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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports

Aug. 4, 2004, 1:06AM



C-USA eyes '05 title game
ADs planning recommendation to league presidents
By JERRY WIZIG
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

With Conference USA undergoing cosmetic surgery, its final appearance is coming into shape. And the plan is to accessorize with a football championship game.

The final scheduled piece of the face-lift is the addition of Texas-El Paso, which will give the conference 12 members and enable it to split into two divisions for football. Already on the way from the Western Athletic Conference, where UTEP presently resides, were Rice, SMU and Tulsa. All four will be in C-USA for the 2005 football season, as will Marshall and Central Florida, which are leaving the Mid-American Conference.

The six teams staying put in C-USA are Houston, Alabama-Birmingham, East Carolina, Memphis, Southern Mississippi and Tulane.

"There still are some details to work through, but we are very hopeful of playing a football championship game by the 2005 season," said University of Houston athletic director Dave Maggard. "Our intent is to make a recommendation to the presidents if there are no hangups and that it would be approved for that timetable."

Still unsettled are the date and place. Negotiations are ongoing with ESPN, the league's TV partner.

Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville and Marquette — four of the flagship basketball programs in C-USA — are leaving for the Big East Conference, as is South Florida, after the 2004-05 academic year. Army departs to resume its previous life as an independent, its status for more than 100 years before it joined C-USA in football only in 1999. Charlotte and Saint Louis are entering the Atlantic 10.

As a result of all the moving-van business, Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulane and UAB will be C-USA's only remaining members from the original group that began competition with the 1995-96 basketball season. Houston's entrance into the league came with the 1996 football season after the Cougars had spent 20 seasons in the Southwest Conference.

Other items on the table this week at the C-USA meetings in Memphis, Tenn., are "the whole business of putting the conference together," Maggard said.

The C-USA office has moved from Chicago to Irving.

A short-term goal for UH, Maggard said, is "working toward a closer relationship with the Big 12 in out-of-conference games." He hopes this season's football game at Oklahoma can be a first step.

Once C-USA reduces its basketball membership from 14 schools to 12 in 2005-06, it will continue a one-division setup, with each member playing five schools twice and six teams once over a 16-game league schedule.

"We must work together to make this conference as strong as possible," Maggard said. "This was a young football conference last year. Coaches like Mike Price (at UTEP) and George O'Leary (Central Florida) will continue to strengthen it for the future. Bobby Ross will do it this year at Army.

"I see a very competitive basketball conference with strong programs at UTEP and Tulsa.

"We feel we have the right football coach in Art Briles, and that Tom Penders will take us back to where we need to be in (men's) basketball."

Besides Ross, C-USA has a second new football coach this season in Mark Dantonio, the former Ohio State defensive coordinator who replaced Rick Minter at Cincinnati.

UH players report Sunday for the start of preseason practice. An addition to the newcomers is linebacker-defensive end Todd Cox from College of the Siskiyous (Calif) and Bend, Ore.

In other UH developments:

•Sophomores Ricky Wilson, a Conference USA all-freshman defensive back/kick returner, and defensive tackle Eddie McCray will redshirt for academic reasons.
•Ivory Williams of Beaumont Central, who won the 100 meters at the World Juniors this summer, will sit out his freshman season because of academics.
•Starting linebacker Lance Everson has regained the 30 pounds he lost after suffering a broken jaw in spring practice.


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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports
This article is: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2718666

That conference championship game in football is a MUST. Gotta have the exposure. It did wonders for the MAC. They got a jump on everyone when they expanded and added Marshall, who seemed to play a different opponent every year in their championship game. I also think CUSA should follow the MAC's idea and have one of the participants host the game. That will almost guarantee a sellout (unless Rice hosts...I don't expect 70k to ever show at Rice again unless Texas is playing)

I do hope CUSA maintains the divisions in bball. Play everyone in the west home/home and play everyone in the east once. The SEC does that and it works just fine. We do need to build on our relationship with the western division schools and that will help. I also like the idea of developing the west vs east thing within the conference. Coming in, the eastern group figures the west to be doormats and they may be right the 1st couple of years.

I am still of the opinion that Ford Stadium would be a wonderful, permanent site for the annual CUSA FB Championship. Although one of the teams in the championship game could host, weather, location, consistent destination model, etc. would favor one site. New Orleans, Houston and Memphis and Orlando could be alternatives, but their stadiums already host bowl games.

Using the Dallas metroplex with its' reasonably good weather in early December, makes sense. Travel to DFW is easy and the game would fill our 32K seats. If the demand is there, we are able to quickly expand to 45K. Beside in a championship game, home team advantages must be balanced against the beautiful of a destination game.