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Sports

UH looks to progress with schedule, new rivals

Rice, new C-USA teams to challenge Houston for conference crown

Pigskin Primer

Sam Khan Jr.

The Cougar football schedule will have a drastically different look than it has in years past. Last week UH Director of Athletics Dave Maggard announced the three non-conference opponents that the Cougars would take on in 2005 - Oregon, Sam Houston State and Mississippi State. The addition of Oregon came on the heels of a reported verbal agreement that Houston had with the Nebraska Cornhuskers that fell through because Nebraska reneged on the deal, according to Maggard. Oregon will play the Cougars on Sept. 1 at Reliant Stadium, and it will be televised nationally on ESPN.

"Oregon is a quality program," Maggard said. "In the ‘90s they were one of the winningest teams in the Pac-10 (conference)."

Maggard also said that the national television games are a positive for the entire university.

"The national exposure is good not only for our athletic programs, but for the entire university," he said. "Those television spots that you see at halftime that talk about the school can grab people's attention. When I talked to people at other schools, they say that national television was invaluable to them in what it did for exposing the university. There are lots of plusses to it."

The Cougars will host Sam Houston State on Sept. 10 at Robertson Stadium and will travel to Mississippi State on Oct. 22. The non-conference slate is much less ambitious than last season, when Houston played Oklahoma, Miami (Fla.) and Rice. That's probably a good thing, seeing how the three losses to those teams set the tone for the entire season, which the Cougars ended 3-8.

New C-USA

Houston will still have a chance to avenge their loss in the Bayou Bucket to the Owls, but aside from the rivalry, the game will carry even more meaning now that Rice is moving into the new Conference USA. The Cougars will play eight opponents in the new-look conference: Rice, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa and UTEP, the schools that will be the other members of the C-USA West division. They will also play three teams from the C-USA East division, comprised of East Carolina, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Mississippi, Central Florida and UAB. When and where they play will be determined when the C-USA schedule is released in the coming weeks.

Another new addition to C-USA is a conference championship game, where the leaders of each division will square off at the end of the season for the C-USA crown. The conference championship game will be played in the home stadium of the team who possesses the best record in C-USA at the end of the season.

Maggard said the new-look C-USA has some definite positives.

"I think (the change) can be very good," he said. "It gives ease of travel. I think it will help our recruiting in the state of Texas, and I think there will be enough schools in C-USA that it is going to be a good football conference."

Recruiting notes

Speaking of recruiting, National Signing Day is today -- the day when high-school football recruits sign their letters of intent to play for a school. So far the Cougars have more than 25 commitments from players and a few of those who have already signed letters of intent: They hope to make the rest official today. Look for more information on Thursday.

Attendance rule

Remember how fans were practically begged to pack Robertson Stadium for the final home game last season against Louisville in order to avoid violating an NCAA rule? In the midst of the number of schools that had trouble reaching the NCAA-mandated average of 15,000 fans per game, it looks like the NCAA will look the other way, at least in 2005.

"The NCAA is basically going to ignore the rule this season," Maggard said.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't want to keep trying to get more UH students out to the games.

"I feel we have made some progress, but we still have work to do," Maggard said. "Houston is a very competitive market, and for us to be competitive in this type of market we have to be competitive as a team. And by competitive I mean 7-8 wins in football and 17-20 in basketball.

"We're in a position where I feel that with Art (Briles) in football and Tom (Penders) in basketball, that they'll make us perennially good teams."
 

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