"New" Conference USA Makes its Debut Friday, July 1
Jul 1, 2005 | General
July 1, 2005
Visit www.ConferenceUSA.com for more information.
NEW ORLEANS - A new era for Conference USA began Friday as Tulane joined with fellow returning schools Southern Miss, UAB, Memphis, Houston and East Carolina to officially welcome new members Marshall, Rice, SMU, Tulsa, UCF and UTEP to the "new" Conference USA.
After celebrating 10 years of remarkable history, Conference USA begins a new chapter in 2005-06 as its 12 teams are steeped in athletic success and have an outstanding reputation for excellence in competition, academics, NCAA compliance, sportsmanship and student-athlete welfare. The new composition of the league gives C-USA 12 members in nine states and its 11 metropolitan areas (Houston and Rice share the Houston market) have a combined population of nearly 17 million.
"We're excited to welcome the new members and to get started on a new era in Conference USA," said Tulane Athletic Director Rick Dickson. "There's a great opportunity for our programs to form new rivalries, with more schools from our region, plus the addition of institutions with profiles that are very similar to ours like Rice, SMU and Tulsa."
"We're extremely pleased with the institutions that will represent Conference USA," said C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky. "Each is nationally renowned and committed to academic and athletic excellence. We are excited about our future."
For the first time, all C-USA institutions now sponsor Division I-A football and the conference will sponsor competition in 19 sports - nine for men and 10 on the women's side. In 2005, the league will hold a football championship game for the first time as teams from the East and West divisions will play for the Conference USA title. In football, Tulane will play in the West division along with Houston, Rice, Tulsa, SMU and UTEP.
"All of the schools are similar in many ways in that we have all I-A programs now, and it's going to make for a lot of excitement with the two division set-up in football and the addition of a championship game," Dickson said. "We had a great baseball Super Regional with Rice here just a few weeks ago and it really gave Tulane fans a glimpse of what competition will be like in the new C-USA. Under the leadership of Britton [Banowsky], everyone really feels good about the direction we're headed as a league and today is just the start."
League members have enjoyed great success in recent years, making C-USA one of the top conferences in the nation. This past season, five league football squads participated in bowl games. The conference has tie-ins with the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the GMAC Bowl, the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, the Wyndham New Orleans Bowl and the PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl.
Also in 2004-05, the conference sent four squads to both the men's and women's basketball NCAA Tournaments. Additionally, league teams advanced to both the 2005 baseball and softball College World Series, the NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis and Golf Championships and sent multiple individuals to NCAA Track and Field competition.
In January, C-USA announced a six-year television agreement with ESPN and CSTV. Through 2011, 10 regular season football, six regular season men's basketball and three regular season women's basketball games will appear on ESPN or ESPN2. The networks will also air the championship final for each sport.
CSTV will broadcast regular season football and men's and women's basketball games. The network will also air the championship games in volleyball, baseball, softball and men's and women's soccer. Additionally, CSTV is scheduled to broadcast early round coverage of the men's and women's basketball tournaments.
C-USA is one of seven conferences having significant representation in the NCAA governance structure. The league celebrated its 10th anniversary during the 2004-05 academic year.
To mark the launch of the realigned league, Conference USA and CSTV Friday introduced a new look for the league's official web site, www.ConferenceUSA.com. The site will remain a comprehensive source of information, but also incorporate new elements and more interactive content.
For complete information on the new league, profiles of all the schools and a special welcome message from Commissioner Banowsky, visit www.ConferenceUSA.com.
-- Roll Wave --
