SMU to CUSA in 2004 a longshot

[Cheesesteak]

CUSA information toward end of the article:

SU being told to hit the road
Orange will play more away games in 2004, with some games on weeknights.

January 07, 2004

By Dave Rahme
Staff writer
The Post-Standard

For the first time in more than a decade, the Syracuse University football team is staring at the prospect of playing more games on the road than in the friendly confines of the Carrier Dome. And, for the first time ever, some of the games it will play there are likely to occur on weeknights.

"No question about it," SU athletic director Jake Crouthamel said Tuesday night on "Orange Pulse," an ESPN radio program hosted by SU play-by-play announcer Mark Johnson. "We're going to be playing not just Thursday night games . . . but Wednesday night and Tuesday night and wherever else we can get on (television). We are not used to that here in Syracuse where the Dome is located right on campus and the parking difficulties and all the evening classes. We have never played a midweek game during school on campus. Those days are gone. We're going to have to."

Such is the continuing fallout from the decisions by Miami and Virginia Tech in late June to abandon the Big East Conference for the Atlantic Coast Conference effective next season. That left the Orangemen without two home games for the coming season and the depleted league without its biggest TV bargaining chips. SU assistant athletic director Rob Edson, who is in charge of putting together the team's football schedule, has been scrambling to fill the vacancies. So far, he has had no luck.

"We're still looking for games," Crouthamel said earlier Tuesday, adding that this is "by far" the latest the school has failed to have a schedule in place for the coming season. "We're trying like heck to get a schedule together. It is very frustrating."

The frustration has been compounded by Crouthamel's reluctance to dip into the Division I-AA ranks and the uncertainty surrounding the immediate future of Boston College, which decided during the season to also bolt to the ACC, and the three football additions to the Big East - Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida.

Edson said recently that he had contacted more than 60 Division I-A teams - some of the best in the country, reportedly LSU and Oklahoma among them - and many would love to play the Orangemen in 2004 ... at home, in return for trips to the Carrier Dome later. Edson may be forced to go that route in order to strengthen SU's home schedules beyond 2004.

If he does, SU will play more road games than home games for the first time since 1993, when it played six road games and five home games and went 6-4-1. That team, which was ranked in the preseason top 10, had a veteran quarterback in senior Marvin Graves. The 2004 Orangemen, coming off 4-8 and 6-6 seasons, will have a first-time starter at the most pivotal position on the team.

They will also have a veteran head coach who received a vote of confidence from Crouthamel only after a tense week of waiting following a season-ending 38-12 victory over Notre Dame in the Dome. Paul Pasqualoni will commence his 14th season with a home schedule that currently features Florida State, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Rutgers and a road schedule of Boston College, Buffalo, Temple, Virginia and West Virginia.

Adding a team such as LSU or Oklahoma to that road schedule will make the most pivotal season of Pasqualoni's tenure extremely difficult to navigate. SU was 5-2 at home this season and 1-4 on the road in the last of two seasons in which I-A teams were allowed to schedule 12 games because of the way the calendar fell.

"With all that's gone on, to have this go on now is tough and very disappointing," Crouthamel said. "When your schedule gets (ruined) and you're looking for home games the following year, it's almost impossible to get them without playing a I-AA. That's not a course we're pursuing."

Syracuse was forced to do that in 2002 when East Carolina backed out of a scheduled visit to the Dome and was replaced by I-AA Rhode Island. An announced crowd of 43,089 attended that 63-17 SU victory in the 49,550-seat Dome, but approximately 6,700 tickets were distributed free to Fort Drum soldiers and their families. Crouthamel and Edson are convinced that SU's fan base will not support a I-AA team on the schedule at regular prices.

Syracuse's scheduling problems would be solved in a heartbeat if the three newcomers, currently members of Conference USA, could join the league immediately. That would allow SU to get its two home games and add the third on the road to replace BC, which would be free under those circumstances to join the ACC in 2004. Mike Tranghese, the Big East commissioner, said Tuesday morning that is unlikely to happen.

"It is a longshot at best," he said. "We're working, we're trying, but I think it's a longshot. It's really complicated, but I think at the end of the day the hurdle that must be overcome is Conference USA would suffer from significant financial losses during that one season. That is a stumbling block I don't think we're going to be able to overcome."

Tranghese predicted that the issue would be resolved one way or the other within a week. Barring a breakthrough, SU will then make plans to pack its bags six times next season. Several times, it could do so during the week.

[Sam I Am]

I guess SMu will have to wait for 2005. Pity.

[Cheesesteak]

Another CUSA article:


Speeding C-USA refit carries cost
$10 million proposal is a long shot

By Phil Stukenborg
The Commercial Appeal
January 10, 2004

Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky will make a proposal at this weekend's NCAA Convention in Nashville that would hasten conference realignment . . . at a price.

Banowsky's proposal would allow the C-USA teams bound for the Big East in 2005-06 - Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, South Florida and DePaul -to leave this fall.

The reason: to make re-alignment of seven conferences coincide with Atlantic Coast Conference expansion in 2004-05.

The cost: $10 million.

Banowsky's proposal would require conferences to collect an estimated $10 million to compensate the remaining C-USA members, including Memphis. U of M campaigned for a spot in the Big East last year, but was denied entry.

Tiger athletic director R.C. Johnson, in Nashville attending the convention, said Banowsky's proposal was an interesting one, but he considered it a long shot.

"I think the schools that are leaving have an interest in getting started right away," Johnson said. "That makes sense. If you've got a new job, you're interested in getting there as soon as you can.

"But I just don't think it's going to happen. I just think $10 million is too big a number (for the other conferences to ante up). And on top of that, you get into scheduling (issues)."

Banowsky told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Friday that "it's something that would have to be figured out by the end of the month, and that would be hard to overcome."

Johnson said Friday that he told Banowsky, " 'If you can get a boatload of money, let's take a look.'

"But, like I said, I can't imagine that it will happen," he said. "It would be such a scheduling problem if we didn't have (C-USA's newest members) lined up."

Johnson also said he'd rather see the departing C-USA schools leave as originally scheduled, in part, to serve a selfish motive.

"We are bidding for the (2005) Conference USA basketball tournament and a lot of that bid would hinge on having Louisville and Cincinnati in the league."

C-USA will welcome SMU, Tulsa, Rice, Marshall and Central Florida as expansion members in 2005-06.

[Sam I Am]

The verdict is in: no early changes for conference memberships. Our lame duck year in the WAC is going to feel awfully long, but that's just business in big time football isn't it. :pinch: