Usually when conferences expand/realign they sometimes look for schools within the same geographical area to pair up a member (or bring members in pairs). This is especially the case for members farther out from the conference "center" as it leads to substantial decreases in travel costs. Being that USF is far from all other teams, a travel partner makes sense. Being that the Big East may be wanting to expand soon, it may look for another Florida TV market (Orlando, Miami/Tri-County) and a USF travel partner at the same time