Editing Conference USA (section)

===2013–14 realignment===

In 2013, CUSA entered its next phase with the departure of four schools (Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF) for the [[American Athletic Conference]], the football-sponsoring portion of the former Big East Conference. This was again the result of Big East schools leaving for the ACC, this time being [[Syracuse University|Syracuse]] and [[University of Pittsburgh|Pittsburgh]], as well as [[University of Notre Dame|Notre Dame]] for non-football sports. It was announced in early 2012 that Conference USA was in talks with the [[Mountain West Conference]] about forming either a football alliance or conference merger in the future.

However, when the conferences discussed their plans with the NCAA, they were told that if they merged, the new league would receive only one automatic bid to NCAA championships; at least one of the former conferences would lose expected future revenues from the NCAA men's basketball tournament; and at least one former conference would lose exit fees from any schools that departed for the new league. As a result, both CUSA and the MW backed away from a full merger. {{as of|2012|April}}, the likeliest scenario was an all-sports alliance in which both conferences retained separate identities.<ref name="McMurphy 2012-04-17">{{cite news|url=http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/brett-mcmurphy/18623903 |title=Conference Mountain West merger "unlikely" |first=Brett |last=McMurphy |work=College Football Insider |publisher=CBSSports.com |date=April 17, 2012 |access-date=April 21, 2012}}</ref> However, after the MW added more members, the alliance was apparently abandoned.

For men's soccer, there was a chance that the MW, SEC, and CUSA along with the one Sun Belt member (FIU), that sponsor the sport, would play under the CUSA's men's soccer program. The MW, which does not sponsor men's soccer, would take three of the four members that offer the sport (UNLV, Air Force, New Mexico—San Diego State is a Pac-12 associate member in that sport), join CUSA's three full members that offer the sport (UAB, Marshall, Tulsa), the two SEC members already in CUSA for the sport (Kentucky, South Carolina), and the Sun Belt's FIU.<ref name="McMurphy 2012-04-17"/> However, the only MW member school that ultimately moved to CUSA men's soccer was New Mexico.

For the 2013–14 season CUSA invited five new members to join their conference, with all accepting. [[University of Texas at San Antonio|UTSA]] and [[Louisiana Tech University|Louisiana Tech]] joined from the WAC and [[University of North Texas|North Texas]] and [[Florida International University|FIU]], (an affiliate member of CUSA joining for men's soccer in 2005), from the Sun Belt Conference. [[Old Dominion University|Old Dominion]], which already housed five of its sports in CUSA, moved the rest of its athletic program from the [[Coastal Athletic Association|CAA]] (except for [[field hockey]], [[women's lacrosse]] and [[Collegiate wrestling|wrestling]], with the three sports joining the [[Big East Conference|new Big East]], the [[Atlantic Sun Conference|Atlantic Sun]], and the [[Mid-American Conference|MAC]] respectively because CUSA does not sponsor those sports) and upgraded its football program from the [[Football Championship Subdivision]]. Charter member [[University of North Carolina at Charlotte|Charlotte]] returned from the A-10 and accelerated its recently established football program, which was set to begin play in 2013 as an FCS school, to FBS in 2015 with full conference rights in 2016.