Clawing their way back
UH’s unbeaten Cougars hope success puts them on the national map again
After years of prompting mostly yawns and shrugs beyond Southeast Texas, the University of Houston Cougars once more are in position to emerge as a national player in college football.
The Cougars are 10-0 after a signature victory on Saturday at TDECU Stadium over Memphis, punctuated by a shocking 20-point comeback in the fourth quarter. With two games remaining, the team holds the inside track to capture the American Athletic Conference title and the team’s first New Year’s Day bowl game since the 1984 season.
If they can win out — and win they must in a world where one loss is enough to put dreams and ambitions on ice — the Cougars will be considerably closer to their ultimate goal: moving into one of the Power Five leagues — the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 or SEC — if and when those leagues choose to expand.
“You have to win conference games,” said Andre
“The fans have to show up. They have to fill the stadium for every game and show passion for their team.” Andre Ware, former UH quarterback and 1989 Heisman winner
Ware, the former UH quarterback who won the 1989 Heisman Trophy. “You have to be ready for whatever happens. And the fans have to show up. They have to fill the stadium for every game and show passion for their team.”
That requires patience, the scarcest commodity in college athletics, as the Cougars scramble to match more well-connected, more financially stable competitors. But the present, and, UH partisans hope, the future, appears promising.
In first-year coach Tom Herman, the Cougars boast one of the nation’s most talked-about, most coveted young offensive minds. The school’s Board of Regents is meeting Thursday to authorize a new contract for Herman, who is mentioned as a candidate for several of the top openings around the nation.
‘History of success’
Fans filled the stadium for the Memphis game, which was the mostwatched college football game on cable television in Houston last weekend, and the school Monday announced a sellout for its Thanksgiving weekend game with Navy.
In basketball, men’s coach Kelvin Sampson’s team will move next month into a new operations center that he describes as a game-changer for the Cougars. Hunter Yurachek, the Cougars’ first-year vice president for intercollegiate athletics, hopes the university can begin work in 2016 on a $60 million upgrade of Hofheinz Pavilion and a new $25 million indoor football practice center.
“Houston has a history of success, but this program has a level of sustainability now with the new football stadium and all the things its leadership has done,” said Mike Aresco, the former CBS Sports executive who is the American Athletic Conference commissioner. “The Tom Herman hire showed their commitment, and the city has sold out for the Navy game. This is a new day for Houston.”
The power of money
Herman has brought new life to UH football with his #HTownTakeover slogan and his unbeaten, high-scoring team. But, as someone who worked inside football programs at Texas and Ohio State, two giants of the college sports industry, he also knows where UH ranks within the hierarchy.
“In the last 25 years, men’s basketball and football have a combined three conference championships at the University of Houston,” Herman said. “We understand that we have to take care of winning our conference before we start talking about anything else.”
Houston in the 1970s barged its way to center stage as a new member of the Southwest Conference, and it hopes to do the same within the current pecking order. The goal, said university chancellor and president Renu Khator, is “building a nationally recognized and relevant athletics program, then competing on the highest level we can.”
At present, the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision is divided into two camps — the so-called Power Five conferences and the Group of Five, which includes the American Athletic Conference, to which UH belongs.
The Power Five have a significant edge in income and television exposure, which ups the ante for schools like UH, Memphis, Connecticut, Cincinnati and BYU to compete for conference upgrades. A few have succeeded, including Louisville, Utah and TCU, which, like Houston, was not included when Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech left the Southwest Conference in the mid1990s to form the Big 12.
With less exposure, and less money, the Cougars have struggled to keep pace. UH last year ranked 80th among 265 programs in the Learfield Sports’ Directors Cup standings, which measures overall performance by Division I sports programs.
The UH athletic department brought in about $40 million in revenue, which ranked 66th among 230 schools included in a list compiled by USA Today. That total, including to research by Huffington Post and the Chronicle of Higher Education, includes about $14 million in university subsidies and about $7 million in student fees.
