C-USA Expansion #1

[50's PONY]

Matthew Postins: UNT has tough sales job ahead

09:52 AM CST on Sunday, February 1, 2004




Matthew Postins
Human nature shows us that we’re all looking for something better. Lives and careers have been made and broken in the pursuit of whatever’s on the other side of the proverbial fence.

That’s why TCU will leave Conference USA for the Mountain West Conference in 2005-06, and that’s why North Texas should do everything in its power to try and take TCU’s place in Conference USA.

Yeah, I know, that’s a no-brainer for Mean Green fans. Show of hands: does anyone really want to stay in the Sun Belt Conference? Didn’t think so.

This could be the most crucial time of UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal’s tenure. Other opportunities to change conferences may come up, but there will probably be none more appealing than Conference USA.

Conference USA commissioner Brit-ton Banowsky has made it no secret he wants at least one division of the conference in the central time zone. Currently, that would likely mean a division with SMU, Houston, Rice, Tulsa and Tulane. The El Paso Times reported earlier this week that four schools — UNT, Texas-El Paso, Temple and Louisiana Tech — were the likely candidates to replace TCU.

I’d toss out UTEP and Temple immediately. The Miners may as well be in a different part of the country, as far away as El Paso is from this area. And it’s in the Mountain Time zone. That doesn’t fit into Banowsky’s plan.

And Temple? Where did that come from? Sure, great basketball school, and that’s something that Conference USA hangs its hat on. But adding Temple won’t save the conference from the hit it will take when Louisville, Marquette, DePaul, Cincinnati and South Florida all leave for the Big East. Besides, the Owls stink at football, and didn’t football kick-start this whole realignment thing in the first place?

So, since they’re in Conference USA’s back yard, I think UNT and Louisiana Tech are the prime candidates.

Having been to Louisiana Tech, I can tell you their facilities are nice, but nothing special. That school’s advantages are its proximity to Tulane, which would make Tech a desirous travel partner, and its baseball team, something UNT does not have. With TCU leaving, that also takes away a baseball team for conference play, and Conference USA may need another one to keep the conference competitive.

Villarreal and UNT president Dr. Norval Pohl can counter with the recent success of the football team, which has won three straight Sun Belt titles, plus the 2002 New Orleans Bowl. The volleyball program is now respectable, and the men’s golf team and women’s track team have had recent successes. Also, Denton’s close proximity to one of the nation’s top media markets — and Conference USA’s home office, once it move to Dallas from Chicago in July — certainly has its advantages.

But that won’t be enough. UNT’s chances of Conference USA membership will hinge on whether the pair can sell Conference USA on the future. That means playing up the Mean Green Athletic Village, a vast improvement over UNT’s current facilities, but a project still in relative infancy. Construction on the first stage of the project has begun, but there are two more to go, including the all-important football stadium.

The pair must convince Banowsky and Conference USA’s membership that the project will finish on time and that funding will not dry up. It will be the toughest sales job Villarreal has ever had — and one at which he must succeed to improve UNT’s standing on the national collegiate athletic stage.

Unless of course he’s happy in the Sun Belt, as he has said before, and happy with that $100,000 revenue sharing UNT gets from the conference each year. But I’m betting he’s not satisfied. Now is not the time for Villarreal and UNT to be humble, or to worry about the feelings of its Sun Belt brethren. Now is the time to be bold and grab for this brass ring before someone else does.

MATTHEW POSTINS can be reached at 940-566-6874.

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