As expected, Conference USA is about to shore up its Big East losses with a round of pickups from smaller conferences. But, wow, take a look at the list Brett McMurphy reports is about to be officially announced: Charlotte, Florida International, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Old Dominion and Texas-San Antonio. They'd break down as follows, says McMurphy:
When completed, Conference USA's new 14-team league is expected to be split into two divisions: East - East Carolina, FIU, Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, Charlotte and ODU; West - Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Rice, Texas San Antonio, Tulane, Tulsa and UTEP.
UTSA has yet to actually compete in the WAC, but will have already found an escape route from the flailing conference. The big surprise here is ODU, which hasn't exactly been the subject of widespread rumors of a FBS leap. There'd been talk of Charlotte being eyed by C-USA and the Sun Belt alike, so we were a little more prepared for that.
Old Dominion currently plays in the CAA, which is also losing Georgia State to the Sun Belt as well as reportedly suffering some basketball losses to the A-10.