The Tulsa Golden Hurricane will join the soon-to-be-renamed Big East Conference, ESPN has reported.
Sources told ESPN that the addition of Tulsa is “imminent” and could be finalized by next week. Tulsa would join in 2014 along with East Carolina and Tulane.
The Golden Hurricane have been a member of Conference USA since 2005. They won the C-USA Championship in 2005 and 2012 and claimed the West Division title five times.
The addition of Tulsa will give the Big East 11 members in 2014: Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, SMU, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF, and USF. Current members Louisville and Rutgers will depart in 2014 for the ACC and Big Ten, respectively.
Navy joins the conference in 2015, and at that time the Big East will split into divisions and have a championship game. The highest-rated division champion will host the game on their campus and it will be televised by ABC or ESPN.
At the moment, Conference USA will have 12 teams in 2014 when Old Dominion joins and East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa depart. In 2015, C-USA will be at 13 after the addition of Charlotte.
Conference USA will likely add another school to get to 14 by 2015, and could look to Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt or any number of FCS schools.
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