Athletic Directors Want UTEP

[50's PONY]

C-USA ADs want UTEP as 12th team
The presidents of the league's schools have the final say on expansion.
By Alan Schmadtke
Sentinel Staff Writer

April 16, 2004

Conference USA athletic directors have recommended UTEP as the league's 12th all-sports member, hoping to finalize a realignment process that started last summer and stretched across the country.

C-USA presidents, including UCF's John Hitt, will discuss conference membership April 30, meaning they should be able to vote on whether to add UTEP or stand pat as an 11-school conference.

Multiple C-USA sources confirmed the athletic directors' decision but reiterated that the school presidents are the final voice in expansion.

"We've done a lot of legwork, looked at this from a lot of sides and we like where we are, but this is the presidents' call," said a C-USA athletic director who asked his name not be used because C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky wanted to wait for a formal announcement.

Added another AD: "At one point, the ACC [Atlantic Coast Conference] athletic directors voted to add a particular school, and their presidents said, 'No.' So in that way, nothing's done. It's still a bit premature."

C-USA spokesman Russ Anderson didn't return a call for comment, and Banowsky couldn't be reached.

If approved, UTEP would make C-USA a three time-zone conference spanning 1,900 miles -- from Greenville, N.C., to El Paso, Texas.

Expected divisions are East Carolina, Marshall, UCF, UAB, Memphis and Southern Miss in the East, and Tulane, Tulsa, SMU, Rice, Houston and UTEP in the West.

Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Toledo, Miami (Ohio) and Temple were among the other schools considered by C-USA. Temple enjoyed support from some ADs because of its basketball program, but the Owls expressed interest as a football-only member, something not seriously considered by athletic directors, several of them said.

Toledo and Miami publicly recommitted to the Mid-American Conference earlier this week, confirming what the schools had done privately weeks earlier. C-USA already has two MAC schools coming in, UCF and Marshall.

C-USA's athletic directors agreed on UTEP after reviewing revenue-sharing projections from the league office. The ADs met for two days earlier this week, led by Banowsky, who is on the record as supporting a 12-team conference because it allows for a football title game.

Ultimately, the ADs rejected a 14-team concept and decided on 12 teams. League leaders are hopeful a league-championship football game will add at least $1 million to conference coffers.

C-USA thought it had a 12-team league in November after inviting UCF, Marshall, Rice, Tulsa and SMU to replace schools leaving for the Big East, the Atlantic 10 and the independent ranks. But in February, TCU said it was leaving for the Mountain West Conference, dropping the membership total to 11.

Rice, Tulsa, SMU and UTEP are coming in from the Western Athletic Conference.