WKU in Conference USA: How does it work out?

As is being reported at several outlets, the Western Kentucky University board of regents will vote today to finalize a deal to the Hilltoppers to move to Conference USA in all sports beginning in 2014. The Hilltoppers will be joining a conference that includes Southern Miss, Marshall, UAB, Rice, UTEP, FAU, FIU, Louisiana Tech, MTSU, North Texas and UTSA with Old Dominion and UNCC joining in 2015.


The Hilltoppers will have to raise $2 million as an entry fee to join Conference USA and will begin play in the conference starting with the 2014 football season.

This move is the most recent in a series of moves that has Conference USA looking more and more like the Sun Belt with every passing team. CUSA will have 5 Sun Belt teams from the 2012 season replacing schools such as Tulsa, East Carolina, Memphis, SMU, Houston, etc. The Hilltoppers will leave behind a newly expanded Sun Belt Conference that is adding Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Idaho and New Mexico State for the 2014 season.

Two of the major factors resulting in WKU changing conferences are: the upgrade in conference prestige and the much more impressive television deal that Conference USA currently enjoys. The Sun Belt has been looked at as one of the weaker if not weakest football conference in the FBS and WKU saw the opportunity to “upgrade” as something they could not turn down. Conference USA currently has two television contracts for their sporting events with Fox Sports and CBS Sports for twin 5-year, $35 million deals that last through the 2016 season. WKU should expect to get in the vicinity of $1 million dollars per year in television revenue for the 2014-2016 seasons before a new television deal is established.

Looking at Conference USA for the 2014 season, WKU will join Southern Miss, Marshall, UAB, Rice, UTEP, FAU, FIU, Louisiana Tech, MTSU, North Texas and UTSA with Old Dominion joining as a transitional school in 2014 as well. On the football side of things, only MTSU and Louisiana Tech made bowl games were bowl eligible in the 2012 season while UTSA was completing its transitional year in the FBS as a member of the Western Athletic Conference. There is significant worry that Conference USA is amassing a large group of mediocre football programs from the Sun Belt and the FCS with Louisiana Tech and maybe MTSU being the only “sexy” additions recently. The only member of the original Conference USA that will still be with the conference is Southern Miss. UAB was a member in all sports except football from the beginning before joining in football in 1999.

The Hilltoppers are leaving behind a Sun Belt Conference that has lost 5 teams (including WKU) to Conference USA in the last few years. All is not bad for the Sun Belt as second year commissioner Karl Benson had laid out a plan to make the Sun Belt a 12-team football conference with as many as 14 teams in basketball. The Sun Belt has decided to go the route of FCS programs on the rise for a majority of their additions but jumped at the chance to bring in Idaho and NMSU, already FBS teams, as football only members in addition to former WAC member Texas State. The geography is not perfect but it shows the initiative of the Sun Belt to help out a couple of FBS independents in a mutually favorable deal.

The Sun Belt is at a bit of a crossroads with the defection of WKU. Without WKU, the Sun Belt is back down to 11 football teams and 13 overall members. The Sun Belt may be making another addition in the form of James Madison University to replace the Hilltoppers. JMU has a solid athletic program, the funds, and state of the art facilities that compare favorably with much of the Sun Belt. The Dukes would be a good pickup for the Sun Belt and could help with the Sun Belt’s move up the east coast with James Madision being 268 miles northeast of Appalachian State.

Whatever happens with WKU, Conference USA, and the Sun Belt, the 2014 season will be a new and exciting time for everyone involved.