Tulsa Chose C-USA Over Realignment

The Golden Hurricane wants to play in a conference that gets an automatic BCS bid. They hope Conference USA gets that bid someday soon.

Thursday, July 28th 2011, 5:44 pm

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Aug 27, 2010 6:17 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Mobile Journalist

TULSA, Oklahoma – The University of Tulsa said it did answer the phone when other teams called about possibly luring the Golden Hurricane to another conference earlier this year, but ultimately decided that Conference USA was the best fit for the school.

“Conference USA has been great,” said Tulsa Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham. “We’ve been in it five years ? so, it’s been a great league for us. Anybody that isn’t in an automatic bid league would love to have an automatic bid.”

That’s the rub. Conference USA doesn’t currently send a team to one of the five Bowl Championship Series games just for winning the league title. Conference USA has had preliminary talks with other leagues around the country to try and work out a deal to earn a coveted automatic bid.

If Tulsa were to move to a bigger conference through realignment, the school would have a better shot at getting to a BCS bowl game and earning the big payday that comes with one of the those prestigious games.

“I think it’d be very difficult (to turn down), but again I think what we’re trying to do is get Conference USA is a position that your champion would have an automatic bid,” said Cunningham.

One possibility that Tulsa would really benefit from would be the increase in the number of BCS games. In addition to the national championship game, the four current BCS games are the Fiesta, Orange, Sugar and Rose bowls. Adding premier bowl games would take away a little bit of the prestige that these four have built up over the years, but also offer other schools that never get a shot at top tier games a chance to get their names out there.

“That’s what I hope happens, is we just have expansion,” said Cunningham. “More teams included and more bowls included.”

Tulsa opens the 2010 season on the road against the two-time defending league champion East Carolina Pirates. That kickoff is set for 1 p.m. on Sunday, September 5th. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.