Western Athletic Conference
Later in the 2000s, the WAC was affected by another wave of conference realignment. After the Big East Conference lost three of its members to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 2004 and 2005, it reloaded by "raiding" Conference USA (C-USA). In turn, C-USA sought new members from other conferences, and four WAC schools—Rice, SMU, TCU, and Tulsa—accepted invitations to join C-USA in 2005. The WAC responded by adding the three other schools that had played Big West football (Idaho, New Mexico State, and Utah State).