What if UTSA stays in Conference USA or the Southland?

Previously in the What if Series: What If… No UTSA Football | What If… Traylor went to Tech | What If… UTSA became a Basketball School

When UTSA started football in 2011 its athletic program had been members of just two conferences in its first 30 years as a program. In the 15 years since UTSA has been a member of three different conferences, starting with the WAC in 2012 and followed by Conference USA from 2013-22 and the American since 2023.

The waves of realignment have lifted UTSA like so many other programs in the country. It’s thanks to Texas A&M leaving the Big 12 for the SEC that set the dominoes in motion that led UTSA to Conference USA. A decade later when Texas and Oklahoma sailed east to the SEC that began the dominoes that led to UTSA joining the American Conference.

Even the year before UTSA began its football program it knew it would be changing conferences as it departed the Southland Conference for the WAC when the WAC went looking for quantity to fill the void of quality that was leaving when Boise State joined the Mountain West. UTSA has been riding the road of realignment from the beginning but how might things have turned out if UTSA had stayed in Conference USA? Or perhaps realignment goes differently and UTSA remains in the Southland Conference longer than they did?

What If UTSA stays in Conference USA?

In July 2023, UTSA moved from Conference USA to the American after winning back-to-back Conference USA championships in football, a conference championship in soccer, and building up one of the top baseball programs in the conference. UTSA was the prize for the American among the six schools it added from Conference USA, but things might have been different with a little bit less realignment chaos. What if the American only loses Houston and Cincinnati but not Central Florida? The American decides to be more eastern in its footprint and only takes Florida Atlantic and Charlotte to replace Houston and Cincinnati.

That leaves UTSA, Rice, North Texas and UAB as members of Conference USA which also probably means the three teams that left Conference USA for the Sun Belt in 2022, Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss decide to stick around. The conference never has to add any of the teams it did in 2023-24 and keeps its place above the Sun Belt and out of the basement of the Group of Five. On the field UTSA goes for a three-peat as Conference USA champions in 2023 and maybe they complete it, becoming the conference’s first three-peat champion.

UTSA fans might have been upset at not making the American Conference until it came out that the American didn’t want to add too many teams too quickly and have more of an eastern footprint. Eventually late in the 2020s after SMU joins the ACC, the American realizes it needs a footprint in Texas and so UTSA, Rice and North Texas get the call. Needing a fourth team the American calls UAB as well.

A UTSA that stays longer in Conference USA might have led to more football conference championships and it is interesting to imagine this past year’s women’s basketball team winning the Conference USA tournament to get back to the NCAA tournament where maybe they win their first NCAA tournament game. This year’s baseball team might still be an at large if it were in Conference USA but it might have had a similar experience to the 2022 Roadrunners who appeared to have the resume for an at large but were left out. That might have been the Roadrunners experience had they stayed in Conference USA but what if the Roadrunners didn’t leave the Southland in 2012?

What if UTSA doesn’t leave the Southland?

Around the time UTSA was starting football it was clear that the Roadrunners’ ultimate goal was to join a conference like Conference USA, although on a longer timeline than what actually happened. UTSA hoped to spend the first few seasons of football in the Southland Conference before moving up to the FBS level. Then in 2010 the WAC came calling and UTSA had a chance to play FBS Football in its second year. The Southland decided it wouldn’t let UTSA play one season in the league and so the 2011 Roadrunners had to play as Football Championship Subdivision Independents for its inaugural season before joining the WAC in 2012.

But what if the WAC isn’t looking for so many teams in 2012 and decides not to add the three Texas schools of UTSA, UT Arlington and Texas State? In that case UTSA is likely looking at two years as members of the Southland Conference for football in 2011 and 2012. The other sports get an extra season in the Southland before making the jump to FBS in 2013. That is assuming Conference USA still calls on UTSA in 2011. It’s possible that the realignment that comes from A&M leaving the Big 12 doesn’t turn out as it did in our timeline and Conference USA schools like Houston and SMU don’t join the American. Suddenly UTSA doesn’t have a spot in Conference USA waiting in 2013. That also means the Sun Belt might not be looking for new membership either which would have been where UTSA might have ended up.

Instead UTSA finds itself alongside Texas State stuck in the Southland Conference for the first few years of football. While this might have benefitted other sports it would have stunted the fast growth of the football program. Part of the reason the city extended the Roadrunners the invitation to compete in the Alamodome during the 2011 season was the knowledge that UTSA was going to be FBS starting in 2012 and in Conference USA by 2013. In a timeline where UTSA might go years in the Southland the city might not give such a long lease to UTSA on the Alamodome.

The city might have assisted on turning what became the Park West soccer and track stadium into a larger football/soccer/track stadium which would have given UTSA perhaps a 20,000 seat stadium about two miles away from the main campus. Or perhaps they figure out how to squeeze the football stadium into the footprint of the main campus. Either way a UTSA still in the Southland means Roadrunner fans become like any other fan of a Texas College, sweating it out in an outdoor stadium watching their football team.

As for the other sports, staying in the Southland might have allowed them to build up resources, but they wouldn’t have gotten the access to the talent in terms of coaching and players that they have gotten as members of Conference USA and now the American. A UTSA that never leaves the Southland or stays longer in the Southland than it did in our timeline is a different UTSA and likely has different coaches in every sport. That means Jeff Traylor, Karen Aston and Pat Hallmark might never have found their way to the Hills of Oak and Cedar.

Next Week: What if… A certain big man from San Antonio chooses to play at UTSA in the late 80s