It was inevitable.  With big Division One schools everywhere playing musical chairs and moving to new conferences, the University of Houston was overdue for membership in a BCS conference like the Big East, and it's finally happened.

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In one of the busiest seasons for changing conferences ever seen, the Big East Conference has extended an invitation to the University of Houston.  The UH Board of regents will meet later this week to discuss it, but no one doubts they'll vote to accept it.

Moving to the Big East would be a major step up for UH athletics. It would give UH access to a BCS bowl bid, since the Big East's champion has automatic-qualifying status until the current BCS contract expires in 2013.

It would also mean higher-profile basketball games since the Big East is currently considered by many to be the country's best basketball conference.

Schools are changing conference so fast it's hard to keep up. Texas A&M is moving to the SEC.  TCU is going to the Big 12.  Nebraska has already moved to the Big 10.  It's reported that Texas and Oklahoma are thinking of moving to the Pac 10, and so it goes.

Why is this happening?  In a word, money.  More of it.  The big football factories are going where the money is.  Schools in the BCS conferences make more money because they're on TV more often and have easier access to BCS bowl games.

Money has always been the real name of the game in major college sports, but in recent years, university regents and administrators have stopped pretending that it wasn't.

 

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