C-USA chief: 'System' is realigning

Harry · July 24, 2014

IRVING, Texas -- Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky knows at least one thing won't change with autonomy for the five power conferences to make their own bylaws.

"There's been a differentiator whether you call them BCS, non-BCS," Banowsky said Wednesday. "I'm not naive to think that there won't be some continued differentiation."

Asked then what he'd like C-USA and similar NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision leagues to be called moving forward, Banowsky said, "Call us the second five, and note there's 32 (conferences)."

Regardless of whatever labels and differences there are, Banowsky expects that "second five" leagues to be able to co-exist in major football like they always have with the big-money conferences -- the SEC, Big 12, Pac-12, ACC and Big Ten.

"Our five conferences and their five conferences have a lot of history together, and we've always found a way to get in a room and to be good listeners and work it out," Banowsky said Wednesday during C-USA football media day. "I also think having 60 schools together is just not enough for them to be able to have a base from which to operate. You need a bigger base."

read more:http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11255364/c-usa-britton-banowsky-says-second-5-conferences-relevant

Rudy · July 24, 2014

I hope he has a backup plan.

untjim1995 · July 24, 2014

IRVING, Texas -- Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky knows at least one thing won't change with autonomy for the five power conferences to make their own bylaws.

"There's been a differentiator whether you call them BCS, non-BCS," Banowsky said Wednesday. "I'm not naive to think that there won't be some continued differentiation."

Asked then what he'd like C-USA and similar NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision leagues to be called moving forward, Banowsky said, "Call us the second five, and note there's 32 (conferences)."

Regardless of whatever labels and differences there are, Banowsky expects that "second five" leagues to be able to co-exist in major football like they always have with the big-money conferences -- the SEC, Big 12, Pac-12, ACC and Big Ten.

"Our five conferences and their five conferences have a lot of history together, and we've always found a way to get in a room and to be good listeners and work it out," Banowsky said Wednesday during C-USA football media day. "I also think having 60 schools together is just not enough for them to be able to have a base from which to operate. You need a bigger base."

read more:http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11255364/c-usa-britton-banowsky-says-second-5-conferences-relevant

Just to clarify here--the P5 do the telling and the G5 do the listenting, which is how this has worked itself out. The serfdom of the G5 has always worked that way for decades. I can promise you that the P5 will pull away, but it will be interesting to see if they will throw the G5 a bone for OOC scheduling. I'm completely against ever playing any p5 school ever again if they completely separate, but money talks pretty loudly in these situations, especially if they give you millions of dollars to play them and it covers a ton of your non-revenue sports budgets for the year.

UNT90 · July 25, 2014

Just to clarify here--the P5 do the telling and the G5 do the listenting, which is how this has worked itself out. The serfdom of the G5 has always worked that way for decades. I can promise you that the P5 will pull away, but it will be interesting to see if they will throw the G5 a bone for OOC scheduling. I'm completely against ever playing any p5 school ever again if they completely separate, but money talks pretty loudly in these situations, especially if they give you millions of dollars to play them and it covers a ton of your non-revenue sports budgets for the year.

Yep, the G5s will beg to keep whoring themselves instead of filing an anti-trust lawsuit and forcing the P5 to completely desperate from the NCAA if they want to become a semi pro league.

That's what the G5s should do. Make the P5s really think about what they are doing and make that decision have consequences.

But they won't, they will just lay on their collective backs and spread their collective legs for some OOC money, just like always. There is a reason they are on the position they are in, after all.

pastorgrant · July 25, 2014

This is cool:

http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2014/07/24/scott-gray-sports-commentary-thursday-72414/

"Another division 1-A college athletic conference held it’s annual football media day yesterday. This was not one of the “Power 5″ conferences, but Conference USA served notice that it wouldn’t mind being the “Power 6th” with an impact announcement of it’s own, one that officially puts Conference USA ahead of the “Power 5″ in at least one area."...

Edited July 25, 2014 by pastorgrant

eagle2014 · July 25, 2014

We really need CUSA to have a good year.

untjim1995 · July 25, 2014

Yep, the G5s will beg to keep whoring themselves instead of filing an anti-trust lawsuit and forcing the P5 to completely desperate from the NCAA if they want to become a semi pro league.
That's what the G5s should do. Make the P5s really think about what they are doing and make that decision have consequences.
But they won't, they will just lay on their collective backs and spread their collective legs for some OOC money, just like always. There is a reason they are on the position they are in, after all.

That anti-trust lawsuit won't change anything. The P5 controls the legislatures in the statehouse and in DC and the networks won't let them get screwed.

The separation just needs to happen. The best thing that can happen is let these semi-pro schools play against each other and prove to be nothing more than an athlete-mill, that education isn't the main focus.

Yes, you can pick an upset or two each year between p5 teams against non-AQs and FCS schools, but no one believes that is close to the norm. The norm is getting pounded by 5+ TDS and getting a huge check. I'd rather the P5 just play themselves and make the Texas Techs and Mississippi States of the world feel what its like to go 4-8 or 5-7 every year without their cream puff non-conference schedules against non-P5 schools at home usually. See how that makes their alumni and students feel when they cannot even build a winning record because they have to actually play teams each week that are on even footing with them on a regular basis.

