When I left Orlando for West Virginia in May, I expected to return to U. Central Florida in the fall with a new college football scene.
Rumors swirled of the Big XII’s dissipation, that the SEC looked to poach talent from the ACC and that the Big East planned to add two C-USA teams to increase its market.
The Knights seemed like a perfect choice and were set to be one of the few teams to benefit from the conference reshuffling.
The Orlando metropolitan area is the No. 27 market in the country, with a population of 2.1 million. U. South Florida is in the No. 19 market, Tampa Bay, with just more than 2.7 million, and the Bulls are doing fine financially.
UCF has new sports facilities popping up every year and the recruiting has slowly but surely improved.
So why not UCF? All the cards seemed in place on this side of the deal. Rightly so, however, the Big East was hesitant to add more C-USA teams after the rest of the conference deals fell through.
But despite a decision that should seem like a no-brainer for any UCF student, I was met with relief from many when the plans fell through.
Apparently, the Knights’ destruction by Rutgers in December was too much for some people.
The thought of the Knights’ defensive line being run all over by West Virginia’s Noel Devine or having Rutgers quarterback Tom Savage burn the secondary for 500 yards is enough to scare off the masses who don’t understand the real reason college football even exists: The money.
The money is the reason why scouts toil in the backwoods of Central Florida, searching for diamond-in-the-rough running backs.
The money is the reason we built a new stadium on campus. The money is the overall goal every year the Knights begin their football season.
Conference USA is a serious deterrent to that goal.
Despite everything about Florida being a recruiting hotbed and Orlando being a moneymaker market, let’s be clear: UCF will never reach its monetary potential as long as bad teams in C-USA continue to hold back the likes of the few good programs — UCF, East Carolina and Houston.
Sure, no one is going to tune into a Rice-Tulane Friday night ESPN game, but there’s more to this than just conference visibility and popularity — there’s the money.
When a team from a non-automatic qualifying conference makes it to a BCS bowl, revenue is divided among all teams in these “mid-major” conferences.
When both Boise State and Texas Christian landed spots in last year’s BCS bowls, a record $24 million was distributed among the non-AQs.
The Western Athletic (TCU) and the Mountain West (Boise St.) conferences each took a split of $8 million and $10 million, respectively.
C-USA took $2.8 million. More than only the Mid-American Conference and the Sun Belt.
C-USA is now in the illustrious league of the MAC and the Sun Belt in terms of “mid-majors who can’t reach the next level.”
And who can complain? The conference went 2-4 in last year’s bowl games, including yet another loss in the Liberty Bowl to a middling SEC team.
Meanwhile, the Big East escaped total devastation in the collapse of the rumored conference rearrangement.
There are still talks of a new TV deal in the conference, which has proven to be the No. 1 moneymaker in the college football world. (For reference, the Big 10 Network nabs each team around $20 million per year.)
The Orlando Sentinel reported that the Big East made $364 million through its football programs in 2008 (2010 numbers are not yet available). In contrast, C-USA didn’t lag too far behind, earning $308 million.
What these numbers don’t include, however, is the Big East’s real claim to fame: basketball.
Teams like Georgetown, Villanova and Marquette aren’t included in the figure, and once factoring in the increase in basketball revenue on top of the marginal football increase,
UCF would be rolling in the dough to compete in the state and compete with USF, who, as much as they’d hate to admit it, are our closest equal in the state.
Right now, it’s all about baby steps.
Not to harp too much on a USF rivalry, but surpassing the Bulls’ football program should be UCF’s first long-term goal.
Ditch C-USA as soon as possible. Earn money through the Big East. Improve the school.
Improve the football program. Establish the Knights as the team on the cusp of the “Big Three.” Suffer through a couple years of thrashings from Cincinnati, Rutgers and WVU.
Hope that Syracuse doesn’t walk all over UCF on their way to a Big East basketball title.
If the Knights get lucky and beat one of the Big Three who are in the midst of their worst season in decades, don’t put up a billboard on the 407 with a smug George O’Leary declaring that the Knights are here to stay.
Baby steps. And the first step — and only correct step — is jumping ship to the Big East as soon as possible.
There’s nothing in C-USA but the chance to beat Arkansas.