Merger creates (as of right now) a 22-team football league:
The Mountain West Conference and Conference USA have agreed to form an association for football, hoping the move will help solidify both leagues and improve their chances at obtaining an automatic qualifying bid for the Bowl Championship Series.
The 22-team league will have a two-division alignment and will play a championship game, Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said during a conference call announcing the move on Friday.
The two leagues would maintain their independent structures in all other sports under the arrangement, which could begin as early as 2012.
It may not result in the BCS autobid they're looking for, but it is without doubt the most nonsensical, geography-eschewing, absurdity-embracing re-imagining of the college football landscape to date, and therefore the move most in the regrettable spirit of these sad, sad times.