For us at North Texas, we have no one to blame but ourselves when this all occurs. We tried hard in the 70s under Fry to gain admission to the SWC, to be included, as we should have been allowed to do, in the best conference in the country at the time. But once we got rejected, we did what anti-athletic schools do--we quit. Dropping to 1-AA in 1982, and allowing that to be the status for 12 freaking years, is why we are where we are today. We moved up in 1995, but we weren't ready for it, budget-wise, so we basically whored ourselves out to ANYONE who would host us in an OOC game, just to pay bills. We did that for the first 5 years back up in 1-A, basically telling everyone that we were still smalltime. No one in CUSA would even touch us, so we got stuck in the SBC for 13 seasons, a league that screamed smalltime. It is my belief that if we hadn't quit 1-A ball (or at least moved up ASAP after getting booted down in 1982), we would have been in CUSA at a bare minimum when the SWC had its breakup and that conference formed with UH, Tulane, Cincy, Louisville, Memphis, UAB, Southern Miss, and East Carolina. Hell, we could have been even higher than that if we had actually TRIED to win and fund a program in the years from 1979-2010. In all honesty, in the late 70s and early 80s, if our leadership hadn't completely bailed on athletics and actually decided to do whatever it took to move upwards into a conference, I'm convinced the old Big Eight might have been willing to add a DFW presence into their league if we had continued to win at the clip we were going at in the Fry years. And who knows if the SWC basically would've jumped in and said, no way we are letting the Big Eight get a foothold in our territory and reversed course on allowing us into their club. No matter what, though, we made it easy on everyone by just giving up. When this future separation happens with the current P5 conferences, we need to look no further than down I-35W at what we could have done by emulating what TCU did--basically just winning in their leagues and increasing their budget to stay competititve. They have a ton of cash, no doubt, but we have a ton of people. And we could have easily used those numbers to our advantage, just by levying a student fee for athletics long before we built a stadium to replace the toilet we played in for about 30 years too long. We made our bed the same way for decades, which is why we have to lie in it today, even if we have decided to make it a different way over the last 10 years or so...

UNT90 · July 27, 2014

That anti-trust lawsuit won't change anything. The P5 controls the legislatures in the statehouse and in DC and the networks won't let them get screwed.

The separation just needs to happen. The best thing that can happen is let these semi-pro schools play against each other and prove to be nothing more than an athlete-mill, that education isn't the main focus.

Yes, you can pick an upset or two each year between p5 teams against non-AQs and FCS schools, but no one believes that is close to the norm. The norm is getting pounded by 5+ TDS and getting a huge check. I'd rather the P5 just play themselves and make the Texas Techs and Mississippi States of the world feel what its like to go 4-8 or 5-7 every year without their cream puff non-conference schedules against non-P5 schools at home usually. See how that makes their alumni and students feel when they cannot even build a winning record because they have to actually play teams each week that are on even footing with them on a regular basis.

For us at North Texas, we have no one to blame but ourselves when this all occurs. We tried hard in the 70s under Fry to gain admission to the SWC, to be included, as we should have been allowed to do, in the best conference in the country at the time. But once we got rejected, we did what anti-athletic schools do--we quit. Dropping to 1-AA in 1982, and allowing that to be the status for 12 freaking years, is why we are where we are today. We moved up in 1995, but we weren't ready for it, budget-wise, so we basically whored ourselves out to ANYONE who would host us in an OOC game, just to pay bills. We did that for the first 5 years back up in 1-A, basically telling everyone that we were still smalltime. No one in CUSA would even touch us, so we got stuck in the SBC for 13 seasons, a league that screamed smalltime. It is my belief that if we hadn't quit 1-A ball (or at least moved up ASAP after getting booted down in 1982), we would have been in CUSA at a bare minimum when the SWC had its breakup and that conference formed with UH, Tulane, Cincy, Louisville, Memphis, UAB, Southern Miss, and East Carolina. Hell, we could have been even higher than that if we had actually TRIED to win and fund a program in the years from 1979-2010. In all honesty, in the late 70s and early 80s, if our leadership hadn't completely bailed on athletics and actually decided to do whatever it took to move upwards into a conference, I'm convinced the old Big Eight might have been willing to add a DFW presence into their league if we had continued to win at the clip we were going at in the Fry years. And who knows if the SWC basically would've jumped in and said, no way we are letting the Big Eight get a foothold in our territory and reversed course on allowing us into their club. No matter what, though, we made it easy on everyone by just giving up. When this future separation happens with the current P5 conferences, we need to look no further than down I-35W at what we could have done by emulating what TCU did--basically just winning in their leagues and increasing their budget to stay competititve. They have a ton of cash, no doubt, but we have a ton of people. And we could have easily used those numbers to our advantage, just by levying a student fee for athletics long before we built a stadium to replace the toilet we played in for about 30 years too long. We made our bed the same way for decades, which is why we have to lie in it today, even if we have decided to make it a different way over the last 10 years or so...

Problem is, even if their is a split, the G5s will continue to "service" the P5s for a big paycheck, so the odds of TTech or Miss St. having those 4-8 years is very very low.

Also, a split would be very damaging to the G5s TV contracts and greatly reduce revenue streams.

Lawsuits are not decided in state houses or by congress, so having influence in those places will provide very little help.

The lawsuit forces the P5s to completely split from the NCAA and go it on their own. Make no mistake, they do not want to do this. Force them to make a hard decision. Who knows, this may even cause some high academic P5s not to leave (doubtful. Money is money).

Christopher Walker · July 27, 2014

This is cool:
http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2014/07/24/scott-gray-sports-commentary-thursday-72414/

"Another division 1-A college athletic conference held its annual football media day yesterday. This was not one of the Power 5″ conferences, but Conference USA served notice that it wouldnt mind being the Power 6th with an impact announcement of its own, one that officially puts Conference USA ahead of the Power 5″ in at least one area."...

Hell yes!

Also, how neat is that print writer still does a sign-off at the end of a column?

Ben Gooding · July 27, 2014

Nice. I think this is a win-win for North Texas. If NCAA tells AAC they need to grow to 16 teams I'm fairly confident they will come knocking at our door, and yes even with SMU right down the road. If they choose to pull CUSA up we are golden.