During UH’s 17-year run in Conference USA it had 162 All-America honors, 148 NCAA postseason appearances and 59 Conference USA titles, including a 2013 indoor track and field title. The Cougars have won 33 C-USA indoor and outdoor titles since joining. | Courtesy of UH Athletics
With UH moving into the American Athletic Conference, competition will be light-years different — the defending national champions in men’s and women’s basketball are now an in-conference foe.
The increased challenges will also present new opportunities to attract better recruits, said women’s basketball head coach Todd Buchanan.
“Connecticut just won their eighth national championship; Louisville just played for their second in the last five years,” Buchanan said. “The exposure is endless, from the South to the East. It’s already made huge strides for us with recruiting.”
A trio of head coaches — baseball coach Todd Whitting, men’s basketball coach James Dickey and Buchanan — were on hand at the Carl Lewis Auditorium on Monday and fielded questions as UH officially brought an end to the Conference USA era and welcomed its entry into the American.
The three believe that the move will allow for more competitive games, recruiting and, most importantly, help bring an increased national exposure to UH athletics.
In 2013, the last season of a six-year arrangement with ESPN with the former Big East, teams in The American will be featured on ABC television and the ESPN family of networks. The aforementioned networks will carry a minimum of 19 American home football games next season.
Following the 2013 football season, the conference enters a new deal with ESPN and CBS Sports that will give it more national exposure than C-USA provided.
“It’s an exciting move,” Dickey said. “From our perspective, it’s going to be outstanding competition, but the exposure is going to be tremendous when you look at ESPN, ABC, CBS.”
More exposure doesn’t equal large dollar signs for UH though.
The Southeastern Conference, Big 12 Conference, ACC, Big Ten Conference and Pacific-12 Conference dole out an average of about $20 million per school in TV and other conference revenue, but UH can expect to receive between $1.5 million to $2 million per year with its conference affiliation.
Without playing a game in any sport, the American is set up to be more competitive than C-USA. 2013 members Connecticut and Louisville won the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball championships, respectively.
In football, the American has a 2013 automatic qualifier.
After that the American will move into a competition with C-USA, the Mountain West, the Mid-American and Sun Belt for one guaranteed spot in a major bowl when the College Football Playoff begins in 2014.
The American’s 10 teams in 2013 are an amalgamation of former C-USA and Big East schools that will allow UH to compete against new foes such as Cincinnati and Temple while retaining rivalries with schools like SMU and UCF.
Following 2013, Louisville will join the ACC while Rutgers enters the Big ten. Former C-USA schools East Carolina, Tulsa and Tulane joining will give the American 11 all-sports schools. The Navy entrance as a football-only member in 2015 will give the American the 12 football members necessary to hold a conference championship game.
Whitting, whose team is coming off an 18-win improvement in its finale to C-USA play, was quick to praise the new conference while still sizing up his new opponents.
“This will immediately be one of the best leagues in the country. It will be a league that will have multiple top-25 caliber teams in it,” Whitting said. “From a competitive standpoint, this is going to be a great move for us.”
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