From Tulsa World


During a period of at least the past two months - and again last week, it is believed - TU President Steadman Upham and interim athletic director Kevan Buck had discussions with officials from the Mountain West, Big East and Conference USA (the Golden Hurricane's conference since 2005).

In an e-mail, Don Tomkalski, TU's senior associate athletic director who oversees media relations, acknowledged that Upham and Buck "have been very involved in conversations with individuals from around the country. We will not get into specifics." 

This summer, four C-USA schools - Central Florida, Houston, Memphis and SMU - are joining the Big East. In November, it was announced that two more - East Carolina and Tulane - are joining the Big East in 2014.

Conference USA's replacement schools include Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, FIU, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Old Dominion and Texas-San Antonio. 

During a Dec. 29 interview, Upham said, "I also want to be in a conference that we can be proud of academically. Losing two of the private schools (SMU and Tulane) in Conference USA is damaging to me, in the way I think about the conference.

"Whether that forces us to take an action, I can't speculate. For one thing, it's not our call. We have to have an invitation." 

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/TU/article.a spx?subjectid=94&articleid=20130116_94_B1_Uies tf876126
 

Thats pretty strong language they are putting out there..

Tulsa is basically saying "we are looking for any way out we can."

My response? Good riddance. Bring in a more eastern-oriented school and shift USM to the west. Marshall and Southern Miss duke it out every year in the C-USA Championship Game.

WESTERN KENTUCKY sounds good.

The MWC is at 12, so Tulsa would have to find a dancing partner or 3 before moving there.

UTEP sounds good.

i agree with herdone.

Not saying they won't take UTEP, or won't go to the MWC, but his little tirade about private schools would look even more silly considering UTEP is public, the MWC is entirely public institutions (AFA is a federal institution).

My guess is bYu and Tulsa would be the top two targets of both the MWC and BE wish lists.

Why is C-USA not going after bYu? What does C-USA have to offer bYu? Championships. A path to the BCS. C-USA offers all that to a program like bYu. The MWC and BE offers getting lost in the shuffle of two strong leagues and going 8-4 every year.

herd0ne wrote: My guess is bYu and Tulsa would be the top two targets of both the MWC and BE wish lists.

Why is C-USA not going after bYu? What does C-USA have to offer bYu? Championships. A path to the BCS. C-USA offers all that to a program like bYu. The MWC and BE offers getting lost in the shuffle of two strong leagues and going 8-4 every year.

BYU has all of that with, or without, a conference.

What championship is bYu playing for? Were they included in the new BCS agreement? Seems like an easy road for them if they joined C-USA WEST.

BYU is looking to join a conference that will allow BYU to retain its tv broadcast rights to all BYU's home games.  Therefore, BYU would receive all tv revenue from its home games.  This would not be fair or reasonable.

I think CUSA would be crazy to offer BYU membership and allow BYU to retain its home tv broadcast rights.

Prior to re-joining the MWC, Boise State tried to retain its tv broadcast rights from MWC or Big East...both conferences said "no" but MWC did modify its broadcasting agreement (membership agreement) with its members including BSU.

Mike...GO Herd!!!

bYu is not Notre Dame they should stop trying to act like them.

Maybe they could get that deal in the Sun Belt.

HerdInChicago wrote: BYU is looking to join a conference that will allow BYU to retain its tv broadcast rights to all BYU's home games.  Therefore, BYU would receive all tv revenue from its home games.  This would not be fair or reasonable.

I think CUSA would be crazy to offer BYU membership and allow BYU to retain its home tv broadcast rights.

Prior to re-joining the MWC, Boise State tried to retain its tv broadcast rights from MWC or Big East...both conferences said "no" but MWC did modify its broadcasting agreement (membership agreement) with its members including BSU.

Mike...GO Herd!!!

Boise does have the right to sell their own TV deal, independent of the MWC now. The MWC can never, ever include Boise when negotiating their TV package. Boise gets to do their own with whomever they wish for ALL of their home games, conference or non-confernece. After Boise takes some off the top, that money goes into the conference tv pool for distribution. One interesting piece if the conference is paying members $500k bonuses for playing on Saturday afternoons on national television. Boise can negotiate in their deal that the network broadcasts all of their home games (7 or 8 likely) on Saturday afternoons, and then pick up a $3m-$4m bonus from the conference every year.