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Wednesday,
February 25, 2004 |
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TCU
waiting to learn penalty for switch
TCU
has still not received word from C-USA on how it will
be penalized for moving to Mountain West.
By
Sarah Greene
Staff Reporter
TCU expects Conference USA to offer it the same deal as
the other five schools leaving the conference, athletics
director Eric Hyman said Tuesday.
Hyman said TCU has yet to hear from C-USA regarding its
penalty for joining the Mountain West Conference. C-USA
has already offered Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette
and South Florida the option to either pay a $500,000
exit fee or agree to play a specific number of games against
C-USA schools in football and basketball.
“TCU expects to be treated the same as everyone else,”
Hyman said.
Chancellor Victor Boschini said he attended a meeting
on Feb. 9 at the C-USA headquarters in Chicago, but that
the conference decided to table the issue of how it would
penalize TCU.
Boschini said C-USA will refer the issue to the executive
board, which will make a recommendation to the entire
board at a subsequent meeting.
Boschini declined to comment on which option the university
would prefer if offered the choice.
Hyman said financial ramifications are the disadvantage
of choosing to pay the fee. If TCU chose to pay exit fees,
the money would come directly from the athletic budget.
For Louisville, which announced its intended departure
in November, the decision was obvious, said Rocco Gasparro,
assistant sports information director. Gasparro said Louisville
agreed to play one football game every five years against
C-USA schools.
As for basketball, Louisville’s sports information
director Kenny Kline said the school has yet to reach
an agreement concerning the number of games to be played.
However, Gasparro said from an economic stand point, the
decision to play games against C-USA teams made more sense
for Louisville than paying an exit fee.
Marquette, on the other hand, competes in C-USA basketball,
but it does not have a football team. As a result, Marquette
athletics director Bill Cords said this made the fee more
attractive, meaning it would not continue to play C-USA
foes.
In the Big East, Cords said basketball teams agree to
play a total of 27 games, including one conference tournament
and 16 home games. He said that leaves only 10 away games,
nine of which have to be in conference, leaving Marquette
with only one remaining away game to schedule, which they
want to leave open for rival Wisconsin.
Cords said money was an issue, and the decision was not
based solely on rivalry.
He said Marquette chose to pay the $500,000, but its “units”
would cover the fee.
For each round advanced in the NCAA Tournament, a university
receives a unit, worth approximately $140,000, Cords said.
Units have a six year turnaround, so C-USA will receive
the five units, worth an estimated $700,000, that Marquette
gained when it advanced to last year’s Final Four.
“We are not happy about the fact we made a major
commitment (with the basketball program),” Cords
said. “You should get rewarded for that.”
Boschini said TCU has not earned any units, therefore
it can’t use them to cover the exit fee cost.
The other schools departing to the Big East were not so
adamant in their decisions, though.
Both DePaul and South Florida declined to comment. Athletic
director Jean Lenti Ponsetto said DePaul decided to keep
its decision private.
Cincinnati’s associate athletic director Brian Teter
said the university hopes to make a decision by the end
of the week. |
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