It's inevitable: Conference USA as we know it is going to change

Harry · April 15, 2017

There are big changes coming to Conference USA and most of the rest of the Group of Five, as the mid-major Football Bowl Subdivision leagues are known, that many league officials are understandably hesitant to embrace.

College athletic administrators already have been through the ringer. Beginning about five years ago, a chain reaction of conference realignment began that ended with 80 schools changing leagues. Few were hit harder than Conference USA, which lost seven schools to the American Athletic Conference.

But like it or not, more change is coming. When your expenses are rising and revenue is falling, simple economics demand that you become leaner and more efficient. And that’s the situation facing C-USA.

“Conference USA’s current financial model is unsustainable,” said an athletic director who asked not to be named.

I’m not picking on C-USA, which is a pretty good football league. The problem here isn’t on-the-field performance. It’s the bottom line.

C-USA’s TV revenue cratered from $1.1 million per school in 2015-16 to $200,000 this year. Costs have also risen, in part because the NCAA adopted new policies such as paying stipends to athletes for costs not covered in scholarships. Paying the so-called full cost of attendance has cost ODU $600,000 this year.

The elite Power 5 conferences, including the ACC and SEC, continue to be fat and happy. The ACC shared $26.2 million per school in TV and other revenue last season, and thus can afford the travel costs that come from a footprint extending from Miami to Syracuse.

read more: http://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/football/it-s-inevitable-conference-usa-as-we-know-it-is/article_19e86f15-f21e-53f4-8868-505de84abcf2.html

GTWT · April 15, 2017

One obvious change is that the mid-major conferences will become more regional. For UNT this means allying with Texas and Louisiana schools. I won't miss the F_U schools. It will be interesting to see where SMU ends up.

Edited April 15, 2017 by GTWT

UNTLifer · April 15, 2017

Just throwing this out there, but what is the need of such a large conference staff? CUSA has over twenty people on staff and the performance, revenue per school, has hit rock bottom. We need people in this office that are looking ahead and helping the conference create new revenue streams. Outside of putting a group of schools together, helping with conference championships, and creating all conference teams, what do they do?

oldguystudent · April 15, 2017

22 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Outside of putting a group of schools together, helping with conference championships, and creating all conference teams, what do they do?

MeanGreen13 · April 16, 2017

We should just wait for the big 12 to disintegrate and try to put ourselves in position to step up to that aac caliber conference that forms in its wake.

GrayEagle · April 16, 2017

I really don't see CUSA and the Sun Belt merging as they are now aligned. The problem is that there are a couple or more schools that won't be in conferences with other colleges. You also realize that we almost never kick a university out of a conference once they have been a member. In fact, the only time that I can remember that happening was when Temple was "kicked out" of the Big East.

One possibility for realignment is to form a new conference; inviting nearby universities. For example, let's say UTEP, North Texas, Rice, UTSA, LaTech, and Southern Miss resigned from CUSA and formed say, the Southwest Conference. They invited Texas State, Louisiana, Arkansas State and, if UTEP is amenable New Mexico State. We might even talk to Tulsa, Tulane, SMU and Houston. I doubt that we'd get any takers from the last group but we could offer. Although I prefer all-sports conferences, we could even consider UTA and UALR for basketball (or all sports except football). That would be a fairly tight league, especially when compared to the current CUSA and Sun Belt Conferences. The NCAA should allow a little bending of rules since they've created this monster. And yes, I realize that someone holds the Southwest Conference naming rights but it might be worth the cost if the price isn't too high.

That would leave 14-16 universities from the two conferences: ULM (appeasing Louisiana Tech), UAB, Troy, South Alabama, Florida Atlantic, FIU, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, Old Dominion, Marshall, Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, plus the two basketball schools. Eight are from CUSA and eight are from the Sun Belt so they could keep either name or combine them. That way, no one was "kicked out" of their old conference.

Maybe we can beat this one to death. Realignment is my favorite over uniforms and scheduling and right up there with recruiting and player progress for off-season topics.

Rudy · April 16, 2017

The question is, what d Tulsa, Tulane, $mut, and Houston do? You're right, they'd scoff at the idea, but surely someone at each of those schools realize there is no other option. Or is everyone associated with those schools that disillusioned?

Aquila_Viridis · April 16, 2017

Oh Gray, why stop there?? We can take ACU and SFA and maybe A&M Commerce and some of the better high schools. It's a great chance to recreate Southland-style glory!

Harry · April 16, 2017

12 hours ago, Rudy said:

The question is, what d Tulsa, Tulane, $mut, and Houston do? You're right, they'd scoff at the idea, but surely someone at each of those schools realize there is no other option. Or is everyone associated with those schools that disillusioned?

Therein lies the issue. There's a lot of scoffing going on. La. Tech will not accept ULM. UTEP hates NMSU and the AAC schools don't want any of the CUSA schools. It's just a very difficult sell even if it makes financial and geographical sense.

I heard an interview with a media person who was claiming that now with Amazon (just landed Thursday Night NFL Football) Facebook Twitter Snapchat and other mega rich social media sites there would be a renewed battle for sports broadcasting rights. The basic premise was that the value of live sports broadcasting was still very valuable and these companies were starting to figure out how they could leverage them in a lucrative way. The problem is ESPN etc have locked up all of the power conferences into long term deals. It will be interesting to see how this eventually plays out.

North Texas Shep · April 16, 2017

Regional rivals are what makes this sport fun. UNT may not be one of the big boys, but it does not mean we can't have a great team that competes in whatever damn conference we are a part of.

