered playoff format.

Right now this association will be football-only but does allow for cross scheduling for other sports.

"We just basically think we've created some wonderfully, exciting new scheduling in all these Olympic sports as well," Thompson said.

Marshall Head Football Coach Doc Holliday said he thinks it is great that the Mountain West and Conference USA joined forces.

"I think if you look at our conference from top to bottom, I mean we're pretty damn good," Holliday said. "You look at the Southern Miss' and SMU's and this league from top to bottom, and now you add that Mountain West to it. We'll compete with anybody in the country, and I think it's great for us."

Marshall Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick said in a statement to Conference USA: "This has the potential to be an exciting development for Marshall Athletics, and I'm intrigued by it. This is an excellent alliance with a tremendous upside for all parties involved."

Adam Rogers can be contacted at rogers112@marshall.edu.