Cusa Expansion Talk Is Preperation For Possible Shift

[MeanGreen61]

http://blog.al.com/press-register-sports/2010/07/conference_usa_talked_expansio.html

[Arkstfan]

http://blog.al.com/press-register-sports/2010/07/conference_usa_talked_expansio.html

Southern Miss athletic director Richard Giannini said he had several discussions with colleagues from around the conference, as well as with conference officials, about the league's options. But he said the league never hatched a firm strategy.

TRANSLATION: We have four private schools that think the rest of us are bunch of jucos and cow colleges and we have schools that somehow think the being basketball elite is more important than winning football games and we had three schools whirling and dancing around trying catch the eye of the Big East. We never could get 9 schools on the same page to have a plan.

The shift worked out: C-USA signed a $67.8 million television deal with ESPN and CBS College Sports that ranks among the most lucrative deals for a conference without an automatic Bowl Championship Series bid.

TRANSLATION: The total sounds much better than $900,000 per team which is very sweet but less than the reported $1.4 million per football team of the deal before a bunch of schools left. In a field of five, being second is pretty good and is "one of the most lucrative" even if it is $400,000 a team less than MWC.

The conference's bowl tie-ins, including the New Orleans Bowl, the Liberty Bowl and the Hawaii Bowl, also stack up well among BCS outsiders.

TRANSLATION: As a writer, I'm all about the cool destination. Never mind that USM probably cannot afford the million dollar hit that a Hawaii Bowl trip brings. I really like to party on Bourbon Street covering USM, but hey Memphis is cool too even though there is a chance the C-USA champ gets shoved out during this contract to play in Birmingham.

"There have been a lot of things that are very positive for Conference USA," Giannini said. "The TV deal is great; we have five or six bowl opportunities every year, and that's been very positive. The fact that we've been able to be in a league with regional rivalries, Memphis, Tulane, East Carolina, Houston -- it's been very good for us."

TRANSLATION: Eat it Rice!

[GrayEagle]

I felt that when the conference hired Chuck Neinas that a significant shift in the league would happen in the not-too-distant future. I don't feel as strong about that now as I did for the reasons that ArkStFan pointed out...1/3 of the conference is private schools that look down on any state institution as being unworthy and a few that want CUSA to become a premier hoops league.

For those reasons I am becoming less enamored with CUSA. I still consider Tulsa fair-minded and would like to be in a conference with them again. I think that USM could develop into a good rivalry. I would also like to be in the same league with Houston although they run from us. That's unfair, they are just a jump ahead of us in improving their lot while we move much more slowly. I would like to play SMU each year but I really don't care if we're in the same conference or not. We have a pretty long history with UTEP and I wouldn't mind their being included. Except for UCF, the rest of CUSA I could take or leave. I believe that UCF is developing a premier program and will soon be lost anyway.

While I still see CUSA as our best immediate solution, I do not like the turmoil among its members. And, for those opposed to far-flung conferences, it is a long way from ideal. I do not see any friends or advocates in Conference USA.

The best situation for us would be for the Sun Belt and CUSA to split and regroup in a more compatible geographical collection but the chances of that happening are remote.

[shaft]

This article didn't say anything other than CUSA TV is up soon.

[GrayEagle]

This article didn't say anything other than CUSA TV is up soon.

Wow! That was about ten words of a 400 word article and it was the only thing of significance?

Let me add another. Their bowl situation is in flux also.

[MCMLXXX]

I do not see any friends or advocates in Conference USA.

The best situation for us would be for the Sun Belt and CUSA to split and regroup in a more compatible geographical collection but the chances of that happening are remote.

Perhaps not as remote as you think.