BRIAN McCALLUM: Tech's C-USA recipe incomplete
Brian McCallum / The Times
Posted on November 6, 2003

Those two football wins over Alabama and an additional one over Michigan State are nice. The national recognition the women's basketball team gets is outstanding. They are assets Louisiana Tech uses to sell itself in this new age of free agent conference affiliation.

But winning teams don't equate to conference membership invitations. Marshall and Central Florida have already been asked to join Conference USA now that some of that league's members have agreed to move to the Big East in a few years. Tech's athletic department is at least on the same level.

So what is more appealing about those two? Of course, it's the green stuff. Marshall fills its football stadium and is closer to the East, where population and media power meet. Central Florida has more than 40,000 students and is in Orlando, a larger media market than Florida or Florida State have.

The hope at Tech is that TCU will bolt to the Mountain West and Tech will get the call to take the Horned Frogs' place in C-USA. Whether that happens or not, Tech athletic officials should start paying more attention to its relatively small athletic budget - having spent about $8 million in 2001-02 according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

SMU spent more than $18 million. Marshall, UAB and Southern Miss spent almost $13 million. Memphis spent $19 million.

For years and years, the athletic department at Tech has worked hard to put together big games and then proclaimed, "OK, here it is. You should be there."

I worked in college athletics for more than 10 years, and that doesn't sell tickets. While Marshall was playing its home games in front of 30,000 fans this year, the Bulldogs were playing Boise State before an announced crowd of 17,859.

Knowing the history of Tech crowd estimates, I'd guess it was around 10,000. You can throw out all the estimates you want, but ghostly fans don't bring in ticket revenues.

Solid marketing will. The Miami game is one of the better marketed games yet by Tech, and the actual crowd - proven by the turnstile count and aerial photos, not what you thought it looked like - was about 32,000. That's poor for the quality of the opponent, but it's a positive improvement for Tech, and it can be built on. Particularly encouraging was the number of 20-somethings wandering around the stadium. Those could be future season-ticket holders, and money will speak much louder than exaggerated attendance figures and a few nice football victories the next time Tech finds itself in a whirlwhind of realignment.

If Tech and Conference USA don't find each other, lick your wounds and get to selling anyway. If they do, bravo, but don't waste the opportunity. Make use of a conference that would put the Bulldogs in what would be a division full of potential draws - Houston, SMU, Tulsa, Rice and, even better, potential in-state rival Tulane.

Good athletes want to play in front of great crowds, and the money will mean higher paid (read that, better) coaches, bigger recruiting budgets and other attractive perks. The next time the Bulldogs go to Tiger Stadium, that could potentially be translated into a chance.


Brian McCallum is a sports writer for The Times. He can be reached at bmccallum@gannett.com or 459-3302.