majesty95's Dynasty Blog
The most notable change announced was that New Mexico State was disbanding its football program and that perennial Football Championship Subdivision powerhouse Delaware was making the jump to the FBS.
New Mexico State has had difficulty fielding a competitive team since an 11-0 season in 1960. That was the last bowl appearance for the program and they had managed only three winning seasons in the past 30 years.
The decision prompted Delaware to make the jump to the FBS. Delaware won six Division I-AA (now FCS) national championships (the last in 2003) and finished as the runner-up as recently as 2007.
Delaware head coach K.C. Keeler indicated that the school had not considered moving up to the FBS but that the opening created by NMSU was an opportunity they could not pass up.
"You don't get many opportunities to move up a level with an NFL quality senior quarterback and jump into an elite conference." said Keeler.
Senior quarterback Pat Devlin transferred to Delaware from FCS powerhouse Penn State in 2009. His talent is expected to allow the Blue Hens to compete offensively in the Bowl Championship qualifying Big East in 2010.
To make room for Delaware in the Big East, the University of South Florida was moved to Conference USA replacing the University of Texas-El Paso which replaced NMSU in the Western Athletic Conference.
Following the addition of USF to the East Division, C-USA officials were worried that they East division would be far superior, competitively, to the West division. C-USA officials then contacted perennial Sun Belt power Troy and offered them a spot in the West opposite their rival Alabama-Birmingham who was in the East.
Troy decided they could not pass up the opportunity to increase their exposure from the larger conference and accepted the offer. Immediately upon hearing of Troy's defection, Middle Tennessee State officials contacted C-USA to inquire about joining the conference as well.
C-USA officials decided that taking the top two programs from the Sun Belt would give them increased credibility as a conference and invited MTSU to join.
The new additions left two too many teams in the conference. C-USA officials then deliberated as to which programs should be cut. Finally coming to an agreement, C-USA officials contacted the Sun Belt and asked if they would be willing to accept Rice and Tulane to the conference.
Sun Belt officials, having few options with a depleted conference, agreed to take the two underachieving C-USA schools.
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