Cusa Commish On Expansion

MeanGreen61 · May 18, 2010

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/college/os-conference-usa-expansion-20100517,0,6621600.story

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College expansion: Conference USA commissioner says league isn't afraid to embrace change

4:59 p.m. EDT, May 17, 2010

DESTIN -- Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said his league isn't afraid to embrace change.

"We have three principles that we share with our folks," he said as the Conference USA spring meetings got under way Monday. "One is, it's OK to change conferences. Unlike other conferences, we are generally comfortable with that concept. ... We have no problem with having the conversation. We have it openly. We do, however, believe while you're on the team, you've got to support the team. And that's something that we talk about."

Conference USA has a pool of talent that could be poached if current automatic qualifying BCS leagues decide to expand. With the Big Ten and Pac-10 among conferences openly exploring the possibility of adding more teams, every Conference USA program has tried to present itself as an attractive candidate to join bigger conferences with much bigger payouts for its members.

Conference expansion will be discussed extensively during the C-USA meetings, but Banowsky said athletic directors, football coaches and basketball coaches also will discuss progress in television negotiations, significant changes to basketball scheduling and a wide variety of other topics.

"We have to keep our eye on the ball," he said. "We can't lose focus worrying about what may or may not happen. We'll be prepared for it. I think we'll be ready, but we don't want to lose focus on what we have to be prepared for today on our campuses and as a group."

It helps that Conference USA has been here before.

The league lost five members to the Big East before the 2005 season.

"We did probably have the most dramatic change of any conference in a short amount of time maybe in the history of all of college athletics," Banowsky said. "We learned a lot of lessons. Some of the lessons we learned are some of the things I talked about before.

"To cast this in a loyalty-non-loyalty conversation is really counterproductive because really what you want is the maximum number of participants to feel benefitted from change. You don't want a bunch of folks feeling like they did not realize benefit from change. And that comes from really thoughtful analysis and conversation."

While the Big East and others mull preemptive expansion moves to offset any changes that might be made by the Big Ten, Banowsky said C-USA will not be making any preemptive expansion moves.

"We reviewed an idea over a year ago to grow the league to 16 teams and it kind of made its way to our presidents and chancellors," he said. "... And they elected at that time to not do anything preemptively. They generally liked the grouping that we have, the 12 schools that we have. They liked the amount of traction we seemed to be getting working together and beginning to see the first indications of new rivalries being built and those kinds of things, so they opted not to do that a year ago, but it's something that constantly gets discussed as one of the possibilities."

Banowsky said he was able to talk with some conference commissioners about the possibility of realignment during the Bowl Championship Series meetings in Arizona last month.

"Some are more comfortable with the dialogue because they have more experience with it and understand it doesn't have to be emotionally supercharged," he said of fellow conference commissioners facing potential membership changes. "It can be managed in a thoughtful way. Others, I think, are just less familiar with the range of issues that bear on the topic and it makes it a little more difficult. But we did talk about it out there, which is good. I think 10 or 12 years ago the group would have had a hard time even engaging on the topic."

Edited May 18, 2010 by MeanGreen61

NT80 · May 18, 2010

"We can't lose focus worrying about what may or may not happen. We'll be prepared for it."

Interesting sound bites that Commissioners are throwing out regarding realignment. It depends on their conference's situation: hunter or hunted?

It would be fun to play match the quote to the conference.

All sides are hunkering down in their war rooms for the realignment draft to begin. The Big 10 has the first picks. The SEC says it will match any size change over 12 members. The PAC 10 wants first dibs over the Big 12 of Utah and Colorado. If the Big10 also raids Mizzou and Neb then the Big 12 will be in full panic mode. That could cause Texas and A&M to be offered by the SEC.

Meanwhile, further down the chain with the 29th and 30th draft picks sit CUSA and the WAC. How much they need to reload depends on the carnage from above.

As for UNT, we sit and wait for the smoke to clear from the main battlefield. Will opportunity exist or will we be banished to another 10 years in the basement? <_<

SUMG · May 18, 2010

"We can't lose focus worrying about what may or may not happen. We'll be prepared for it."

Interesting sound bites that Commissioners are throwing out regarding realignment. It depends on their conference's situation: hunter or hunted?

It would be fun to play match the quote to the conference.

All sides are hunkering down in their war rooms for the realignment draft to begin. The Big 10 has the first picks. The SEC says it will match any size change over 12 members. The PAC 10 wants first dibs over the Big 12 of Utah and Colorado. If the Big10 also raids Mizzou and Neb then the Big 12 will be in full panic mode. That could cause Texas and A&M to be offered by the SEC.

Meanwhile, further down the chain with the 29th and 30th draft picks sit CUSA and the WAC. How much they need to reload depends on the carnage from above.

As for UNT, we sit and wait for the smoke to clear from the main battlefield. Will opportunity exist or will we be banished to another 10 years in the basement?

The only thing I can say is....that at least right now...with the stadium going up....we can put our best foot forward (so to speak). If we still had dumpy old Fouts in our future....our chances of moving up the conference food chain would be low. Now at least we have something to offer. And if football could start getting respectable again (and I think we will)...we'll really have a lot to offer.

greenjoe · May 18, 2010

For me, the most notable thing Banowsky said is,

We have it openly. We do, however, believe while you're on the team, you've got to support the team.

This is true regardless of which conference we're talking about. As long as we're in the conference we're in, we should support it by supporting North Texas. The question should never be"Who are we playing." Rather, "North Texas is playing."