CUSA Article

[Cheesesteak]

Revamping Big East causes a trickle-down effect
Conference USA undergoes the biggest transformation: eight schools out, six in.

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
Friday, February 18, 2005
By Mike Waters
Staff writer

When the Atlantic Coast Conference began its raid of the Big East in the spring of 2003, the rest of the college sports world braced itself for the fallout.

"I remember being at our spring meetings in Destin, Fla., in May of 2003," Tulane athletic director Rick Dickson said. "The ACC part of the equation impacted the Big East first, but we knew it would have a delayed impact on us."

The ACC eventually lured Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College away from the Big East.

Mike Tranghese, the commissioner of the Big East, blasted the ACC's clandestine actions and lashed out at his ACC counterpart John Swofford. But Tranghese knew that to save the Big East he would soon have to pluck schools from another conference.

Britton Banowsky, Conference USA's commissioner, knew his league was home to the Big East's likely targets.

"Mike and I had an open dialogue long before the ACC did anything," Banowsky said. "We agreed we'd be open and honest with each other all the way through. We tried to identify a strategy that would benefit everyone. We knew it might be an unrealistic goal, but we wanted to work with those ideas in mind."

Eventually, five Conference USA schools would move into the Big East. Starting next year, Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida will join the Big East in all sports with Marquette and DePaul playing all sports except football.

But instead of a raid, the moves became more of a transition process. And what might have resulted in chaotic upheaval in conferences across the country turned into an orderly reconfiguration.

The departures of Marquette and DePaul meant Charlotte and St. Louis were the only schools without Division I football programs remaining in Conference USA.

Banowsky said the thought throughout Conference USA was to turn what might've been perceived as a threat to the league's future into an opportunity. The chance to become an all-sports league.

Banowsky called Atlantic 10 commissioner Linda Bruno to discuss the possibility of Charlotte and St. Louis moving into the A-10.

"It was clear when DePaul and Marquette were going to align with the Catholic universities in the Big East that it kind of isolated Charlotte and St. Louis as the only two schools that didn't have D-I football," Banowsky said. "It was for the better good that they align with A-10."

When the taskcame to find new members, Banowsky turned to a recruiter of schools.

Chuck Neinas, the one-time commissioner of the Big 8 Conference and the former president of the College Football Association, had worked with Conference USA during its formation in the early 1990s. Now, Banowsky turned to Neinas again to restructure the league.

Neinas identified potential targets, made campus visits and met with school presidents.

Conference USA's first move was to invite Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa - all of the Western Athletic Conference - to join. Rice and SMU, in particular, would fit with current C-USA members Texas Christian and Tulane.

Then, Conference USA invited Marshall from the Mid-American Conference and Central Florida from the Atlantic Sun. Those two schools shared profiles similar to C-USA members East Carolina, Southern Mississippi and Alabama-Birmingham.

"Our approach was a highly strategic one," Banowsky said. "We added three schools in the southwest, conditional on the Big East taking our schools, to anchor a western division. We added Marshall and Central Florida to anchor the eastern side."

About 90 daysafter Banowsky thought he had secured his league's future, officials at Texas Christian University announced their decision to leave Conference USA and move into the Mountain West Conference.

"That was the head-scratcher," Banowsky said. "We had restructured the league in a way that would benefit TCU. It forced us to gear up for one more membership play."

Neinas already had a replacement in mind. The University of Texas-El Paso, a member of the Western Athletic Conference, wanted to align itself with C-USA's Lone Star contingent of Houston, SMU and Rice.

UTEP acceptedC-USA's invitation, bringing Conference USA's membership to 12 schools. All 12 play Division I football. The league will split into two six-team divisions and play a championship game in football. In basketball, there will be one 12-team format with at least one game against every other school and three "mirror" games for a 14-game conference schedule.

Dickson said the new league's first litmus test came two weeks ago during negotiations on new television contracts. The league reached agreements with both ESPN and CSTV.

[Cheesesteak]

"That was the head-scratcher," Banowsky said. "We had restructured the league in a way that would benefit TCU. It forced us to gear up for one more membership play."

Neinas already had a replacement in mind. The University of Texas-El Paso, a member of the Western Athletic Conference, wanted to align itself with C-USA's Lone Star contingent of Houston, SMU and Rice.

UTEP acceptedC-USA's invitation, bringing Conference USA's membership to 12 schools. All 12 play Division I football. The league will split into two six-team divisions and play a championship game in football. In basketball, there will be one 12-team format with at least one game against every other school and three "mirror" games for a 14-game conference schedule.

Dickson said the new league's first litmus test came two weeks ago during negotiations on new television contracts. The league reached agreements with both ESPN and CSTV.

[Charleston Pony]

interesting that the new CUSA is going to schedule only 14 conference bball games. The 3 "mirror" games will undoubtedly be to create rivalries. I wonder who SMU will get? Rice, Tulsa and Tulane are similar schools, but I think I'd rather play UTEP or Houston than Tulane. This will certaily give coach Tubbs an opportunity to play an attractive non-conference schedule. Hope we can get TCU, UNT & Baylor every year.

[EastStang]

My guess is that the mirror games would probably be Rice, Tulsa and either UTEP or Houston.