“This is an exciting day
for UCF and its athletics program. Conference USA is a great league athletically
and academically, and it’s a great fit for UCF geographically.”
UCF joins SMU, Tulsa, Rice, and Marshall as the five new members to accept
invitations to Conference USA Tuesday. UCF is currently a football-only member
of the Mid-American Conference, while the other teams, with the exception of its
independent rowing team, compete in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
“I’m glad this day has finally arrived,” UCF athletics director Steve Orsini
said. “We’ve been working hard to get all of our sports in the same conference
and that hard work has paid off. The move to Conference USA will help us to
continue the growth of our athletics program and I’m sure our fans will embrace
this move and the new rivalries it will bring.”
UCF competed as an independent in football from the inception of the program at
the Division III level in 1979 until joining the MAC in 2002. The Golden Knights
moved to Division II in 1982, Division I-AA in 1990, and its current status in
Division I-A in 1996. UCF joined the A-Sun, known then as the Trans America
Athletic Conference, in 1992 and has won five all-sports trophies for women,
four all-sports trophies for men, and claimed 45 conference titles.
“We are grateful to both the MAC and the Atlantic Sun,” Orsini said. “The time
we spent in those conferences was beneficial in many ways in the development of
our athletics program.”
Conference USA has a multi-year TV agreement with ESPN that provides for
extensive national coverage of football, men’s basketball, and women’s
basketball, and has ties to the AXA Liberty Bowl, GMAC Bowl, Plains Capital Fort
Worth Bowl, Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, and New Orleans Bowl.