While American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco is pushing for a level playing field for the so-called Power Five and Group of Five leagues, his counterpart in Conference USA, Judy MacLeod, is fighting for survival and the only number she’s concerned about is 14.
Trapped in the middle are UTSA and five other C-USA members — North Texas, Rice, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic and UAB — who are headed to the American in 2023 and can’t get there soon enough.
Three of their peers may beat them to the exit.
Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss indicated publicly late last week that they will cease membership in C-USA at the end of June and head to the Sun Belt Conference this fall. That would leave C-USA with 11 members for the 2022 football season.
A defiant C-USA released its 2022 football schedule on Tuesday. Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss were included.
Suddenly, UTSA has a road game against Southern Miss in flux. Other programs across the conference are dealing with similar uncertainties.
It’s an ugly, public mess for a conference that is already struggling, and whose leadership may be further distracted by a possible legal battle.
Clearly, that’s not the best environment for a UTSA program coming off of a historic season, knowing it must leverage that momentum on the field, in the corporate sponsor meetings and at the box office every chance it gets. These conference distractions make it tough to move the chains.
C-USA board members issued a statement on Tuesday noting that the conference “will exhaust all necessary legal actions” to prevent any early departures.
That volley is mostly aimed at Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss. Those three found their savior in the Sun Belt and a way out of the darkness. Now, they just want to move on.
Meanwhile, UTSA and the other five universities that are awaiting their move to the American will endure one more awkward season, tethered to a conference on life support.
There is no early invite from the American and therefore, no place to run. For these six C-USA members, they have one foot out the door and the other chained to a conference that isn't going to let go any time soon.