Report: Conference USA presidents to hear proposal on regionalization

The plan calls for C-USA, the American and the Sun Belt to realign regionally to reduce costs. The hope is the AAC will join the effort, according to the report.

Representatives of the AAC and the Sun Belt told Dodd that they are not interested the realignment concept.

A league source told the Denton Record-Chronicle on Saturday that there have been discussions among officials in C-USA regarding regional realignment.

C-USA, the Sun Belt and the AAC overlap in terms of their membership. C-USA includes North Texas, UTEP, Rice and UTSA. Texas State is a member of the Sun Belt.

Both conferences also have schools in Louisiana. C-USA includes Louisiana Tech, while the Sun Belt includes Louisiana and Louisiana-Monroe.

C-USA includes Old Dominion and Marshall in its East Division. Those schools are located near Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State from the Sun Belt.

One of the benefits of realignment for C-USA and the Sun Belt would be reducing travel costs. C-USA is spread from Texas to the East Coast, where Florida Atlantic, Florida International and Charlotte are located.

UNT will travel to FIU, while Marshall will come to Denton for crossover football games between C-USA’s East and West Divisions later this fall.

UNT left the Sun Belt to become a member of C-USA ahead of the 2013-14 school year.

School officials have cited the move as a key to UNT’s growth. UNT was the lone Texas team in C-USA.

The school’s exposure in the state have improved dramatically by being in a league with UTEP, Rice and UTSA.