97and03 · April 16, 2017

Why would anyone want NMSU in their conference? You people need to quit trying to relive a game that happened over 15 years ago.

Rudy · April 16, 2017

53 minutes ago, 97and03 said:

Why would anyone want NMSU in their conference? You people need to quit trying to relive a game that happened over 15 years ago.

Agree. It was one of the greatest NT games I've seen, but that game is long gone.

untjim1995 · April 16, 2017

10 hours ago, Aquila_Viridis said:

Oh Gray, why stop there?? We can take ACU and SFA and maybe A&M Commerce and some of the better high schools. It's a great chance to recreate Southland-style glory!

I know you hate it, as do I, but a school like SFA is much closer to us in competition level than we are to a Big XII school. We made this bed decades ago. There's just not much that can be down at this point. It could've been different if we had committed to winning when we moved up in 1995, but the clear reality is that we did that to get more cash--nothing else. And has been mentioned, our location didn't help us, either.

Those AAC schools aren't in trouble for this relegation because of their budgets and historic success/name recognition. They aren't in need of realigning like the SBCUSA schools are, who need to adopt a MAC-like geographic setup ASAP.

GTWT · April 16, 2017

37 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

I know you hate it, as do I, but a school like SFA is much closer to us in competition level than we are to a Big XII school. We made this bed decades ago. There's just not much that can be down at this point. It could've been different if we had committed to winning when we moved up in 1995, but the clear reality is that we did that to get more cash--nothing else. And has been mentioned, our location didn't help us, either.

Those AAC schools aren't in trouble for this relegation because of their budgets and historic success/name recognition. They aren't in need of realigning like the SBCUSA schools are, who need to adopt a MAC-like geographic setup ASAP.

I personally have no problem aligninf with the better SLC Texas schools, especially if it means not having to associate with Sun Belt refugees. But maybe that's just the Republican in me.

Edited April 16, 2017 by GTWT

oldguystudent · April 16, 2017

11 hours ago, Harry said:

now with Amazon (just landed Thursday Night NFL Football)

Wait, what? Really? I haven't seen Monday Night Football for years since it went off broadcast television.

Now then, back on topic. To the suggestions of forming a brand new conference, maybe @TheTastyGreek can shed some light on that. I seem to recall that he spoke of conference eligibility rules for getting an auto-bid to the basketball tournament and there was something along the lines of the teams having played together for some period of years. Would forming a brand new conference shut the door on post season for several years?

^^^^I could be talking out my butt there. I really don't know. Like I said, I just seem to remember Tasty talking about something like that.

Cerebus · April 16, 2017

12 hours ago, Harry said:

The basic premise was that the value of live sports broadcasting was still very valuable and these companies were starting to figure out how they could leverage them in a lucrative way.

I don't see it. Not big money anyway. The sad fact is the vast majority of college football watchers aren't interested in watching LaTech play FAU, no matter the delivery platform.

Could it bring some money? Sure. Could it bring transformational money? No chance.

I would think out upper limit would be the old CUSA TV contract money, and it would take realignment and a lot of dominos falling in the right order for even that.

oldguystudent · April 16, 2017

The obvious answer is to legalize sports books across the nation. Then people would watch ALL the games.

UNTFan23 · April 16, 2017

This thread can be merged with:

UNTLifer · April 16, 2017

1 hour ago, UNTFan23 said:

This thread can be merged with:

This thread can be saved and reissued each spring.

Cerebus · April 17, 2017

9 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

The obvious answer is to legalize sports books across the nation. Then people would watch ALL the games.

oldguystudent · April 17, 2017

7 hours ago, Cerebus said:

I'm going to accept this gift as a lifetime achievement award. It wasn't exactly a life's goal to render you speechless, but having now accomplished it, I realize that when I die, it will be all that more peaceful.

Aquila_Viridis · April 18, 2017

Do not be fooled by those who want to discourage and drag us down. A couple million bucks for a school as huge as ours and in such a rich area, is no big deal. We have airports. We don't need to drag our athletes around on 7 hour bus rides. It is a big deal for the tiny stAtes and LTs of the world. We do not have to suffer their fate.

BTG_Fan1 · April 18, 2017

On 4/15/2017 at 8:34 PM, MeanGreen13 said:

We should just wait for the big 12 to disintegrate and try to put ourselves in position to step up to that aac caliber conference that forms in its wake.

UNT needs to have success the new 2 or 3 years, and improve the facilities...

Having an up and coming program with the Tier 1 Education will make UNT active, along with it being in the DFW Market.

WB and NS need to find a way to get alumni excited about UNT.

Arkstfan · April 18, 2017

18 hours ago, Aquila_Viridis said:

Do not be fooled by those who want to discourage and drag us down. A couple million bucks for a school as huge as ours and in such a rich area, is no big deal. We have airports. We don't need to drag our athletes around on 7 hour bus rides. It is a big deal for the tiny stAtes and LTs of the world. We do not have to suffer their fate.

Don't ever let facts ruin a self-serving argument.

UNT spent $31 million on athletics. Of that $21 million came from the school or fees. You actually generated from athletic operations $11 million.

AState spent $29 million. Of that $14 million came from the school or fees and AState generated $15 million.

Unlike UNT, we have very few opportunities to hop on a bus and go much of anywhere. We are 300 miles from the nearest football playing member of Sun Belt or CUSA.