(02-02-2018 01:37 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-02-2018 12:58 PM)esayem Wrote:  I found this cool resource: https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ttusw...00023.html

It has a ton of info on the Southwest Conference. Simple searches provided some interesting tidbits:

"Conference Expansion
East Carolina University General Information, 1993-1994
University of Southwestern Louisiana General Information, 1994"

"Tulane Proposal to Join the SWC, 1991"

"Conference Expansion, 1990"

"Conference Expansion, 1992"


I knew about the second one when Tulane was narrowly denied admission, but the ECU and USL bit is particularly interesting. They must have been some of the few independents after C-USA was formed. I know the SWC only considered inviting independents.

Two of the latter expansion files (1994) were likely related to the left behinds looking at possible options for rebuilding the conference. Interest in doing so was fairly low with the UH administration (which I always thought was a mistake) and the 4 remaining teams couldnt reach a consensus on who to invite. In the end, they went their separate ways a let the conference die.

The Cajuns make sense because they are regional, but ECU really surprised me. Although, they did not have their football commitment to C-USA and weren't in a major b-ball conference. Besides the future C-USA schools, ND, and the academies, I believe Tulsa, Louisiana Tech, Arkansas State, and Northern Illinois were the only other independents the SWC could have recruited (although three of those teams and UL joined the Big West for football).

Had Tulane been admitted back in 1991, a lot would have changed. I am pretty sure they were one vote shy and actually had the support of Texas.