A proposed merger between the Mountain West and Conference USA “probably will not happen,” college football industry sources told CBSSports.com.

The leagues had hoped to dissolve and form a new league or merge into one league for the 2013-14 season, but that is now “unlikely” at least for the immediate future, sources said. Even though the leagues would remain separate, they are still working together to figure out a way to share television, marketing and scheduling resources.

“There is not much talk about a formal merger of the conferences into one conference entity in the near term, but that is still a future consideration,” a source said.

In February, the two leagues initially announced they would dissolve and form a new league for the 2013-14 season. A month later, sources told CBSSports.com the leagues were no longer considering dissolving, but instead would either merge or remain separate but share resources.

Now a merger of the leagues appears even more unlikely. Whatever decision the leagues officially reach, Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson and C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky told CBSSports.com last month that a decision will be made by early June.

By deciding to remain as separate leagues, both leagues would likely pursue additional members from other leagues to replace the schools that have left or will be leaving. After next season, Conference USA is losing UCF, Southern Methodist, Houston and Memphis, while the Mountain West, which loses TCU this summer, is losing Boise State and San Diego State next year.

Because of these defections, the Mountain West will have to expand.

That's because each FBS league is required to sponsor at least eight women’s sports and six men’s sports, with at least six member schools competing in each sport. Based on the MWC’s website, the league will not have schools in 2013-14 competing in baseball and men’s cross country. C-USA also would need to add more schools to keep women’s swimming as a conference sport.

Sources said Utah State and San Jose State are the top candidates to join the MWC in 2013. There also remains a possibility UTEP could move from C-USA to the Mountain West. Without a merger, it’s unknown if the Miners could simply switch conferences.

The most likely candidates to join C-USA in 2013 are Louisiana Tech, North Texas and Florida International. Charlotte also is a possibility, but the 49ers won’t even begin playing football until 2013 and wouldn’t be able to join the FBS ranks until 2015 at the earliest. Louisiana Tech also is a target of the Sun Belt, which recently added Georgia State and could also add other members.

Last month, sources said there were at least 11 schools have contacted or been contacted by the MWC or C-USA about membership.

The main reason the Mountain West and Conference USA wanted to dissolve was to nullify their current television deals and then create a new conference to maximize their media rights revenue. However, if the leagues dissolved or merged, the conference would lose their NCAA tournament units – teams earn about $250,000 for their conference for each round they advance in the NCAA tournament and that money is distributed to the conferences after a rolling six-year period. If the leagues dissolved or merged that money would stay with the individual schools so the leagues would forfeit millions of dollars. Also the schools leaving potentially would not have to pay exit fees to their former league.

The leagues, if merged, also proposed holding a semifinal round in football and then a final, which would require NCAA approval.

Last month Banowsky told CBSSports.com that the 16 institutions in C-USA and the MWC  – East Carolina, Marshall, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB and Texas-El Paso from C-USA and Air Force, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, UNLV and Wyoming from the MWC – have “decided to work together to form a new association.

“They've entered into binding agreements to that affect. They've received govern approval in some cases from their various regents and trustees,” Banowsky said. “A lot of details to be worked out, obviously, including structure, management, a name of a new association, television, media rights.”

The new association just won’t be a merger.