USF Joins C-USA (1995)

[Guest BasketBull.]

New 'Metro' keeps USF

BRIAN LANDMAN. St. Petersburg Times.Jan 16, 1995

Presidents of 12 institutions, including South Florida, are expected to resolve the outstanding issues of their conference realignment today.

Current Metro Conference members USF, North Carolina Charlotte, Louisville, Tulane and Southern Mississippi will combine with Great Midwest schools Cincinnati, Memphis, DePaul, St. Louis, Marquette and Alabama-Birmingham and Southwest Conference castoff Houston in an all-sports league that will begin play in the fall.

But the means to that end have changed slightly.

Instead of the five Metro schools leaving to join a new league, they will stick together. Then, remaining Metro members Virginia Commonwealth and Virginia Tech will leave - either of their own accord or by being voted out - and the seven others will be added to the existing Metro.

"I think we'll be in a position by Tuesday to describe what this means (to USF)," athletic director Paul Griffin said.

But why the change in strategy?

This way, the revamped Metro should retain its prized automatic berth to the NCAA men's basketball tournament. (If the schools reorganized as an expanded Great Midwest, it would still have to wait until the 1996-97 school year to apply for an automatic bid. As an entirely new league, it would have to wait five years.)

Since the five Metro schools wouldn't technically be leaving, they wouldn't have to pay a fine of $500,000 each that VCU and Virginia Tech would then split. Nor would there be a loss of any NCAA pool money, which could mean more than $5-million.

And, perhaps most importantly, this could head off legal action by VCU or Virginia Tech.

During the NCAA Convention last week in San Diego, USF President Betty Castor and UNCC Chancellor James Woodward were asked to make a presentation to the other 10 schools, seen as a mere formality before receiving an invitation to join them.

VCU president Eugene Trani, who demanded time to make a similar pitch, threatened to seek injunctions as well as damages for the formation of the new league. That delayed any official announcement of realignment.

Late Friday, Woodward revealed the new plan.

He wrote that Louisville, Tulane, Southern Miss, USF and UNCC can "compel the disassociation of VCU and Virginia Tech." The Metro constitution states that a two-thirds vote of the membership is needed for disassociation.

Although he didn't expect to be part of the realigned league, VCU athletic director Richard Sander said there is a difference between being left behind and voted out. "If they are going to leave, they should just leave," said Sander, who added that school officials are meeting with lawyers to decide on a course of action.

"Have you ever heard of a college being kicked out? Tulane stopped (men's) basketball because of a point-shaving scandal and they didn't get kicked out. SMU (football) was on the death penalty and they weren't kicked out. What have we done to be thrown out of the league?"

Sander, however, said his school would be interested in "some kind of financial settlement," which would mean it would leave disappointed, but more quietly. Woodward wrote that, although the league constitution doesn't require a financial resolution, he has been authorized to try to broker such an ending.

-------------------------------------------

Same Name, But Different League

BRIAN LANDMAN. St. Petersburg Times. Jan 17, 1995.

A new era for University of South Florida sports - especially men's basketball - began Monday when the school officially was named part of a revamped Metro Conference.

"This continues the ambitious trail we've been on in our brief history," USF athletic director Paul Griffin said. "This is a big step. Maybe the biggest."

USF, along with longtime conference mate North Carolina Charlotte, joins fellow Metro members Louisville, Tulane and Southern Mississippi, Great Midwest schools Cincinnati, Memphis, DePaul, Marquette, Saint Louis and Alabama-Birmingham, and Southwest Conference castoff Houston in a reconfigured 12-team league.

"They're two (Tampa Bay and Charlotte) of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States and it's great we've expanded our reach there," Cincinnati president Joseph Steger said. "It makes a lot of sense."

For USF, the move should make a lot of cents.

Although revenues will be split 12 ways, Griffin said there will be "a substantially larger pie (than the current seven-team Metro has enjoyed)" to share and this was "economically and athletically, the most challenging and beneficial choice we could have made."

"I think this is the best thing that's ever happened in the history of USF athletics; the impact is that big," baseball coach Eddie Cardieri said. "Any way you cut it, the public perception would not be nearly as good if we went to another league."

Although the football concerns of the six Division I-A schools (Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston, Louisville, Southern Miss and Tulane) initially sparked the shuffling, the league should be one of the pre-eminent for men's basketball. All 12 teams have made at least one trip to the NCAA Tournament in the past five years.