Making strides
The Cougars made significant strides in recent years under former administrator Mack Rhoades and football coach Kevin Sumlin, both of whom left for Power Five schools (Rhoades to Missouri, Sumlin to Texas A&M). UH last year moved to the American Athletic Conference, and the school last year opened its $128 million TDECU Stadium.
Yurachek, however, said much remains to be done to emulate TCU, which won seven football conference titles and the 2011 Rose Bowl and spent tens of millions on new facilities before it was invited to join the Big 12 in 2012.
“All we can be right now at the University of Houston is to be the best program in the American Athletic Conference,” Yurachek said. “If we can’t be the best in this conference, we don’t have to worry what the next step is.”
Many NCAA observers predict conference shifts may have come to a standstill, with most conferences tied into television agreements that continue into the mid-2020s.
“Why would the Power Five grow?” said one analyst who declined to be identified because of previous relationships with UH. “Which schools are going to add enough value so that the yield per acre (or the financial payout per school) will increase? If it doesn’t increase, why do it?”
Big 12 out of reach?
The Big 12 is a target for many UH fans and administrators, including Tillman Fertitta, chairman of the school’s board of regents. But consultant Chuck Neinas, the former Big 12 interim commissioner, said that is not likely in the short term.
“Although there is some discussion among presidents, it’s my understanding that athletic directors are pretty unanimous about wanting to remain (Big 12 membership) at 10,” Neinas said. “What we don’t know is what the future holds and what may be the impact of the College Football playoff format.”
A key factor driving conference expansion has been increasing television markets by adding markets inside a league’s traditional geographic area. No Power Five conference has more than four members from the same state, and the only three with four are the Pac12 (four of 12 from California), Atlantic Coast Conference (four of 14 in North Carolina) and Big 12 (four from Texas).
The SEC over the last quarter-century has limited expansion to one school per state, which seems to limit UH’s chances of membership, particularly given the large number of A&M and LSU fans in the area. SEC games already draw above-average television audiences in Houston.
As for the Big 12, questions abound about whether Houston would bring in enough additional revenue, in the form of higher TV rights fees, to carve the revenue pie into 11 slices rather than 10.
“There is concern about having another (Big 12) team in Texas,” Neinas said.
Some Big 12 proponents argue that if the league is to expand, it should strike into new territory — be it Memphis or Cincinnati or a Florida school — rather than adding another Texas school.
Of course, the Big 12 may be forced to expand if its champion, be it an Oklahoma State team or a oneloss Oklahoma, Baylor or TCU squad, is left out of the College Football Playoffs for a second straight year. NCAA rules require a conference to have 12 members to have a conference title game, and the current Big 12 is two schools short. Pending legislation, though, could impact that situation.
Some have mentioned the Big Ten, whose television deal expires in 2016-17, but that league has focused on schools that belong to the research-oriented Association of American Universities. UH is not an AAU member.
‘Best of the rest’
UH’s best hope, Neinas said, is to make itself “the best of the rest, so to speak. The next question is can they make themselves the most attractive candidate if there is expansion. No one can predict the future. Just be the best you can be.”
Aresco, the American Athletic Conference commissioner, argues that UH can benefit by staying put. Strong seasons by UH, Temple, Navy and Memphis, with wins over Power Five teams and strong television performances, show the collective strength of the conference that eventually could pay off in a more lucrative TV agreement before the end of this decade.
“I fully understand the challenges that we face, but I’m excited about the progress,” he said. “You punch from where you stand.”
Keeping focused on the task at hand, rather than on what may or may not be in store, is particularly critical at a time when the college football landscape is more evenly matched that at any point in memory, said Fox Sports analyst Spencer Tillman, a former OU and NFL player and longtime Houston-area resident.
“If you have the right intellectual property, you can excel,” Tillman said. “Tom has a great system and a great mind. He’s the XBox. He has the structure, the intellectual property, and he knows how to motivate.”
And so, while conference expansion may be at a standstill for the next three to four years, “It’s only a matter until they (UH) ascend,” Tillman said. That is UH’s intent. “For the most part, we’re making progress,” Herman said. “I know it can’t happen overnight. But I do think we’re headed in the right direction, and the sky is the limit.”