UCF's place in college athletics could have been very different had Texas, Oklahoma and others joined the PAC-12 in 2011.

Instead of competing in the American Athletic Conference, a league reconstituted from a few Big East leftovers plus Conference USA teams, the Knights could have been included in a merger of the Big East and other Big 12 schools.

The revelation was made today by West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, who told ESPN's Brett McMurphy they even had developed mock divisions.

In Sept. 2011, the ACC had just plucked Syracuse and Pittsburgh from the Big East. Meanwhile, Texas and Oklahoma were still actively engaged in discussions with the PAC-12 in a move that would have sent the Longhorns, Sooners, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State out west to compete in a new PAC-16.

Amid all the uncertainty, Luck - with the support of Louisville AD Tom Jurich - tells McMurphy he reached out to the other Big 12 schools with a merger idea.

"I didn't know those guys from Adam," Luck told McMurphy. "I knew the schools. I told them, 'Your conference may fall apart. You guys look like you might get left behind. Why don't we take all of you and TCU, which was kind of homeless."

The proposed 12-team football league would have split into two divisions with UConn, Cincinnati, Rutgers, West Virginia, USF and UCF comprising the East Division and Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, TCU and Louisville making up the West Division.

"I remember thinking: 'That's not a bad conference,'" Luck said. "And we would have kept the affiliation with the (Big East) basketball schools, because they loved the addition of Kansas. They (the Big 12 schools) also liked it. They were nervous as hell, too. We had a series of phone calls. That was sort of our best option."

The PAC-16 never came to fruition as shortly thereafter the league announced they would remain at 12 schools.

In the weeks to follow, UCF, Houston and SMU were invited to join the Big East. TCU, which had been slated to join the Big East, joined the Big 12 instead as a replacement for SEC-bound Texas A&M. The following spring, Memphis was next to receive the Big East call-up, while West Virginia departed as they were invited by the Big 12 to replace Missouri, the 14th member of the SEC. Temple, as a football-only member of the MAC, replaced West Virginia, effective for the 2012 football season. In late 2012, Rutgers (from the Big East) and Maryland (from the ACC) were invited to join the Big Ten, effective for 2014. Louisville got the ACC call, while Navy, East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa were tapped for American expansion. During this timeframe, a western Big East football-only expansion that would have included Boise State and San Diego State fell apart.

Though it's hard to predict what ultimately would have happened, UCF likely would be in a better situation today had the merger gone through. The lineup may have changed (the Big Ten was still targeting expansion additions), but a Big East/Big 12 merger likely would have commanded a higher-dollar television contract than the current American deal, and it's conceivable their SEC, Big Ten, PAC-12 and Big Ten brethren would have considered the league as a peer, included among the "Power Five" group seeking autonomy.