One thing I would differ with Toledo about....
DePaul wasn't really offered an invite to a major conference. They were always in a major conference. They were in the old Conference USA, which was a pretty solid conference, anchored by several teams with National Championship banners.
But here's the thing-- DePaul co-founded the predessor to the Old C-USA, the Great Midwest Conference. In 1990-91, DePaul (at the time one of the few big Independent schools left) considered joining the old Midwestern Collegiate Conference (the conference co-founded by Loyola), which had Xavier, Dayton, Marquette, St. Louis, Butler, Evansville, and Detroit. DePaul decided instead to snag Cincinnati and Memphis from the Metro Conference, steal Marquette and St. Louis (adding Dayton a couple years later) from the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, and add UAB, a very good Independent team..
DePaul's power move did an end run around hapless Loyola (at the time led by Chuck Schwarz) and the moribund MCC (not yet under the spell of Jon LeCrone, but not at all ready for big time, hardball conference moves). In effect, they busted up the Metro Conference (a pretty high-level conference in the 70s and 80s) and dealt a crippling blow to the MCC. Watch the ESPN 30 For 30 doc about the rise of the Big East, and you'll see the kind of big money, higher stakes game that DePaul was ready for back then and we and the old MCC were absolutely not ready for.
In 1995, the Great Midwest Conference merged with the old Metro Conference members to create Conference USA-- which had venerable programs like the aforementioned teams plus Memphis, Cincinnati, Louisville, UAB, Charlotte, Southern Miss and South Florida. That'a a Big Time conference, probably on the order of where the American Athletic is today. Some years they might have topped the Pac 10.
And then when the Big East was losing and swapping membership with the ACC and other conferences in the early 2000s, DePaul was ready..... That's how they got their membership in the Big East. And if they're smart, they'd never let us in and forfeit their place in Chicago college hoops.
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