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Conference USA to trim schedules for basketball and Olympic sports

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Conference USA will shorten regular season play and alter the postseason structure for several sports, beginning this fall.

The financial ramifications of the COVID-19 shutdown made it clear changes were coming to Conference USA schedules and those modifications are beginning to take shape. This week Stadium’s Brett McMurphy reported the men’s and women’s basketball tournament would be reduced from 12 teams to 8 along with other reductions.

The Denton Record-Chronicle’s Brett Vito has provided further details:

The league made several other changes, including:

  • The tournament field in volleyball will be cut from eight to four with the top-seeded team hosting the event. The regular season will be reduced from 14 to 13 games.
  • The number of regular season games in women’s soccer will be cut from 10 to six, a move that will allow programs to schedule more regional nonconference games and reduce travel costs.
  • The number of conference games in softball will be trimmed from 24 to 15, a move that will also allow for more regional nonconference scheduling.
  • The travel squads in track and field, cross country and swimming will also be reduced.

In addition to those changes, the baseball tournament will move from a neutral site to team venues. Rice will host at Reckling Park in 2023.

The reported changes align with expectations. Travel budgets are going to be tight in 2020 and into the next several seasons, at least. Seeing the total number of conference games decrease makes sense.

Adopting a model akin to the Ivy League where regular-season conference champions received any postseason bids in lieu of playing a conference tournament was on the table. The conference stopped short of changes that drastic, but the cutbacks detailed above are still sizable.

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How this plays out remains to be seen and could hinge on which games replace former league games. The more teams able to swap games against distance conference foes with in-state rivalries, the better. For Rice, this likely means adding more competitions against teams like Houston, Texas State and SMU. That, of course, will be contingent to some extent on changes to other conferences’ schedules. Getting dates with Texas and Texas A&M should be on the radar as well.

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Rice Baseball: Owls making progress on the recruiting front

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Rice Baseball continues to score big wins on the recruiting front, turning an unexpected early offseason into a stepping stone toward future success.

The abrupt end to the 2020 Rice Baseball season came amidst a tough string of weeks, both in sports and in the country. Instead of spending his Friday evenings at the ballpark, he was at home like the rest of the country. But, just like he’s always done, he kept working.

“The positive is, from my standpoint, [is that we’re] still working, still trying to get better,” he said during a conversation this spring after the season had been cut short. “It’s not a ‘take a vacation for the next 30 days”, he continued. “There’s work to be done.”

Winning recruiting battles has been one of those advantages the Owls have found over the prolonged break from baseball. One need look no further than the social media feeds of assistant coaches Cory Barton and Paul Janish, who have chronicled the Owls’ ascent with Janish’s favorite #Hootem hashtag and Owl gif:

Some of the players in question have been made public, some have remained secret. But the latest addition turned heads on the national stage when it was announced by Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball: former Ole Miss signee Connor Walsh will transfer to Rice.

Walsh was the No. 27 ranked player in the nation coming out of high school. His expectations at the collegiate level were, and remain, sky high. But his debut had to wait longer than expected. He didn’t see the field for the Rebels last season, but his absence from the lineup card wasn’t his doing. He was tucked away behind stud shortstop Anthony Servideo, who hit .390 during the 17-game season.

Podcast: Former Rice Baseball star Anthony Rendon talks extended offseason

Current shortstop Trei Cruz is seen as an obvious MLB Draft selection. Should he leave the program for the pros this offseason, Walsh would step in as his replacement. Adding Walsh is the latest in an extremely productive extended offseason. By the time Rice baseball returns to the diamond they’ll be in much better shape.

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BREAKING: Rice Baseball to host 2023 Conference USA Tournament

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BREAKING: Rice baseball will host the 2023 Conference USA Baseball Tournament as the tournament shifts from Biloxi to member campuses starting in 2021.

Scheduling is going to look different across the landscape of college sports in the wake of the COVID-19 financial crunch. Conference USA will not be immune from those changes, some of which have already been put into action. Cutting down travel expenses wherever possible has been at the forefront of conversations.

One of the initial changes impacts the Conference USA Baseball tournament, which has been hosted at MGM Park in Biloxi, MS from 2017 to 2019. The tournament was scheduled to be played their again in 2020 before COVID-19 forced the cancelation of the season. Instead of the neutral site, the tournament is moving to member campuses.

