Members of Conference USA and current and future members of the Mountain West are on their way to forming a new league that will begin in 2013.

The 16 schools announced the plans Monday, taking a bigger-is-better approach that will create a conference with schools in five time zones.

“This is an exciting development that will stabilize the current conferences and create the first truly national conference with members in five time zones and television viewership from coast to coast,” UNLV President Neal Smatresk said in statement. “We are moving our plans forward rapidly and expect to complete our conversations in the near future. Look for further announcements soon as we work together on this exciting new venture.”

The new conference likely will have 18-24 schools, split into divisions, and not only have a football championship game but also semifinals. It also will hold a conference basketball tournament, the statement said.

School leaders said they plan to complete work on the new league in six months.

The plan is for Conference USA and the Mountain West to join forces and start over, possibly with new TV deals. Both conferences are in the middle of contracts with CBS that run through 2016.

Nowhere in the statement are the names of the conferences mentioned, just the schools involved. They are:

•Air Force, Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico and Wyoming, which all compete in the Mountain West.

•Alabama-Birmingham, East Carolina, Marshall, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Texas-El Paso, Tulane and Tulsa, which all compete in Conference USA.

•Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii, which all currently compete in the Western Athletic Conference, but are set to join the Mountain West in 2012.

All the schools except Hawaii will compete in all sports in the new conference. Hawaii will be a football-only member, though the Warriors could rack up some serious mileage when they face East Carolina in Greenville, N.C., (4,864 miles away) or UAB (4,358).