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Wednesday, November 15, 2000

Conference affiliation a concern for A&M-CC
Finding a compatible league will be hard because of school's lack of a football team
By Mark Zuckerman and Matt Young
Caller-Times

Ashley Ream/Caller-Times

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They've completed their first full season of Division I athletics. Their marquee programs - men's and women's basketball - finished with records at or above the .500 mark. And in about two years, they'll have a brand-new downtown arena to call home.
   To say the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi athletic department has made major strides in a short amount of time would be an understatement.
   Now, as Season Two of Islander basketball tips off, the university is turning its attention to the one remaining major hurdle standing between it and Division I legitimacy: conference affiliation.
   Unfortunately for A&M-Corpus Christi, this is a good news/bad news situation.
   The good news: the school and the city have plenty of selling points. The bad news: no one's shopping right now, especially for a university that does not field a football team.
   All of which leaves A&M-Corpus Christi feeling somewhat helpless.
   "There's no question," athletics director Dan Viola said. "And that is frustrating. Because it is not something we can control."
   Joining a conference is almost a must in today's world of college athletics. It's virtually impossible to qualify for the postseason as an independent. Because teams share money with their conference cohorts, joining a league is also a big money-making venture. And don't discount the prestige that comes along with the move from independent status to a legitimate conference.
   Viola said he has had "unofficial, preliminary" talks with three conferences, widely believed to be the three most likely candidates:

The Southland, a 10-team league in Texas and Louisiana that is probably the best geographical fit for A&M-Corpus Christi, but is not regarded with much prestige nationally.

The Sun Belt, now a 13-team conference that has added several new members in the last two years, extending its borders across the country from Idaho to Florida.

The Western Athletic Conference, the biggest-name conference of the three and a longshot for A&M-Corpus Christi, though still a possibility given its recent overhaul and continuing state of flux.
   Those are the candidates, but none of them are exactly rushing to A&M-Corpus Christi with invitations to join their conference.
   "Right now, there doesn't appear to be a lot of interest from any of those conferences," Viola said. "But that's not to say that might not change at some point in time."
   Without a football program, the Islanders are handicapped when it comes to courting conferences. Established conferences simply aren't in the market for a virtually unknown school that can't bring in any football revenue.
   That means A&M-Corpus Christi is looking for a break. More specifically, some kind of breakup or defection from one of the already established conferences.
   History shows this isn't just possible, but likely. All three of the conferences the Islanders are looking at have undergone significant change in recent years.
   The Sun Belt alone has added Denver, New Mexico State and North Texas in the last two years. Louisiana-Monroe and Idaho will join in 2001.
   The WAC, meanwhile, was a 16-school mega-conference until half of the members bolted to form the Mountain West two years ago. TCU leaves for Conference USA next year, but the WAC picks up Nevada, Boise State and Louisiana Tech (which is leaving the Sun Belt.)
   "I think there's going to be some more movement in some of the Division I conferences that could open up an opportunity for us," Viola said. "It could change in a month. Something could happen tomorrow. I don't know of anything that's going to happen. But something could happen, and all of a sudden, there's a domino effect."
   The only thing the Islanders could do to put themselves on the fast track for joining a conference is start up a football program. That doesn't appear to be an option anytime soon.
   A Division I football team is a huge burden for a young athletic program, particularly for A&M-Corpus Christi, which doesn't have the financing, stadium or available scholarships yet to start competing on the gridiron.
   The NCAA requires that all members comply with Title IX rules, which essentially means the ratio of male-to-female athletes must be the same as the university's enrollment. Approximately 60 percent of A&M-Corpus Christi's students are female, and the athletic department plans to field eight women's and six men's teams to stay in compliance.
   Viola hasn't ruled out the possibility of football on the Island someday, but insists it is "not a part of our near future."
   "When we get to the point where we're ready to go into a conference, I'll have to help sell the idea that Corpus Christi is a good place to be and a good element to have in that particular conference," university president Robert Furgason said. "The biggest hangup that a lot of conferences have right now is that most of us who are emerging programs don't play football. And we don't intend to play football."
   There has been talk of A&M-Corpus Christi joining forces with a handful of other Division independents to create a new conference or a "scheduling agreement."
   That scenario took a slight hit in the last month when two possible members of such an agreement announced they would be joining conferences next year - Belmont goes to the Trans-America Conference, while Birmingham-Southern is joining the Big South.
   It's still possible that A&M-Corpus Christi will come to a scheduling agreement with remaining independents, such as Centenary, Texas-Pan American, David Lipscomb and Gardner-Webb. A scheduling agreement, though, is not a final solution for any of the potential members.
   That leaves the Islanders in a wait-and-see mode, although putting together back-to-back winning seasons in men's and women's basketball certainly wouldn't hurt the situation.
   "Dan is doing a good job of introducing our program to all the different conferences. That's all he can do. And all the rest of us can do is go out and field the best teams we can in all sports and let the chips fall where they fall," A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball coach Ronnie Arrow said. "You can only do what you can do, and you can't worry about things you can't control.
   "Sooner or later, there's going to be a conference that sees we can be a major contributor to them. We're doing everything we can."



Staff writer Mark Zuckerman can be reached at 886-3747 or by e-mail at zuckermanm@caller.com. Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com

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