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Rather than returning to Mississippi in 2021, the tournament will move to the newly renovated J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park. The home of the Louisiana State Bulldogs, Patterson Park was severely damaged in a tornado that passed through Ruston, LA in April of 2019. Southern Miss will host in 2022.

The Roost has confirmed Rice baseball will host in 2023. The Owls lasted hosted the conference tournament in 2013. Christian Stringer was named tournament MVP and the Owls punched their tickets to the postseason as tournament champions. Changing backdrops have been a good thing for Rice since then. Rice won the tournament when it shifted to Hattiesburg, MS in 2014 and again when it moved to Biloxi in 2017.

This is the first notable shift in scheduling that has come out in the wake of the pandemic. Further considerations including changes to Olympic sports and basketball scheduling could also be on the table. We will continue to provide updates on those as they come.

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College Sports Realignment: What’s next for Olympic sports?

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COVID-19 has already begun to change the college sports landscape as we know it and more adjustments could be on the way soon.

Change is coming for college sports and several programs have already reached the “worst-case scenario”. Old Dominion wrestling, FIU men’s track and field, Cincinnati men’s soccer and Bowling Green baseball have all been eliminated. More cuts are likely in the coming weeks as the financial ramifications of the shutdown persist. If football seasons are impacted, things could get much worse.

With that bleak backdrop, cost savings have become increasingly important. Could schools consider splitting their sports across multiple conferences in an effort to save costs? It’s plausible.

Why it makes sense

Football is the engine that makes college athletics go. Without the revenue from the gridiron, and in some cases men’s basketball, athletic programs operate in the red. Olympic sports are a prime example of athletic competitions that don’t make money. An alternative to slashing programs from the start could be a bifurcation of conference play by sport.

College football could continue to operate in much the same way. The revenue it derives from television contracts can support a few cross country flights and the various costs associated with fielding a team. But why does Rice volleyball need to fly to Charlotte or FAU? The Owls might be better suited taking a bus to play Texas State, Sam Houston or Lamar.

More regionalized scheduling in non-football sports would cut costs and provide matchups with more appeal to local fans.

What stands in the way?

Having one school span multiple conferences wouldn’t be a first, but it would be a departure from the norm. Schools like Wichita State, a basketball member of the American Conference, don’t participate in football with the AAC schools. Notre Dame is a pseudo-football member with ACC but has retained its independent status.

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Playing football with one group of teams and other sports might seem unusual, but its far from unprecedented. Budget crunch or not, this is a solution that seems plausible and palatable for the future.

And the people say…

When the idea of regionalized scheduling started to be discussed, Rice football fans said it would change their attendance patterns. 58 percent of fans said a more regionalized schedule would cause them to attend more games, with 47 percent saying they would attend more away games if more Texas teams were added to the schedule.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 30 – Anthony Rendon and baseball’s delayed season

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Former Rice baseball third baseman and reigning World Series Champion Anthony Rendon joins The Roost Podcast. We talk baseball’s postponed season and more.

The Roost’s extended offseason series continued this week with a superstar guest. Houston native, Rice baseball great and reigning World Series Champion Anthony Rendon joined the show. He recapped what life has been life for him over the last several months, from winning the World Series to what he’s doing to help those impacted by the coronavirus in Houston and California.

Rendon is the latest in a fantastic run of Rice-related guests. If you haven’t yet, make sure you check out our conversations with Christian Covington, JP Heath, Erica Ogwumike and more.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, Give a listen to Episode 30.


Episode 30 Notes

  • Housekeeping — Your support means more than you know. If you like the show, please take a minute to rate and subscribe. Your voices help spread the show. Like the guests we’ve had on? Give them a shout on social media and say thanks! And while you’re at it, give the show a follow.
  • Anthony Rendon joins the show — With no season to speak of, Anthony Rendon took some time out of his schedule to join the podcast. We covered a lot of ground, hitting on a few of these topics:
    • What’s it like moving across the country during a pandemic?
    • The World Series (sorry, Houston Astros fans)
    • Why he signed with the Angels
    • What he’s doing to help those impacted by the coronavirus in Houston
    • How far he can throw a tee shirt inside Tudor Fieldhouse
    • His thoughts on an abbreviated or modified 2020 MLB season

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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