Conference Usa

Conference USA, a new 12-school league made up mostly of teams from the Great Midwest and Metro conferences, will begin basketball competition this season, its organizers announced. Alabama-Birmingham, Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, Memphis and Saint Louis, from the Great Midwest, will join Louisville, North Carolina-Charlotte, Southern Mississippi, South Florida and Tulane, of the Metro, in a league that will have championships in 18 sports. Houston, from the Southwest Conference, will began participation in 1996, the first year six football-playing members (Houston, Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Southern Mississippi and Tulane)

When a Philadelphia-area college football coach was asked his opinion earlier this season about Army joining Conference USA, he blurted, "I don't understand it. Army has nothing in common with those schools academically. " The coach is right. Normally, you wouldn't group the U.S. Military Academy with Tulane, Southern Mississippi, Louisville, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis and Cincinnati. Army's first-year alliance with Conference USA isn't about academic commonality. It's about television exposure and bowl prospects.

The Atlantic Ten Conference believes it has the strength to withstand a raid from the Big East if the schools with Division I-A football programs in that embattled conference split from the basketball-playing schools, which is among the scenarios reportedly discussed by Big East officials during meetings on Thursday. "There are 12 of us, and we have a very good television contract," Atlantic Ten commissioner Linda Bruno said yesterday. "I think we're in a good position. We're in a position of strength in a lot of ways.

Davidson is the newest member of the Atlantic Ten Conference. The A-10 council of presidents unanimously voted Wednesday to accept the Wildcats' application for membership. The current Southern Conference member will formally join the A-10 on July 1, 2014, and begin competing in its new league during the 2014-15 academic year. Davidson's move to the conference is no surprise. The Inquirer reported last month that the A-10 wanted the Wildcats for 2014. "This is very positive," said St. Joseph's athletic director Don DiJulia.

The Big East will be one 16-team division in 2005-06, and only 12 schools will participate in the postseason basketball tournament. The league announced the new structure yesterday, and it takes effect following the addition in 2005 of five schools from Conference USA and Boston College's departure for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Miami and Virginia Tech left for the ACC this academic year, leaving the Big East with 12 schools. Louisville, Cincinnati, De Paul, Marquette and South Florida make the move from Conference USA to make it 16 schools.

THE ATLANTIC 10 Conference has discussed the possibility of becoming a 21-team league for basketball, a source told ESPN.com Tuesday. The extra teams likely would come from the Big East, should that conference continue to undergo changes. The A-10 is a 16-team conference this season but Temple will be leaving for the Big East next year and Charlotte will be going to Conference USA. Butler and VCU joined the Atlantic 10 this season. The A-10's plan comes from the Big East's seven Catholic basketball schools, including Villanova, meeting with Big East commissioner Mike Aresco to discuss their options.

DALLAS - Members of Conference USA and current and future members of the Mountain West are on their way to forming a new league that will begin in 2013. The 16 schools announced the plans yesterday, taking a bigger-is-better approach that will create a conference with schools in five time zones. "This is an exciting development that will stabilize the current conferences and create the first truly national conference with members in five time zones and television viewership from coast to coast," UNLV President Neal Smatresk said in statement.

Men Belmont, Atlantic Sun Colorado, PAC-12 Creighton, Missouri Valley Davidson, Southern Detroit, Horizon League Harvard, Ivy League Lamar, Southland Lehigh, Patriot League Long Beach State, Big West Long Island U., Northeast Louisville, Big East Loyola MD, Metro Atlantic Memphis, Conference USA Missouri, ...

Bill Bradshaw, the Temple athletic director, joked yesterday that he had called the Big East Conference offices, checking to see if his school's football game with Boston College counted as a conference game or a nonconference game. That's because another domino should fall today when presidents of the Atlantic Coast Conference schools hold a conference call during which they are expected to invite Boston College to join Miami and Virginia Tech in bolting the Big East. That will be the last domino to fall, at least as far as the ACC is concerned.

Steve Logan scored a career-high 41 points, single-handedly outscoring visiting Southern Mississippi, and No. 5 Cincinnati had a 31-point run as it pulled away to an 89-37 victory last night. Cincinnati (24-2, 11-1 Conference USA) moved a half-game ahead of Marquette for the conference regular-season championship. Southern Mississippi (7-16, 2-11) has lost five in a row. Noteworthy Georgia forward Chris Daniels was suspended for the first half of today's game against No. 10 Kentucky for unsportsmanlike conduct in the Bulldogs' loss to Auburn on Feb. 9, a game that featured a brawl.

