UTEP- Switch to CUSA a $$$$ windfall

[MeanGreen61]

UTEP says switch a windfall

Darren Hunt

El Paso Times

Goodbye, Western Athletic Conferen¢e.

Hello, Conference U$A.

UTEP's official move into C-USA today is one of dollars ... and cents, Miner officials say. School officials estimate the switch will bring approximately two to three times more annual league revenues into the athletic department than it received in the final few years of WAC affiliation, allowing the rising program to continue to grow.

"The projected revenue for next year in C-USA is around $1.2 million, which is considerably higher than the WAC," UTEP athletic director Bob Stull said Thursday, giving the school reason to celebrate changes on what he called "an important day in our history" during a press conference at the Larry K. Durham Sports Center. "What's great is every year revenues are expected to escalate."

Stull said C-USA revenue projections call for an increase to as much as an estimated $1.9 million per school in 2010. The final few years of UTEP's 37-year membership in the WAC yielded no more than $650,000 in revenue distribution per school, he said.

"And expenses as a member of the WAC were about $400,000 per year," Stull added, "meaning we were making about $250,000 a year from the league when it was all said and done."

With a smaller membership fee in C-USA ($250,000 to $280,000) and larger revenues on the way, UTEP could double or even triple its annual league revenue as a member of C-USA in coming years, making the move a no-brainer despite a $2 million buy-in fee.

"We've paid about half that already," Stull said. "They'll deduct the second million from our revenues over the next five years ($200,000 per year)."

UTEP, which made the decision to leave the WAC for C-USA 14 months ago, joins fellow WAC schools SMU, Tulsa and Rice in making the move. The rest of the 12-team league includes C-USA holdovers Memphis, Tulane, Houston, Southern Mississippi, UAB and East Carolina, along with new additions Central Florida of the Atlantic 10 and Marshall from the Mid-American Conference.

How can C-USA -- which lost nine schools to other conferences Thursday, including some of its top basketball entities -- pay its new 12-school lineup so much more than the WAC?

"We were fortunate through our realignment to ensure a relatively healthy financial future for the conference," C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky explained, "through a combination of TV revenue and NCAA tournament money."

C-USA's new television deal with ESPN and CSTV, the first non-exclusive agreement of its kind for ESPN, is worth approximately $11.3 million to the league and much, much more in terms of exposure (10 regular season football games and at least six regular season men's basketball games on ESPN or ESPN2). The UTEP football team is scheduled to appear on national TV in its first six games, an amount of exposure in 2005 that Stull said exceeds the total national attention the program has received the past three decades.

Banowsky said the conference has also compiled 44 NCAA tournament units, thanks largely to Final Four runs by departing C-USA members Marquette and Louisville in recent years. Over the next six years that'll mean about $40 million to C-USA.

"That's six to seven million dollars a year retained by the conference," said Banowsky, who has devised a simpler approach to revenue sharing in the new C-USA. "We used to have a fairly complicated and uneven revenue sharing model in this league. But the new model is a relatively equal revenue sharing approach."

Stull also pointed out the opportunity for additional sources of revenue in C-USA, including $100,000 for making the NCAA tournament, $100,000 compensation for playing on non-traditional football nights (UTEP plays on Friday twice this season) and a 15-percent share of the gate for whoever plays host to the C-USA championship game (division winner with highest BCS ranking hosts).

Despite the loss of some of the league's biggest bread winners, Banowsky is confident C-USA Lite, which some are calling it, will work and be quite fulfilling.

"In the past we had a huge gap between our institutions -- we had really diverse membership, which required diverse revenue sharing," Banowsky said. "But now our members are very compatible -- we've narrowed the ratio of athletic budgets in the conference from 5-to-1 in the past to 2-to-1 ($14 to $28 million).

"The bottom line is we are a lot more similar as a group of universities and that enables us to work together a lot more easily. And a league is only as good as it is as a whole. One member doesn't make a league and two members don't make a league. In our case, 12 make it a league and we think all 12 have great potential. The strength of this league is really the quality and depth of the institutions. It's 12 universities pulling very hard on the rope together -- instead of just one or two -- to grow this conference into something special."

UTEP fifth-year women's basketball coach Keitha Green sees that potential from C-USA.

"In the meetings with them that we've had down in Florida, everybody I've talked to has been so impressed," Green said Thursday. "They definitely have an idea of the drive and direction they want all the schools to go."

UTEP football coach Mike Price said the additional revenue in C-USA will have a huge impact on the school's future.