"There's no question that it's a giant step forward for our program," USF basketball coach Bobby Paschal said. "I think that it places our program in one of the elite conferences in the country."

The luster and name recognition of the other teams, as well as an increase in national exposure for USF, will boost recruiting efforts, Paschal said. "I like the new conference," said Joseph Pryor, a highly touted guard from Charles B. Aycock (N.C.) High who visited USF last weekend and also is considering North Carolina State and Penn State.

But the fans won't see all those teams at the Sun Dome each year. Bucking a popular trend, this new Metro won't split into divisions for at least the first two years, consultant Chuck Neinas said.

Instead, he said teams will have traveling partners and play home-and-home series each year against one another. A traveling pair also will play home-and-home with one other pair (four more games) that would rotate. It would play once against each of the other eight teams for a 14-game conference schedule. The process will be reviewed after one year. All 12 teams will compete in the conference tournament slated for Memphis in 1996 and Louisville in 1997.

The league will offer championships in 17 sports: football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's tennis, men's golf, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's indoor track and field, men's and women's outdoor track and field, and co-ed rifle. Competition is expected to begin next fall; football will start the following year.

Current Metro schools Virginia Commonwealth and Virginia Techwere notified Friday they would be voted out of the league. They probably will receive a negotiated cash settlement. The new Metro

-----------------------------------------

C-USA: No Flash, Plenty of Cash

BRIAN LANDMAN. St. Petersburg Times. Apr 25, 1995

The newly formed, all-sports superconference that includes the University of South Florida finally unveiled its name:

Conference USA, or simply C-USA to its friends.

Doesn't grab you, you say. It sounds more like a cable station. Even the presidents of the 12 institutions admitted it was the one of hundreds of options that had no champions, but no detractors.

But the name, however non-descript, will grow on you if you hear it enough, they say. And believe them, you'll be hearing a lot of C-USA.

The league on Monday announced long-term, lucrative television deals with ESPN for men's basketball and Liberty Sports for football. Newly named commissioner Mike Slive said the two will bring in more than $30-million.

Next season ESPN will broadcast a league game (five in all) on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. during January and February. The number will increase to seven for the remaining five years of the deal.

"That regular slot puts us with the kinds of conferences we've strived to work with and be equal to," said Slive, commissioner of the soon-to-be dissolved Great Midwest Conference.

Another 10 games also will be carried on ESPN2 on Sundays. Creative Sports, an ESPN subsidiary, holds national network syndication rights for weekend afternoon possibilities. Each school is guaranteed a minimum of five appearances over a two-year period. ESPN and ESPN2 will also televise selected women's events, including the basketball tournament final.

"I don't think there's any doubt that our entry into this new league is a new milestone for USF," president Betty Castor said. "The exposure we'll receive is just tremendous."

The Bulls made just one national TV appearance last season - the NIT quarterfinal at Marquette, which was on ESPN. Before that, the Bulls hadn't been on national television since Dec. 31, 1991. But this league includes a powerful list of teams:

Louisville, Tulane, North Carolina Charlotte and Southern Mississippi from the Metro Conference; Cincinnati, Memphis, Saint Louis, Marquette, DePaul and Alabama-Birmingham from the Great Midwest; and Southwest Conference castoff Houston, which won't join until 1996. Of the 12 schools, 10 qualified for either the NCAA or NIT last season.

"Clearly, it will be one of the best conferences in the country and one of the most exposed conferences in the country," USF basketball coach Bobby Paschal said. "There's a lot of challenges that go with that, but also a lot of opportunities."

The teams will be divided into three divisions; in keeping with the theme of USA, a Red, White and Blue. USF, Tulane, Southern Miss and former Sun Belt rival UAB will be in the Red. Each team will play the members of its division home and away and all other members once. Until Houston joins, each team will play one other school twice to reach 14.

The football teams begin conference play in 1996 and the five-year television package with Liberty will show games on Prime Network at 3:30 p.m. each Saturday.

Individual institutions will share revenues from sports they participate in, which would exclude USF from football money. But the Bulls plan to start a Division I-AA program by 1997 and, if it does grow into a I-A program, it could be included in the league in the future.

In all, C-USA will sponsor championships in 18 sports, leaving one USF sport temporarily out of the mix - women's softball. Basketball Divisions