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Sunday, June 24, 2001
Islanders awaiting conference call
Entering its fourth year as a D-I independent, A&M-CC ready for league play
By Darrin Scheid
Caller-Times

Illustration by John Bruce/Caller-Times

Someday, Dan Viola is certain it will happen.
   Wearing his best suit and a big smile, Viola will stand in front of a microphone and tap it to make sure everybody with stock in the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi athletic department can hear the news. Viola, the athletic director who started up the Division I program at A&M-CC in 1997, will have waited a long time to clear his throat for the announcement.
   I am happy to announce that Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has accepted an invitation to join (insert conference here) and will begin league play next season.
   Arms will be tired from all the congratulatory handshakes.
   "I'd like to be invited to a conference today and make the announcement tomorrow, but I can't do that," said Viola, who this fall will guide the Islanders into their fourth year as a Division I independent.
   "We're not in panic mode right now," he said. "The best thing we can do is build our program the right way and make it competitive. That will pay dividends."
   The question regarding A&M-CC isn't if the university will get into a league. Everybody gets into a league eventually.
   The question is when.
   Preaching patience
   The Islanders are a provisional NCAA Division I member next season, which makes the conference affiliation goal more critical as they move closer to full-blown Division I status in 2002-03. Nobody wants to be eligible for postseason play and not be in a conference, Viola said.
   But currently, the league Viola targeted isn't listening.
   The Southland Conference, made up of 11 members in Texas and Louisiana, appears to have no plans to expand if football isn't part of the deal. Even the leagues that don't make much geographic sense aren't ready to take in somebody else.
   Viola said one thing is certain, and it might not be what everybody wants to hear: A&M-CC coaches and fans have to remain patient.
   "I know something will happen that will create a spot for us," he said. "The one thing about our situation right now is that we're still considered a provisional member. If we had to go through a full season as an active member, it probably would be difficult. But the reality is, we might have to do that."
   The possibilities
   Until a conference shakeup occurs, the best possibilities for A&M-CC don't look very good right now.
   The Western Athletic Conference, the Southland and the Sun Belt either aren't looking, or they want football teams.
   The Trans America Athletic Conference, which recently changed its name to the Atlantic Sun, and the Big South Conference have undergone significant changes in the past few years. But they no longer look at schools west of Alabama.
   The Mid-Continent Conference is a basketball-focused league that spreads from Michigan to Utah, and it even includes Oral Roberts in Tulsa, Okla. But athletic directors in that league said they are pretty happy sticking with eight members for now.
   It means A&M-CC will have to wait, and coaches at the school will have to struggle to make out their schedules and recruit against teams that compete for league titles.
   "I'd be happy in any league," A&M-CC men's basketball coach Ronnie Arrow said. "It gets harder as we go along. But I think all of us understand that some things take time. It's just difficult because other coaches are really using it against us when we recruit. Everything is in place for us here, except the conference affiliation. And that's a big one."
   A league of choice
   The first choice for A&M-CC has always been the Southland Conference.
   Viola modeled the A&M-CC program after the four non-football playing schools in the SLC.
   If you look at the sports offered at Texas-San Antonio, Texas-Arlington, Lamar and Southeastern Louisiana, they are nearly identical to the sports offered by A&M-CC:

The university's budget of $3 million is less than the $3.5 million UTSA is spending in the current fiscal year. It's more than the $2.5 million Lamar is spending.

The SLC is also geographically suited for the Islanders. UTSA and Southwest Texas are less than three hours away.
   Getting into the SLC today would be easy - if the Islanders had football.
   Without it, athletic directors in that league said the chances are not good, at least for now. SLC athletic directors decided in their yearly meetings, which ended June 1, that expansion would only be considered if it increased the league's football membership.
   "They (A&M-CC) would have a better chance if they had football or if one of the existing teams in the league that doesn't have football starts a program," UTA athletic director Pete Carlon said. "That's my observation from our meeting, and it's not specifically a comment about A&M-Corpus Christi. That goes for anybody else.
   "I've always been in favor of adding a 12th member to make scheduling easier for basketball and other sports, but times have changed, I guess," he said. "It looks like that 12th member would need football."
   It's not that SLC members have anything against A&M-CC, said Southwest Texas State associate athletic director Dana Craft.
   The problem, she said, is that SLC schools are scared.
   And it's easy to see why.
   Looking for answers
   Two years ago, the SLC was sitting comfortably with eight Division I-AA football schools. Six were in the league as full members. Jacksonville State and Troy State were associate members.
   Troy State left last year in its quest for Division I-A membership.
   Jacksonville State announced last month that it will leave for the Ohio Valley Conference.
   That leaves six. Conferences must have six to qualify for the automatic bid to the postseason tournament. Southwest Texas wants to go Division I-A also. That would leave the conference with five football schools.
   That has left the league scrambling for solutions.
   "Everybody is in such a swivet over the loss of Troy State and Jacksonville State that it's hard to focus on anything other than football," Craft said. "Here everybody is, spending all this money playing football, and their conference is disintegrating. And there really isn't anybody else out there nearby who plays I-AA football."
   Not only is football an issue, but several athletic directors said proposed football changes by the NCAA have put conferences in a holding pattern when it comes to expansion.
   The NCAA Oversight Committee met May 25 and decided to consider several steps that would make it more difficult for teams to stay in Division I-A for football. For example, it would take more overall scholarship money to field the increased number of mandatory sports. Also, schools would have to draw at least 15,000 fans per game for each home game.
   Trickle-down effect
   How does this affect A&M-CC's conference hopes?
   Schools dropping out of Division I-A could cause another conference shuffle. The Sun Belt, for example, had five schools in its seven-team league that did not average at least 15,000 fans last season, according to NCAA statistics.
   Louisiana-Monroe competes in the Sun Belt for football and the SLC for everything else.
   If the Indians can't meet the requirements, then they might drop back to I-AA and rejoin the SLC for football. Without football problems, the SLC might take a non-football school such as A&M-CC.
   The next meeting of the NCAA Oversight Committee is Aug. 3.
   "I've always taken the position that there will be further movement someday, and we could find a place when that happens," Viola said. "I can't tell you when and I can't tell you where. There are lots of possibilities.
   "I know the WAC and Sun Belt have big travel budgets and schools that aren't very close to each other. How long can that last?" he said. "There is no way of knowing. I talk to people every day about conference affiliation, and I'll keep doing it. There just isn't anything available right now."


Contact Darrin Scheid at at 886-3747 or scheidd@caller.com

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