The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Conference USA Concludes 2009 Spring Meetings
5/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | General
May 14, 2009
DESTIN, Fla. - Conference USA concluded its annual Spring Meetings Thursday in Destin, Fla. C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky and staff hosted Athletics Directors, Senior Woman Administrators, Faculty Athletics Representatives and head coaches for football, men's and women's basketball from its 12 member institutions.
Eight potential bowl partners participated in the week's activities as the league looks at its future bowl agreements. Conference television partners also attended to focus on current and future distribution through television and streaming.
The meetings launched on Monday and both coaches and administrators discussed ways to reduce operational expenses for athletics in these challenging economic times. Efforts to reduce costs would be balanced against our objectives to remain competitively strong and, in turn, may even provide additional athletic and academic advantages.
During the meetings a number of recommendations were adopted and will be forwarded to the Board of Directors during their meetings next month for final approval. Recommendations directly related to meeting these economic challenges include:
1 - Reducing the Conference operating budget by a minimum of four percent, including a freeze on all hirings and salaries. This also includes reductions in staff travel, printed materials and a change in formats to the league's annual Media Days.
2 - Eliminating all in-person meetings of Conference membership, with exception of the annual spring meetings, and using more teleconference and video conferencing opportunities.
3 - Reducing the size of team travel parties in several sports, including football (66), men's soccer (18) and women's soccer (20). The Conference will also encourage institutions to only allowing essential support staff to travel and no longer allowing injured players to make road trips.
4 - Modifying regular season scheduling. Changes to women's soccer and baseball will occur during the 2009-10 season, while men's basketball and volleyball will experience changes in 2010-11.
5 - Reducing the number of teams that will participate in postseason Conference Championships. The Women's Soccer and Baseball Championship will now feature six teams, instead of eight, men's soccer will move to four teams from eight, softball will eliminate the play-in game of its bracket to feature eight teams and volleyball will host eight teams instead of all 12.
6 - Combining the 2010 Conference USA Basketball Championships. The men's basketball tournament is scheduled for March 10-13 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, while the women's basketball tournament would be hosted at the Reynolds Center on The University of Tulsa campus.
"We realize that these reductions and changes are only the first step in the right direction," Banowsky said. "We will continue to evaluate these types of issues on an annual basis. We received great cooperation from our coaches and administrators and feel these meetings were some of our most productive."
Other highlights from the meetings include improved APR rates and continued emphasis on compliance and academic activities in the conference; increase in revenue distribution to the membership; and the naming of Conference USA's 12 postgraduate scholarship awards in honor of Jim Castañeda, long-time Rice Faculty Athletics Representative who passed away during the year.
"In this challenging time, I am encouraged by the progress we are making in reducing costs. The Board will look forward to discussing these proposals further during our annual meeting," said R. Gerald Turner, President at Southern Methodist University and chairman of the C-USA Board of Directors. "Addressing financial issues will require a long process. I know other conferences will be looking at the same issues, so I hope we can all work together in providing the best alternatives."
The Conference USA Board of Directors will meet on Monday, June 1.
