Attempts to accelerate realignment among Division I-A football conferences failed last week after commissioners could not overcome the financial risk to Conference USA of making the changes earlier.
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Commissioners from the seven conferences most directly affected by the changes met Jan. 9 in Nashville while at the annual NCAA convention. Much of their discussion centered on how they could accelerate their realignment plans to coincide with the planned departures of Miami and Virginia Tech from the Big East to the ACC this fall. The other schools that announced plans last year to move from one conference to another were not scheduled to depart for their new conferences until the 2005-06 school year.
In addition to the Big East, ACC and C-USA, realignment would affect the MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt and WAC. According to a source familiar with the discussions, though, "the whole thing hinged on Conference USA and the Big East."
C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said both financial and practical obstacles prevented C-USA and the Big East from reaching an agreement. Banowsky wouldn't say how much C-USA wanted in compensation for an early move, but said the numbers were substantial, based both on damage to the league's television contract and projected revenue from the NCAA basketball tournament distribution.
The NCAA annually distributes money to conferences based on their members' six-year performance in the tournament. Schools earn one unit for every round played through the Final Four. Since conferences retain the units even if a school leaves for another conference, an early departure of C-USA's five current members could cost the conference more than $6 million if the schools (especially basketball stalwarts Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette) were to perform in the tournament in the future with the same success as last year, in which eight units were earned.
On the television side, C-USA's TV guarantee, which was $8 million last year, according to league tax filings, could decrease by about 50 percent based on the schools that are leaving, industry experts said.
"Unless we were able to show our members that they would not be harmed financially, this had very little likelihood of getting the support we needed," Banowsky said.
"At this point," he added, "unless something dramatically changes, it is unlikely we'll be able to make any progress."
Officials from both C-USA and the Big East said they are moving forward now with plans that the five C-USA schools will not leave for the Big East before 2005.
For the ACC, its plans now provide for an 11-team conference in 2004, with Boston College joining in 2005, said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. The conference also will operate in 2004 without a lucrative football championship game after proposed NCAA legislation allowing 11-school conferences to hold championships did not receive the required votes to be approved during the convention.
"In a perfect world, I think if all of this movement could have happened sooner so that you didn't have any lame-duck situations, it would have been to everyone's benefit," Swofford said.
He added, "Knowing when we'll have a championship and when we'll be at 12 brings clarity," for league scheduling discussions as well as discussions with television partners.
It also provides the conference more time for development of its request for proposals from interested host cities and venues for a football title game. Swofford said nine cities already have expressed interest in hosting the event: Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and East Rutherford, N.J.
The formal request likely will be issued in March.
