East Carolina AD Says C-USA Is Ready To Dine on Delicious Big 12 Leftovers

Colorado was the first domino in the great conference shakeup on Thursday. Today has brought two more teams moving. Nebraska is off to the Big Ten and Boise State is joining the Mountain West Conference.↵↵The news is sure to continue next week. (Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, who was really first to the whole Pac-10-Big 12 super conference talk, says Texas will announce its plans to join the Pac-10 on Tuesday.) As schools pair up with leagues, there will be scraps. We’ve already discussed how some of those scraps could create a super conference with the Big East -- particularly Kansas and Kansas State. One conference no one has talked about is Conference USA, but an open letter from the school’s athletic director, Terry Holland, paints a picture of a league ready to pounce.↵

↵↵⇥Conference USA is rapidly preparing to compete for the remaining Big 12 members if the meltdown continues to a full implosion.↵↵↵Now, the first inclination is probably to laugh. I don’t think anyone believes Kansas and Kansas State are dying to join Conference USA. But maybe that’s not who C-USA targets. No one is rushing to ask Iowa State to the big dance, so it sounds like they’re available. Baylor is out there lingering without a friend. Mizzou administrators keep proclaiming how proud they are to be in the Big 12, but that could change if they lose another four teams early next week.↵

↵↵Given that Boise State joined the MWC, wouldn’t most of those remaining Big 12 schools be better off heading to the Mountain West? Sure, it dashes the dreams of us basketball fans that we could get a super conference for hoops, but we all know football drives this thing. Adding the leftovers won’t put them on part with the Pac-16, the SEC or the Big Ten, but it will make them a league that will have a legitimate claim to a BCS automatic bid.↵

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