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Parmley vs. the Press Club
Published: 4/10/2012 7:16 PM
Last Modified: 4/11/2012 11:14 AM

TU athletic director Ross Parmley speaks during the Page One luncheon at the Tulsa Press Club on Tuesday. TOM GILBERT/Tulsa World

Tulsa athletic director Ross Parmley spoke at the Tulsa Press Club on Tuesday, offering an enjoyable look at Golden Hurricane athletics.

Although the hiring of new basketball coach Danny Manning has gotten most of the attention recently, there are many critical issues facing Tulsa's athletic department.

Here are the highlights of Parmley's visit downtown and what it all means.

* Parmley said the merger of Conference USA and the Mountain West is still moving forward.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News put together a nice blog last month on the issues facing the leagues. You can read it here.

A full merger, it seems, would put in jeopardy some NCAA basketball money and exit fees owed the two conferences. So Parmley saying the merger is moving forward likely means the two leagues have found a way to combine forces at some level without forfeiting money owed.

One possible solution could be a temporary scheduling and administrative alliance until a full merger takes place. The two leagues seem to think there is strength in numbers. It obviously isn't the best solution for Tulsa, but it may be the best the Golden Hurricane can do at the moment.

* Parmley said he is concerned about losing SMU and Houston as rivals. The two Texas schools are moving to the Big East, leaving a Lone Star void in Tulsa's schedule. Parmley said the combined MWC/C-USA would look into adding teams from Texas.

The two most realistic directions for expansion would seem to be North Texas and Texas-San Antonio.

North Texas was considered for C-USA membership seven years ago, and has since added a new football stadium as the centerpiece of its athletic complex. It would return the conference to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Texas-San Antonio played its first college football season last year and is scheduled to move from the Southland Conference to the Western Athletic Conference. But the WAC could be in serious jeopardy if the MWC/C-USA decides to expand. And by playing home games at the Alamodome, UTSA has been able to carry a profile larger than your standard start-up football program.

* Parmley says next year's C-USA basketball tournament is still scheduled for Memphis despite this being the school's last year in the league before moving to the Big East. The key word, however, is still. There seems to be some sentiment from the remaining C-USA athletic directors to move the event. And Tulsa, along with El Paso, as previous hosts, would have a leg up in the bidding.

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Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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