"It's going to mean a lot to all of our programs," said Price, who would like to use some of that addition money for a much-needed team meeting room and to pay for summer school.

UTEP second-year men's basketball coach Doc Sadler called the new C-USA "an unbelievable basketball league" Thursday. Miner fans will have to make a slight switch from Thursday-Saturday WAC scheduling to Wednesday-Saturday, but Sadler said it will be worth it in the end.

"They're going to get a chance to see some great players come through here," Sadler said. "Memphis had one of the top five recruiting classes in the country this year. Whoever comes out to the Haskins Center will see some quality teams."

UTEP Alumni Association Chapter Development Coordinator Margie Brickey said while the program's decision to move East hurts its Northern California alumni chapter, it will help grow Miner alumni bases in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and elsewhere in the East.

"We're busy crunching the numbers of our alumni in all the (C-USA school) areas," Brickey said. "It'll hurt us in California, so we'll have to find alternatives. But I know of a guy in North Carolina that's all excited about the move and we've also got some people in New Orleans."

Fans here in El Paso will also have the opportunity to get to know UTEP's new league opponents thanks to the deal with CSTV, which will air hundreds of league games in coming years.

Time Warner Cable spokesperson Caroline Garland said an agreement to add CSTV to a local cable standard tier package is already in the works.

"We actually already have a corporate level agreement," she said. "We're just looking at channel placement at this point."

What C-USA adds up to for UTEP, in terms of additional exposure in places the school hasn't competed and more revenue to continue to grow its programs, is almost a perfect fit.

"From my perspective, they're a wonderful fit for the new C-USA," Banowsky said of UTEP. "They're part of the University of Texas system and they have great tradition, which is something that's important for us. El Paso also has somewhat of a unique cultural heritage, which really contributes to the overall blend of this conference."

Darren Hunt may be reached at dhunt@elpasotimes.com; 546-6168

[PlummMeanGreen]

CUSA will be a nice temporary home for the Miners until the MWC comes a-callin'. Seems like UTEP could bargain the Sun Bowl to the MWC as enticement for that move.

[GreenEddieNT]

CUSA will be a nice temporary home for the Miners until the MWC comes a-callin'.  Seems like UTEP could bargain the Sun Bowl to the MWC as enticement for that move.

I don't know. That article makes it sound like UTEP is pretty happy to join C-USA. Who knows if they will actually leave.

[NT80]

I don't know. That article makes it sound like UTEP is pretty happy to join C-USA. Who knows if they will actually leave.

UTEP is no where close to the center of CUSA and a large distance to travel for any CUSA conference game. They would take a MWC invite in a minute, and it could happen with TCU needing a bridge to UNM. UTEP is closer to California than they are to Dallas.

The thing CUSA bought in UTEP is that they are a SWA city and a 30/10...30K attendance average for football and 10K for basketball, plus nice facilities.

Edited July 2, 2005 by NT80

[DeepGreen]

CUSA will be a nice temporary home for the Miners until the MWC comes a-callin'.  Seems like UTEP could bargain the Sun Bowl to the MWC as enticement for that move.

I think UTEP is giddy about being in CUSA. After all, they are now aligned with a league that includes Texas schools. Regardless of the distance from El Paso to Los Angeles or Dallas, UTEP is till a Texas university.

[Arkstfan]

The "old" CUSA had 14 full members. 10 football playing 4 non-football. 9 public 5 private. 3 (arguably 4) not especially serious about basketball and 10 or 11 very serious about hoops. 12 in fairly large markets 2 in small markets.

The "new" CUSA has 12 full members. All 12 play football. 8 public 4 private. 5 very serious about basketball 7 not so much. 9 fairly large markets 3 small markets.

The bottom line is we are a lot more similar as a group of universities and that enables us to work together a lot more easily.

Not so sure I agree with that.

[the green rokemi]

the more important question is...

What will LA Tech's travel budget look like in the next couple of years

Edited July 2, 2005 by the green rokemi

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

A lot of RED digits.

[PlummMeanGreen]

the more important question is...

What will LA Tech's travel budget look like in the next couple of years

There are some from La Tech (including one of their unofficial message board's administrators) who a few short years ago went as far as to say that their school's leadership sold them out in making the decision to join the WAC knowing full-well they (ulitimately) could not afford that league.

La Tech needs to do whats best for La Tech, but a few decision-makers at their school have some pretty big decisions to make in the next 2-3 years after all the monies left on the WAC table from the schools who vaulted for CUSA runs out.