Athletics: Sun Belt adds Texas-Arlington to conference, halts expansion

Tim Buckley, Daily Advertiser, May 24, 2012

The Sun Belt Conference made one more addition, as expected, today – and that is the last membership change the league plans.

At least for now, that is.

 

The addition, effective July 1, 2013, is Texas-Arlington, which will come in from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Southland Conference as a non-football-playing member.

 

The announcement came at the end of the Sun Belt’s annual spring meetings in Destin, Fla., and in conjunction with word that the conference has tabled – at least for the immediate future – the possibility of expanding to 14 members, including 12 football-playing programs, so that it can stage a football championship game.

 

That means the Sun Belt, starting in the summer of 2013, will have a lineup of UL, Arkansas State, Florida Atlantic, Georgia State, Middle Tennessee, UL Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State, Troy and Western Kentucky, plus non-football-playing Arkansas-Little Rock and Texas-Arlington.

 

“The SBC presidents and chancellors,” Sun Belt president and Troy chancellor Jack Hawks said during a conference call late this morning, “are very well pleased and satisfied with the 12-team structure.

 

“However,” he added, “the SBC will continue to monitor the landscape of conferences across the country, and, if changes occur, we will be prepared to take the action that might be necessary.”

 

The league also addressed plans for geography-based division alignment starting in 2013, revealed a new five-year strategic plan and defended its recent changes in membership.

 

According to a statement from the conference, “it is the opinion of Sun Belt leadership that (the conference) has been proactive throughout the realignment process and the changes that have taken place to the league’s membership have not weakened the conference.

 

“In fact,” the statement continued, “the league’s membership and strength have been bolstered while several other conferences have taken steps backwards during the realignment process.”

 

The latest alteration essentially means that in the last couple months, since Karl Benson came on board as commissioner to replace Wright Waters, the Sun Belt has replaced outgoing North Texas and Florida International (both leaving for Conference USA) with Texas State (from the FCS Southland) and Georgia State (from the FCS Colonial Athletic Association) and outgoing non-football-playing Denver (leaving for the Western Athletic Conference, effective this summer) with Texas-Arlington.

During the conference’s conference call with reporters today, Benson made it clear the Sun Belt has no immediate plans to consider other new members.

 

“The message we wanted to send is that we are not pursuing additional members at this time,” he said, “and to squelch the speculation of a football championship game. At this time, it (a title game) is not high on our radar screen and not on our priority list.”

 

Yet that could change any time, too.

 

“The Sun Belt will conduct a very deliberate and thorough evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of a football championship game,” Hawkins said. “We will re-visit that issue sometime in the future.”

 

But Benson said that for now membership – as presumably represented by the majority opinion of university presidents and chancellors – “believes that the current structure is right … and that the football championship game component is not necessary to be considered.”

 

“Obviously there is always the possibility that there may come a time that that is something we’d consider,” the commissioner added, “but the message we wanted to send (today) was that we’re focusing on the 12 members that will comprise the Sun Belt a year from now, and trying to build that structure as strong as we can.”

 

Benson, it should be noted, is the one who prompted the football title-game speculation in the first place, mentioning the possibility in multiple conference calls as he transitioned earlier this year from WAC commissioner to commissioner of the Sun Belt.

 

In any event, Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, Jacksonville (Ala.), Lamar and Sam Houston State – all of which have been identified as candidates to join the Sun Belt – remain on the outside looking in.

 

Ditto for New Mexico State and Idaho, both members of the crumbling WAC who might have been considered for addition as non-football-playing members so that the Sun Belt could get to 12 football-playing members and be eligible by NCAA rule to hold a conference championship game.

 

“I think (today’s) announcement,” Benson said, “allows both Idaho and New Mexico State to know the direction that the Sun Belt is headed.

“From a football standpoint, we are very satisfied with the strength and the numbers that we have,” he added. “The non-football-playing members fit in very nicely to the balance of the two divisions.”

 

Even with 10 football-playing programs, Benson suggested, Sun Belt teams will continue to play only eight conference games until at least 2013.

 

But division alignment starting in 2013 for sports including men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball will have UL, travel partner UL Monroe, Arkansas-Little Rock, Arkansas State, Texas-Arlington and Texas State in a West Division and Florida Atlantic, Georgia State, Middle Tennessee, South Alabama, Troy and Western Kentucky University in an East Division.

 

Splitting the conference that way, Hawkins said, “will provide scheduling opportunities that in effect will reduce travel demands and missed class time of our student-athletes, while at the same time building strong rivalries in each division.”

 

The addition of Texas-Arlington serves multiple purposes, including the creation of a natural travel partner for fellow incoming member Texas State and the replacement of Denver for schedule-balancing purposes with fellow non-football-playing UALR.

 

But also, Benson suggested, it allows, with North Texas leaving, for retention of a conference presence in the Dallas metropolitan area, something the conference views as vital.

 

Texas-Arlington’s acceptance of the Sun Belt’s invitation still is pending approval from its Board of Regents, which is expected to come Thursday.

 

The Mavericks – who play basketball in a new, $78 million athletic facility – actually were invited to join on May 7. Formal announcement of that invitation, however, was delayed until today.

 

Benson said there is “no expectation” Texas-Arlington will add football in the future, but that it is “on their list to consider” and that “if and when they went down that path” the Sun Belt “would welcome that.”

 

Other news coming out of the conference meetings and today’s conference all:

 

· Benson acknowledged that the Sun Belt did pursue both Louisiana Tech and Texas-San Antonio as possible members, before both accepted invitations to join Conference USA.

 

· Goals for the five-year strategic plan, according to the conference’s statement, will include improving the Sun Belt’s revenue profile, improving RPI rankings for all sports (but with an emphasis on men’s and women’s basketball and baseball), improving conference BCS football rankings, improving Academic Progress Ratings rankings and strengthening the Sun Belt brand;

 

· The conference announced creation of four new special committees comprised of university presidents and chancellors – strategic planning, TV and new media, finance and competition. UL president Joseph Savoie will sit on the strategic planning committee.