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FIU Joins Conference USA

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Florida International University officially announced Friday the school will leave the Sun Belt Conference after the 2012 season and join Conference USA.

FIU will join Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Texas San Antonio, Charlotte, and Old Dominion in the new Conference USA which will eventually have 14 members. Charlotte and Old Dominion's membership in football likely won't start in 2013.

Conference USA was cannibalized late last year during conference realignment. C-USA lost Houston, Southern Methodist, Central Florida, and Memphis to the Big East when Missouri and Texas A&M joined the SEC, West Virginia joined the Big XII, and Pittsburgh and Syracuse jumped to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Conference USA will keep a presence in Florida by adding FIU and will still have two schools in Texas along with Rice. C-USA also has Marshall, East Carolina, Southern Miss, UAB, Tulane, Tulsa, and UTEP.

Once the move is completed, C-USA will split into two divisions, with seven members in the East including: East Carolina, FIU, Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, Charlotte, and ODU and the West with Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Rice, Texas San Antonio, Tulane, Tulsa, and UTEP, according to CBSSports.com.

FIU's recent success is a testament to the program that head coach Mario Cristobal has built.

When Cristobal took over, the team was a wreck and pretty much the laughing stock of college football. Major programs would schedule FIU for the guaranteed win.

Now, FBS schools are hesitating now when looking at FIU, just ask the Louisville Cardinals last year.

While Conference USA, the Big East, Big XII, and SEC continue to be big winners in conference realignment, the biggest loser in all of the conference realignment is the Western Athletic Conference, or WAC.

The once proud conference will be left with just two football members in 2013, meaning the conference is essentially dead.

Interestingly, the last non automatic qualifying school to win the National Championship came from the WAC. In 1984, Brigham Young University won the national championship as a WAC school.

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