Davidson is the newest member of the Atlantic Ten Conference. The A-10 council of presidents unanimously voted Wednesday to accept the Wildcats' application for membership. The current Southern Conference member will formally join the A-10 on July 1, 2014, and begin competing in its new league during the 2014-15 academic year. Davidson's move to the conference is no surprise. The Inquirer reported last month that the A-10 wanted the Wildcats for 2014. "This is very positive," said St. Joseph's athletic director Don DiJulia.

IOWA STATE said Tuesday that coaches and staff made dozens of improper recruiting calls from 2008 to 2011 and it has asked the NCAA to levy a punishment of 2 years of probation. The university said it reported the "inadvertent" violations to the NCAA in November 2011. It said an "exhaustive" review of 3 years of telephone and text messages discovered that noncoaching staff members made 55 impermissible phone calls while coaches made 24 improper calls. In other college news: * Tulsa officials say they have accepted an invitation to join the soon-to-be-renamed Big East Conference beginning in 2014.

Western Kentucky and new football coach Bobby Petrino will be switching leagues after his first season with the Hilltoppers. Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said Monday that Western Kentucky will officially join the league July 1, 2014. "The tradition of the university and its athletics success is truly remarkable," Banowsky said. "The men's basketball program has made seven NCAA appearances since 2000, the women's basketball program has advanced to three NCAA Final Fours and football went to a bowl game last season in just its fourth year in the BCS. " C-USA, however, is losing Tulsa.

Damyean Dotson scored 23 points as hot-shooting Oregon ran over No. 4 St. Louis, 74-57, Saturday in San Jose, Calif. Dotson made his first five three-pointers to carry the No. 12 Ducks (28-8) into the second weekend for the first time since 2007. Oregon made 8 of 11 shots from beyond the arc, while the Billikens (28-7), made just 3 of 21 from long range. Michigan State 70, Memphis 48 - The Spartans are in the round of 16, as usual, and the Tigers are going home early, also as usual.

There has been a lot of heartfelt testimony recently about the greatness of the Big East basketball conference, whose member schools will split apart next season to form or join hoops leagues that won't be nearly as great. Because it is something of a poignant passing, the testimony has mostly been about the camaraderie among the teams, about the tradition that reaches back to the Big East's birthing by Providence athletic director Dave Gavitt, and about the singular philosophy of believing in basketball even in the great shadow of the hungry football ogre.

St. Joseph's is looking to duplicate some recent history when it begins Atlantic Ten tournament play Thursday. As the No. 10 seed, the Hawks were only seeded lower once, in 2011 when they entered the tournament No. 12. That season St. Joseph's won two consecutive overtime tournament games before being eliminated in the semifinals by Dayton, 64-61. "We showed we could do it two years ago, and we hope that it can happen again," said guard Langston Galloway, who is averaging 13.3 points a game.

College basketball purists consider March the greatest month of the year. With the regular season ending, there's plenty of excitement - or better yet, madness - surrounding the tournaments. But the Atlantic Ten Conference tournament, which has left Atlantic City and begins Thursday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, could be both exciting and sad for longtime fans. There's the anticipation because this could be the league's best tournament ever, with newcomers No. 25 Virginia Commonwealth and Butler involved.

KANSAS IS looking to get its mojo back. Bubble teams around the nation are rooting for Memphis, and what on earth is Lynyrd Skynyrd doing in a college basketball story? Five more leagues are starting their tournaments, including the confounding Southeastern Conference. Here is a quick look: Big 12 Regular-season champ: Kansas and Kansas State share the title. For Kansas, it's the ninth year in a row they've had a piece of the crown. For K-State, it's the first since 1976-77 when the league was called the Big 8. Big stuff: Kansas could have won the title outright but was drilled by Baylor (81-58)

THERE'S A BUZZ around the Akron basketball season, but it's for all the wrong reasons. Is Norfolk State the king of the MEAC? Or will North Carolina Central finally get a crack? What a great weekend of buzzer-beaters. Let the madness continue with two more conference tournaments beginning Monday. Mid-American Regular-season champ: Akron (24-6 overall, 14-2 in the league) will be without starting point guard Alex Abreu, who last week was charged with trafficking and possessing marijuana.

Pierre Jackson had 28 points and 10 assists as Baylor shocked visiting Kansas, 81-58, on Saturday to keep the No. 4 Jayhawks from the outright Big 12 regular-season title. Even after their worst loss in seven years, however, Kansas (26-5, 14-4) will still be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. The Jayhawks had won the previous four Big 12 titles outright but now have to share this one with rival Kansas State, which also lost Saturday. The Bears improved to 18-13, 9-9. Louisville 73, Notre Dame 57 - Gorgui Dieng had 20 points, 11 rebounds, and five blocks to help the No. 8 Cardinals (26-5, 14-4 Big East)