C-USA Meeting

[50's PONY]

C-USA schools deal with change
Spring meetings time for familiarization
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
By Ted Lewis
Staff writer
DESTIN, FLA. -- This year's program for the Conference USA spring meetings includes pictures of all of the attendees.

Good thing. They should come in handy.

After a year of upheaval, the reconfigured league is getting together this week with six holdover members, including Tulane, six new members that won't come on board until 2005, and minus nine members that are leaving after the coming school year.

One school, Texas-El Paso, joined the league only a little more than two weeks ago.

"Building bonds within any organization is a priority," UTEP athletic director Bob Stull said. "A lot of us know each other already, but when you can get together in a social situation, it only enhances things."

So, there promises to be a lot of putting faces with names.

That started Monday with a two-hour opening session featuring athletic directors, football coaches, basketball coaches, senior women's administrators, faculty athletic representatives and conference staff members.

"This week will be more introductory than anything else," C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said. "We need to pour a foundation for this league. It has to be a foundation built on relationships and on good solid analytical thinking."

That means business will be conducted, including working toward a decision about having a football championship game starting in 2005.

Because C-USA will have 12 teams, it is eligible to stage a championship game such as the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 do. But until the financial aspect of a title game can be determined, no recommendation will be made to the league presidents, who have the ultimate say.

"There are a lot of pros and cons," Banowsky said. "You have exposure, revenue and an opportunity to settle the championship on the field.

"Then you've got the impact on our bowl tie-ins, possible impact on our BCS possibilities and impact on our academic calendars. I think the prevailing view here is to have one, unless there is a compelling reason not to."

However, Banowsky added, he does not expect a recommendation to come out of the meeting.

Once the title game issue is settled, other football matters will follow.

Divisions are expected to be the easiest to determine.

Tulane is set to be in the West with UTEP, Houston, Rice, SMU and Tulsa. Southern Mississippi, Memphis, Marshall, Central Florida, UAB and East Carolina would make up the East.

However, even that is not set in stone.

"There are some very creative people out there," Houston athletic director Dave Maggard said.

Once the divisions are set, scheduling comes into play.

Banowsky favors the model used by the Big 12, where schools rotate their three non-division opponents every two years.

However, the SEC model -- where schools have one permanent non-division opponent -- will be considered as well.

Tulane and Southern Mississippi, the two closest schools in separate divisions, favor the SEC model, but the lack of other natural or traditional cross-division rivalries make the Big 12 model more likely to prevail.

C-USA men's basketball could use the SEC model, where teams play each team in their division twice and those in the other division once -- for a total of 16 games.

However, a proposal by Memphis to have no divisions and play 14 league games has its supporters.

"We're taking a hit in basketball losing teams like Louisville and Cincinnati," Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson said. "With 14 games schools that want to will have the opportunity to improve their RPIs in who they schedule out of conference."

C-USA women's basketball is not bound to follow the men's model. Tulane coach Lisa Stockton said she believes most of her peers favor divisions and a 16-game conference schedule.

Other top issues are future TV contracts and bowl affiliations, revenue distribution and future basketball tournament sites.

There's so much on the table, Banowsky said, that it's for the best the transfer of membership won't take effect until 2005 instead of this fall.

At least, Banowsky can be reasonably assured that the 12 schools here this week will be here again this time next year.

It was a year ago this week that the Atlantic Coast Conference announced its intention to expand, starting a major shift in the college landscape that has resulted in at least 22 schools changing leagues by next year.

"It's amazing what a difference a year can make," he said. "When we left here last year we had a pretty fair inclination that there would be change that would affect us.

"And that's exactly what happened."