Tim Buckley

tbuckley2@theadvertiser.com

The Big 12, a Power 5 conference, has acknowledged plans to likely expand from its current membership of ten.

It could happen before the fast-approaching 2016 college football season gets under way.

And at least one Group of Five league, the American Athletic Conference, has acknowledged it could lose multiple members to the Big 12, with Houston, Memphis, UConn and Cincinnati all widely viewed as top contenders and others perhaps in the mix.

With that in mind, how has UL – a member of the Sun Belt Conference, one of those aforementioned Group of Five leagues – positioned itself for a possible move to another conference should vacancies arise as a trickle-down result of probable Big 12 expansion?

Ragin’ Cajuns athletic director Scott Farmer was asked that question and many more related to conference realignment during a pair of interviews last week, one held on the open floor of a Superdome gathering room during the Sun Belt’s football Media Day in New Orleans and another behind closed doors in his Lafayette office.

Farmer also was asked if he expected UL’s name to be among the front-runners of candidates for filling an American Athletic Conference (AAC) opening, should any arise this year.

“I certainly hope it would be,” Farmer said. “I would hope we would have friends from (current AAC-member) Tulane that would speak highly of us, and speak highly of having somebody in close proximity as a travel partner.”

Big 12 can't risk falling behind rest of Power Five, so expansion it is

That is not to suggest, however, that UL is engaged in active talks with the AAC or any other conference about leaving the Sun Belt to join their league.

The AAC, according to Farmer, has not made any site visits to UL.

“No,” he said, suggesting that would be quite premature at this stage.

With no actual vacancies yet, the AAC – again, according to Farmer – has not selected UL as being among any narrow list of potential new members.

In fact, Farmer said his department has not yet completed a cost analysis to gauge expenses related to playing in the AAC vs. the Sun Belt – “What it would mean,” he said, “to travel, and what it would mean to all sports, not just … football, basketball, baseball, softball.”

As currently comprised, the AAC has Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, Tulane and Tulsa in its West Division and Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Temple, Central Florida and South Florida in its East Division.

The Sun Belt counters with – after New Mexico State and Idaho leave following the 2017 season – UL, UL Monroe, Arkansas State, Texas State, South Alabama, Troy, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina for football in 2018.

Big 12 will start looking at candidates for expansion

“But I think we’ve really opened eyes,” Farmer said, “as we’ve invited athletic directors at some of these schools to come when their team is playing us, and they see what they see.

“All of them are, like, shocked. All of them are looking at me like, ‘Are you kidding me? I had no idea you had this.’

“It’s a behind-the-scenes,” he added, “but that is a significant inroad – because now, wherever the room is, whatever conference you’re talking about, if you have people in the room that have been there and seen it, they understand it.”

SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT

UL is in the midst of a $115 million athletic facilities masterplan announced in 2013.

Already, a new Athletic Performance Center has been built, Cajun Field was expanded to include added seating in one end zone and the program’s soccer and track complex has been renovated.

The grandstand at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field, UL’s baseball stadium, was demolished last Thursday to make way for a $16 million renovation, up from an originally budgeted $10 million.

What took so long for The Tigue's grandstand to fall?

A new golf facility is about to be built.

Among the projects not yet started is the biggest of them all, major expansion at its Cajun Field football stadium.

It, however, remains on tap.

Asked if the Cajuns feel as ready as they can possibly be should another conference come calling with a membership offer today, Farmer said he feels like “we are significantly better than we were four, five years ago. Significantly.”

What’s lacking?

It is the football-stadium expansion go-ahead?

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“Probably,” the UL athletic director said.

“But because it’s in the masterplan, and because we’ve already checked off three projects, started baseball, about to start a golf facility, half the plan will done, I think they’ll understand that it’s next.”

THANKS BUT NO THANKS

Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson suggested during the league’s football Media Day that he believes all current SBC members would essentially say ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ if another Group of Five conference were to pursue it.

“I think that what we’ve done over the course of the last four years has solidified it,” he said, “and I’m confident that if that domino or trickledown begins that it won’t touch the Sun Belt.”

Reality, however, suggests other possibilities.

It indeed is possible that the AAC doesn't expand even if should it lose two schools to the Big 12.

But whether it is the AAC or Conference USA, if another Group of Five conference were to expand it is likely one or more Sun Belt schools would be called to determine at least interest level – and that one or more would listen.

That’s been the case for the last half-decade or so, with the start of an exodus of Sun Belt schools that now has North Texas, Middle Tennessee, Florida International, Florida Atlantic and Western Kentucky all in Conference USA.

The Sun Belt responded over the years by adding Texas State, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Appalachian State and newest-member Coastal Carolina.

The moves have made geographic sense, with (including non-football-playing Arkansas-Little Rock and Texas-Arlington) two teams each in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas) once football-only NMSU and Idaho leave.

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“I just appreciate the job Karl (Benson) has done, the foresight he has had in making some decisions sometimes,” UL football coach Mark Hudspeth said last week.

“It’s not easy,” he said. “It’s not easy as a president, an athlete director, as a commissioner, when everybody else has the answers, but you actually have to get the job done.”

That established, however, Hudspeth is quick to say there “might be a possibility” of a program, or programs, leaving the Sun Belt “with the dominoes.”

“It depends on how many they (the Big 12) take,” Hudspeth said. “That’s still up in the air.”

