By Charlie Leffler

Chicago Ill.- On October 30, Conference USA announced that itwould change from it’s current two division men’s basketballalignment to a 14-team single division beginning in the 2003-04season. The new arrangement would create a 16-game conferenceschedule where every one of the 14 teams will play each other once.In addition, three mirror games will be created based upongeography, rivalries and television, where teams will playtwice.

During the C-USA Media Day this past weekend, the realignmentwas a hot topic of discussion. Reactions were mixed among headcoaches. While most felt that the realignment was best for theleague as a whole, many coaches also hinted that it would hurtcertain individual teams.

For the past several years, the American Division (Charlotte,Cincinnati, East Carolina, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and SaintLouis) has dominated play over the National Division (Houston,Memphis, South Florida, Southern Miss, TCU, Tulane and UAB).Conference officials played off the unbalance before as only beinga matter of time until the National Division rose to the level ofits partner, while in actuality this did not happen.

The most distressing matter was the Rating Percentage Indexrankings that are a prominent factor in NCAA tournament selection.The American Division has perennially had a very high RPI ratingwith national powers Cincinnati, Marquette, Charlotte andLouisville all playing in the same league. Therefore, when each ofthe teams in the American Division played, it improved their RPIstanding, regardless of whether they won or lost. On the otherhand, most teams in the National Division held a RPI ranking belowthe level of half of the American Division teams. They in turn feltthat they were hindered by the lower strength of schedule ratingthat they were forced to participate in during league play.

The most obvious example of such problems occurred last season,when Memphis was the top team in the American Division with 22-9record following the conference tournament. Despite this, they weredenied a chance to play in the NCAA tournament due to a lowstrength of schedule. In turn, Charlotte came out of the conferencetournament with an 18-11 record, and was selected by the NCAATournament Committee. The difference was that the 49ers had one ofthe strongest schedule rankings in the country.

Another side effect of the two-division arrangement is that with14-teams, there are three schools that each team does not faceevery year. While such a schedule is problematic, since beginningthe 14-team schedule last season, some teams have yet to face eachother. Louisville will not play Tulane for the second year in a rowand Charlotte has yet to play against TCU. In the new alignment,each team will be guaranteed to face each other at least once everyyear. “I think it’s probably the right thing to do in terms offeeling like you’re really part of a league,” said Charlotte headcoach Bobby Lutz.

“I think it’s the smart way to go,” said Louisville head coachRick Pitino. “If you’re going to have a conference, and you don’tsee certain teams, I think it’s bad for the other teams in theconference.”

“I think it’s going to be healthy for the league,” said Houstonhead coach Ray McCallum. “I think it’s going to bring theconference together.”

“We haven’t had Memphis in two years,” said Marquette head coachTom Crean. “It helps everybody a little bit. I think anytime youcan get the league to agree on anything like that it can onlyhelp.”

However, some coaches in the conference feel differently. “Ithink it hurts us,” said Saint Louis head coach Brad Soderburg. “Ireally think this is good for Conference USA because the teams thatwere not in our division will get a chance to play Cincinnati andLouisville every year; but we were in a great situation because weplayed all of those people twice. No matter what we did our RPIwould be solid. Well, now it’s not going to be that way. Iunderstand why the ruling went that way, but I think it’s adisadvantage for Saint Louis at the present time.”

The realignment will most likely hurt the teams in the middle,like Saint Louis, more than anyone else. The top teams will remainamong the conference and national elite, while the bottom teamswill raise their strength of schedule from playing the top teams.Meanwhile, the middle ranked teams will fall because they have toplay more teams slated lower in the conference.

“I think that all of us who are supposedly in the middle aspireto get to the upper level,” said Soderburg, “but until you getthere it is a disadvantage.”

“It doesn’t do much for us,” said Cincinnati head coach BobHuggins. “It doesn’t do anything for people in our division. Infact it could hurt some of the people in our division, from an RPIstandpoint. It may not be in the best interest of Cincinnati orLouisville, but it’s in the best interest of the league.”

“Charlotte, believe it or not, got really helped by playing usthree times in their RPI, even though they lost all three of them,”said Huggins. “I think that the way our division was set up, ithelped our RPI’s. It helped us to play Marquette three times eventhough we lost once.”

Yet, on the other hand, new DePaul head coach Dave Leitao viewsthe realignment with relief. Having to play Cincinnati, Louisville,Marquette and Charlotte twice gave the Blue Demons a very heavyschedule. “This allows it to be a little lighter,” said Leitao,”but it also allows every team in the other division to have alittle more balance.”

Even with scheduling a tough non-conference slate, a team canstill be burned by its opponents, as Memphis found out last season.”If the teams we play outside our league don’t have good years,we’re done,” said Memphis head coach John Calapari. Even though hehad scheduled quality non-conference opponents, they all falteredduring the season and dragged Memphis down with them. “Last yearthey said our schedule wasn’t very good. Iowa, Temple, Tennessee,Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama. That’s bad? Well, it just sohappens that four of those teams struggled all in the same year.”Therefore, when Memphis began conference play as a member of theweak National Division they had no chance to redeem themselves.

The Memphis Tigers’ coach pointed out East Carolina as anexample of how the realignment could serve as a benefit to someAmerican Division teams. “He’s (Bill Herrion) trying to build aprogram,” said Calapari. “Look at the twelve games he’s got toplay. He goes 2-10 and he probably played pretty good. Now, he cango .500. And how about if he goes .500 and goes to the NIT? How bigwould that be for East Carolina?”

However, the ECU coach sees things a little differently. “Ithink if it’s something that’s going to help our league overall,and help us to put more teams into the NCAA tournament, then it’swhat we need to do,” said East Carolina head coach Bill Herrion.”Personally and selfishly with East Carolina, especially where ourprogram is out right now, we’re still trying to figure this thingout. Can we be successful in this league over the long haul? Maybe.Does it give us a chance to win more games? It might, because weplay in a very difficult division right now. Maybe it allows you towin more games. On the other hand, our division is very appealingto our fans. When you get your schedule and Louisville’s coming inand Cincinnati’s coming in and Marquette’s nationally ranked, thatcould hurt us, maybe, if you’re not bringing those people into yourbuilding every year.”

However, overall, each of the coaches agree that sacrifices mustbe made for the benefit of the league as a whole. “Top to bottom,it will help,” said Crean. “In the end, it will help get more teamsin the NCAA tournament. If that happens, then I think everybodybenefits. Everybody’s going to have to give up something for theleague to benefit, and I think we all understand that.”