USF Joins Metro Conference (4/4/1991)

[Guest BasketBull.]

USF Gets a Raise by Joining Metro

BRIAN LANDMAN. St. Petersburg Times. Apr 4, 1991

When the University of South Florida formally joined the Metro Conference on Wednesday, school officials all spoke excitedly of big gains in fortune and fame.

USF and fellow former Sun Belt members North Carolina-Charlotte and Virginia Commonwealth stand to receive a sizable windfall by their association with Louisville, Southern Mississippi, Virginia Tech and Tulane in a refurbished Metro.

"Certainly it's very, very big," USF athletic director Paul Griffin said.

USF is expecting to receive about $60,000 from the NCAA basketball tournament revenue-sharing plan this year. It will be guaranteed between $100,000 and $150,000 next year, Griffin said.

With home games against powerhouses Louisville and Southern Mississippi, Griffin said ticket revenues could increase by as much as $100,000. This past season, USF budgeted nearly $400,000 for ticket revenues and surpassed 100,000 in attendance for the first time.

USF should net about $130,000 from its television contract with SportsChannel, the cable station that carried 18 basketball and 15 baseball games. Griffin said the university will be reviewing the contract with SportsChannel.

"We've been one of the strongest players in television and that should only be enhanced now," Griffin said, adding that it's difficult to attach a number at this time.

Louisville has historically been a television darling. The Cardinals appeared on national television eight times last year: four games (against Kentucky, Nevada-Las Vegas, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame) on CBS, one (Indiana) on ABC, and three (UCLA and conference games against Memphis State and Southern Mississippi) on ESPN.

No Sun Belt school had anything close to that kind of exposure. Alabama-Birmingham was on ESPN three times this past season while USF was on ESPN twice. Sun Belt champion South Alabama, the conference's lone NCAA Tournament participant, wasn't on national TV until the conference tournament final on ESPN.

The Metro was forced to find new teams or disband when Florida State, South Carolina, Cincinnati and Memphis State left for other conferences. All of those programs have at one time or another enjoyed basketball success. FSU just made its third NCAA Tournament appearance in the last four years.

While the three replacements don't have as much tradition (USF reached its first NCAA Tournament in 1990, UNC-C has been there twice and went to the Final Four in 1977, and VCU hasn't gone in six years after five trips in six years), they do have something big in their favor - their television market ranking.

According to the latest figures, Tampa Bay is the 13th-largest market in the nation, Charlotte is 31st and Richmond, Va., is 63rd. New Orleans, where Tulane is located, is 36th, Louisville is 47th, Virginia Tech's market is 68th and Southern Mississippi's is 88th. The markets leaving the conference are 30th (Cincinnati), 39th (Memphis), 82nd (Columbia, S.C.) and 116th (Tallahassee).

"Once the four schools decided to stay together, we hoped to find strong schools and that's certainly the case," Metro commissioner Ralph McFillen said.

"The thing that excited us about all these institutions is their compatibility athletically, academically and geographically. And going into those markets should enhance us as a conference."

Of course, winning is the bottom line when you talk about the monetary bottom line. Louisville, the league's standard-bearer since its inception in 1976, has enjoyed tremendous success. The Cardinals have appeared in 21 NCAA Tournaments, reaching the Final Four seven times and winning the national title twice (1980, 1986).

Meanwhile, Southern Mississippi has made two consecutive NCAA appearances, Virginia Tech has been a post-season participant nine of the last 16 years, and Tulane is rapidly rebuilding after a five-year hiatus, improving from 4-24 last season to 15-13 this year.

"It's clearly a positive step forward for the whole university and certainly a step forward for our basketball program," said USF basketball coach Bobby Paschal, whose schedule for next year already included Florida State, Florida and Iowa. "All the schools have significant reputations in basketball."

But USF doesn't plan to ride the coattails of the Louisvilles and Southern Mississippis when the new Metro begins play this fall. USF, which along with UNC-Charlotte helped form the Sun Belt in 1976, is building a respectable basketball program with back-to-back post-season trips and, this year, wins against three NCAA Tournament teams.

Meanwhile, the baseball team is nationally ranked and the men's cross-country team earned its first NCAA championship berth two years ago. Both men's and women's tennis are improving and challenging nationally ranked teams.

"All the schools coming in are in good markets, and when you're negotiating television contracts, those things are very important," Louisville basketball coach Denny Crum said. "But that doesn't excite me as much as that they all are quality schools with good basketball programs. The tougher the competition, the better you'll be at year's end. All the teams are going to be real competitive."