Report Says Western Kentucky Headed To Conference USA

The Bowling Green Daily News is reporting that Western Kentucky University has received and accepted an invitation to join Conference USA.

The report says an official announcement may come as early as Monday.

The Hilltoppers, who have been non-football members of the Sun Belt Conference since 1982, as well as football-playing members since 2009, will join Conference USA in all sports, beginning in 2014.

Conference USA is expected to lose Tulsa to the Big East Conference, or at least the soon-to-be-named Big East Conference, and WKU will apparently fill that void.

That would mean that Conference USA would have 14 members, including five soon-to-be former members of the Sun Belt Conference, WKU, Middle Tennessee, FAU, FIU, and North Texas, to go along with Louisiana Tech, Texas-San Antonio; Southern Miss, Rice, UTEP, UAB, Marshall, Old Dominion and Charlotte.

If WKU does indeed leave, the Sun Belt Conference would be left with 11 football-playing schools, including Louisiana, ULM, Arkansas St., South Alabama, Troy, Texas St., and Georgia St., as well as Georgia Southern and Appalachian St., who were just invited in this week, and two new football-only members, New Mexico St. and Idaho, who also accepted invitations this week.

The Sun Belt Conference would also be at 11 basketball schools, with Arkansas-Little Rock and Texas-Arlington, two non-football playing schools, joining Louisiana, ULM, Arkansas St., South Alabama, Troy, Texas St., Georgia St., Georgia Southern, and Appalachian St.

Collegefootballtalk.com has an interesting tidbit from the Twitter Account of ESPN's Brett McMurphy, who says that James Madison and Liberty are the leading candidates to replace WKU in the Sun Belt.