Hullabaloo: Super-conference?

This story originally ran in the Tulane Hullabaloo, and can be read fully there.

Athletic Director Rick Dickson's remarks during a visit to a Law and Practice of Sports Business Management class two weeks ago ignited campus discussion about the idea of a combined Mountain West Conference and Conference USA.

More than a year ago, news broke about talks between officials from both the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA concerning a potential collaboration. The proposed 22-team superconference would challenge the Bowl Championship Series to become its seventh automatic qualifier, joining the Pac-12, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, SEC and Big East conferences. The five BCS bowls would no longer be an exclusive club to the 12 teams from the C-USA and 10 teams in the Mountain West. Recently, prognosticators have labeled the idea the Louisiana Purchase Conference.

In response to a student's question, Dickson said that he had recently spoken on the phone with the Hawaii athletic director concerning a two-conference merger. Dickson also said that the two conferences hope to become the seventh automatic qualifier in the BCS. Dickson was unavailable for comment, but Tulane University Director of Public Relations Mike Strecker said that Dickson's statements were made in jest.

Through Strecker, Dickson said that his statement was "jokingly said" and not meant to be taken seriously. Senior Sam Furman, sophomores and Hullabaloo staffwriters Max Resnik and John Owens, who sat in the class, however, said that Dickson spoke earnestly and they do not believe Dickson joked.

The Hawaii athletic department said it could neither confirm nor deny the report, and repeated efforts to reach Hawaii athletic director Jim Donovan via phone and email were unsuccessful. To start the 2012 season, the Mountain West loses Texas Christian and adds Hawaii, Nevada and Fresno State. This season, Boise State begins its first season as a Mountain West member.

C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky issued a press release in August 2010 discussing the possibility of a merger and said that officials from both conferences were in discussions about scheduling, TV contracts and related matters.

"The conferences have much in common and have worked cooperatively for many years, and we are exploring creative ways to work together going forward," Banowsky said in the press release.

C-USA official Courtney Archer said there is no official league policy pertaining to contact between teams in different conferences. Archer reiterated that both leagues are cooperative and maintained that no policy exists barring discussions between schools. The Mountain West agrees in principle.

"There's no official policy," Mountain West conference official Javan Hedlund said. "Any institution can talk to whom they want whenever they want. We have no policy that athletic directors can't talk together because neither one of them can move without talking to someone else."

Hedlund said that to his knowledge, there had been no further contact between schools involved in the potential newly-combined conference.

Read the full post here.