UTEP
cinci
uconn
memphis
unm
unlv
uab
sdsu
nevada
utah st
byu

other schools to consider
odu/charlotte/fresno/usm/tulsa

If the c7 can get more than watchamacallit conference for bball only, imagine what this conference could get for bball.

I thought about adding Temple in there...

BUT....

Temple is already bihtchin about the travel costs in the oBE.
Even with the extra 500k, they still don't think they can make long travel work.

Nice thought...but there would have to be one hell of a tv contract in that league to make travel palatable for UConn, SDSU,Utah State,UNM,UNLV,Nevada or BYU.
The problems for those schools would be the extreme travelling distances to play one another.
Some schools like Memphis...are more centrally located within the league...so travel might not hurt as much there....but not all schools have that geographical luxury.

A best of the rest conference is simply never going to happen. The MWC is close. The America 12 definitely didn't take the best of what was left. CUSA 3.5 is full step behind A12.

I think UTEP's ship has passes as far as getting into a better conference. At this point, I'm just hoping we can for new rivalries with the new Texas schools.