KING OF THE HILL

For many, the Sun Belt is not perceived to be the Group of Five’s king of the hill.

While touting the league’s virtues, Hudspeth – high on Sun Belt players, coaches and venues – hedges a bit on the SBC’s place in the pecking order when compared to the AAC, the Mountain West, C-USA and the MAC.

“Right now,” he said, “I honestly feel like – I know, because I’m in the middle of it, see it every day, I see the teams we play every day – that the Sun Belt is one of the top Group of Five conferences.

“It might not be the top, but it’s above a lot of the other Group of Fives with the head-to-head competition we’ve had, with the level of talent in this league, with the bowl wins.”

Asked if the AAC is a potentially more enticing option for UL because of its proximity to the Power 5 and the possibility of it being dragged along by the SEC, Big 12, Big 10, ACC and Pac-12 should there be a further autonomy split between the Power 5 and the lower-level Group of Five, Farmer did not exactly squash the notion.

“The perception, I would agree right now that it would be enticing,” he said. “The perception would be."

PROTECTING MEMBERSHIP

Early in 2015, the Sun Belt raised its exit fee for teams leaving the league from a relatively paltry sum to $2.5 million if less than 12-to-15 months’ notice is given and $2 million if more than 15 months’ notice is given.

Asked last week in New Orleans if the Sun Belt was planning to do anything to proactively protect against the possibility of more of its teams leaving, Benson seemed quite positive none would.

Benson doesn't fear losing UL, others to another league

Accordingly, no increased exit fee is planned.

Why not?

“Because our goal has been to build the assets of the conference, which I believe we have done,” Benson said.

“That would allow the current president or chancellor (receiving overtures from elsewhere) to evaluate the benefit of Sun Belt membership vs. the benefit of membership X, Y or Z – and that membership in this Sun Belt is providing that university with all they need to be successful in their intercollegiate athletics program.”

Benson declined to compare specific revenue-sharing figures for the Sun Belt to those of other Group of Five conferences, including Conference USA.

But he said some of the reasons he feels so strongly about membership remaining intact are time, perseverance and continuity among a core group of member-school leaders.

He specifically credited UL president Joseph Savoie, along with UL Monroe’s Nick Bruno, Troy’s Jack Hawkins and Arkansas State’s Tim Hudson for recognizing “the value of the Sun Belt.”

ACHIEVING UL GOALS

Farmer has been on the receiving end of message-board criticism from a select group of Cajun fans for suggesting on a radio show last week – as he has on other occasions – that UL can achieve all of its athletic goals as a member of the Sun Belt.

He later clarified that he was talking about all “immediate goals.”

“When I talk to our coaches, (baseball) Coach (Tony) Robichaux and (softball) Coach (Michael) Lotief want to win a national championship,” Farmer said. “Yes, I believe they can – both of them – win a national championship in this conference.

“Coach Hudspeth wants to go to a bowl game and hopefully get to the CFP (College Football Playoff) one day. He has access through this conference. I can keep going. We have access to the NCAA basketball Tournament. We have access to NCAA championships. We can get our immediate goals.

“So, we’re not hurt,” Farmer added. “I don’t mean we don’t aspire to get better. I don’t mean we don’t aspire to be in the SEC one day. We do. But, right this minute, we’re in this league and we can achieve our immediate goals in this league.”

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The Cajuns harbor no realistic hopes of making a jump straight from the Sun Belt to a Power 5 conference, including the Big 12.

But Farmer said that from academic grade-point average (tops in the Sun Belt and the state of Louisiana) to competitiveness, facilities and athletic-department budget (expected to grow about 10 percent in 2016-17 from around $20 million last fiscal year), the Cajuns “are positioning ourselves … and we do work every day to position ourselves … to be in the best conference we can be in.”

“That’s what we’re doing, and that’s how you get in a better league – by getting better,” he said.

“It’s incumbent upon every athletic director at every school to position their school to accept the best conference that comes calling,” Farmer added. “Missouri (now in the SEC; previously in the Big 12) was in a great conference. A better conference came calling; they took it.”

Asked what he would say if, hypothetically, if Conference USA gave him 24 hours to respond to a membership invitation, Farmer said, “I say, ‘I’m gonna go sit down with my boss (Savoie), and we’re gonna have that conversation.’

“We would look at everything,” he said. “We would weigh the pros and the cons, and we would make what we feel is the best decision for the university.”

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And what about that possibility of being an AAC contender?

“Again, I think the growth we have had in the last four, five years has caught the attention of people,” Farmer said, “and I would expect us to be a consideration.”

Accordingly, he added, “we would look at that.”

BEING PROACTIVE

Asked about being pursuing potential future conference affiliation, Farmer suggests programs around the country routinely do.

“I think everybody out there, including UL – the athletic director, and the president – are being proactive,” he said.

But don’t expect the Cajuns to be noisy about whatever they may or may not be doing.

“I think the ones that have a legitimate chance to jump into a Power 5 conference are more publicly being proactive,” Farmer said, “because there is not anyone in the world that would fault them for leaving their conference to go to a Power 5.

“The other ones – you don’t see the institutions sending out press releases saying I just called Conference blah-blah and told the commissioner we want in. Those press releases aren’t out there. That’s all kind of behind the scenes, and speculative.”

But, Farmer added, “Just because we are not doing a press release … does not mean that we aren’t being proactive, and don’t aspire to continue to develop this department and get it to another conference.”

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