Conference USA weighing 16-team model for football

Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said Monday that the league is considering expanding to 16 teams for football, reports CBSSports.com. The conference currently has 14 members for football, as Western Kentucky replaced Tulsa as the 14th member.

Last week, Tulsa left the conference to join the American Athletic Conference, which was formerly the Big East. The league signed a lucrative television deal with Fox Sports worth a reported $40 million and also has media-rights contracts with CBS and ESPN.

From CBSSports.com:

“We've modeled it at 16, and it does kind of create some divisions that are a little more geographically connected,” Banowsky said. “We haven't acted on it. I think personally a larger conference is better because you get some efficiencies, you get the benefit of a bigger group. We don't want to lose our identity in the process. We're just kind of moderating the growth at a pace where people are comfortable. It could be folks are just comfortable (at 14).”