Conference USA currently has 12 football members, but Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF are leaving for the Big East in 2013. C-USA will add Florida International, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, and UTSA which will keep their overall number at 12 for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
In 2015, current FCS members Charlotte and Old Dominion will join C-USA, bringing their total number of football schools to 14.
Conference USA currently plays an 8-game football schedule and will likely do so in the future, Banowsky stated:
When our athletics directors get together in August, we’ll be mocking up schedules and divisions that are geographically sensible. Most people I’ve talked with seem to be comfortable with eight (conference football) games. People appreciate the scheduling flexibility that gives you, and it’s my sense that we’ll stay with that.
If C-USA plans to keep “geographically sensible” divisions, we expect the two 7-team divisions to look similar to this:
East Division
West Division
Commissioner Banowsky also made some other interesting statements. Regarding the proposed merger between Conference USA and the Mountain West, he stated:
My sense is that a merger is not going to happen in the short run. There might be some kind of long-term consolidation, but we’ve pushed the pause button on a merger.
When asked if Appalachian State was a “serious candidate” for C-USA and if there was a chance for the Mountaineers to “join later,” Banowsky dodged the question:
Appalachian is a fine university that reached out to us when they began to explore the possibility of FBS membership. They have aspirations of moving up to a higher platform, and I’m not comfortable talking about the details of that dialogue or anything in the future.