The rumor mill is working strong around Conference-USA about changes that might happen in the conference. Central Florida, Houston and SMU have been slated as the teams that will be moving to the Big East Conference and two of the replacement teams have been selected.

Supposedly two replacement teams are being selected are to honor television contractual obligations. Seems CUSA has to have a team in the Florida market as well as Texas, specifically the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  Both teams are supposed to come from the Sun Belt Conference with those two teams being Florida International and North Texas.

As pointed out in an earlier story, North Texas officially is committed to the Sun Belt and ‘not actively’ trying to change conferences.

While the Big East is publically cool on the idea of a three way conference deal, say a merger of the Big East, Mountain West and CUSA, some CUSA athletic directors are mentioning it is a strong possibility.

Right now The Big East plans is planning to build two divisions to help out Boise State with travel arraingments. In their division would be Boise, SMU, Houston and Louisville. The Eastern Division would be Cincinnati, Navy, UConn, South Florida, UCF and Rutgers. Four teams in one division and seven in another has some problems.

The suggestion is some CUSA and MWC Schools would fill in both sides of the divisions so each side has an equal amount of teams. It would mean CUSA and MWC would shed some schools. For example, the University of Texas-El Paso would actually be a better fit for the Pac-10. The University of Alabama-Birmingham, with its 6,000 or so fans would end up in another conference or moving down a division. The Alabama board of Regents has given the program ultimatums on fans and money issues or fold.

One target The Big East is supposedly going after to fill in one of the Western Division slots is BYU. True, the Cougars plan to play independent like Notre Dame. However, most independents have a rough time with scheduling, building rivalries, getting into a bowl because most bowls are tied to certain conferences.

Well, about North Texas. While it may seem that North Texas only claim to fame in the deal is they would fulfill the requirement for the television contract to keep a school in Texas and D/FW, but it goes beyond that. Other conference AD’s have notice the commitment North Texas has made in their infrastructure not only in football but other sports as well.

As Eagletalk.net was explained, fan wise, North Texas has more potential than SMU. So far this season the Mustangs have averaged 22,453 fans for home games and do not travel all that well.  Considering they are bowl eligible, on the verge of making the top 25 since the death penalty, in position to win CUSA western division to play in the conference championship, those fan numbers are not impressive.

North Texas going nowhere this season still has averaged 20045 fans for home games and on the verge of setting school fan attendance record. They have not have had good football teams in the last several years, yet they are putting fans in the stands.  

With a large student population and alumni base, there is feeling North Texas can put more fans in the stands. It was compared to Central Florida when they started out. So, North Texas is expected to grow just like UCF.