“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.