Posted today on the Conference Talk Board ... this article from Friday's Virginian-Pilot, which includes the first report (I've seen) that JK is on the CUSA's Future Planning Committee.

David Hall, Virginian-Pilot Wrote:(ODU AD Wood) Selig and the ADs from Rice, Texas El Paso, Louisiana Tech and Middle Tennessee State, along with a senior women’s administrator from Charlotte and a faculty athletic representative from Texas San Antonio, form the seven-person Future Planning Committee, which has been meeting virtually for about six weeks.

The committee is faced with the task of reducing expenses for C-USA member schools and the league itself in light of the coronavirus pandemic and its shutdown effect on college sports. It meets for the final time Tuesday afternoon, after which it will make formal recommendations to league ADs.

On May 22, the ADs will conclude their discussions, with the goal of sending final recommendations through the conference offices to the league’s 14 university presidents sometime in early June.

The committee, with research assistance from the league office and member schools’ chief financial officers, has discussed a three-pronged approach to trimming expenses, some of them more extreme than others.

...

• A change in regular-season scheduling for all sports, to include fewer games or more efficient travel with fewer flights. Divisional play based upon an east-west format within the expansive league has also been considered.

• A change in championship formats. The committee has discussed the possibility of reducing the number of participants in each sport’s conference tournament, as well as the cost of running a championship and the costs for schools to participate. Also considered are whether locations could be changed or events condensed by a day.

• Helping the conference cut expenses by holding more online meetings, as well as examining expenses for officials and other support provided by C-USA. Also, the conference could have consortiums, or “scheduling alliances,” with geographically adjacent leagues like the Sun Belt, the Atlantic 10 and the American Athletic Conference.

For example, instead of flying to the westernmost reaches of C-USA in El Paso, Texas, the Monarchs might bus to East Carolina, which plays in the AAC. What that might mean for conference records remains to be seen, but it’s evidence of how broadly C-USA’s member administrators — and those in other conferences around the country — are thinking.

“Does it count as a conference game, or does it just go as a non-conference game?” Selig said. “The beauty has been the creativity that everyone has brought to these conversations. And it’s not just contained within a particular conference. There’s been considerable dialogue across leagues to determine if there can be benefits enjoyed by all.”

Selig said the committee has not discussed the possibility of any of C-USA’s members seeking a new conference affiliation, choosing instead to tweak the framework of the existing league.

For example, instead of flying to the westernmost reaches of C-USA in El Paso, Texas, the Monarchs might bus to East Carolina, which plays in the AAC. What that might mean for conference records remains to be seen, but it’s evidence of how broadly C-USA’s member administrators — and those in other conferences around the country — are thinking.

“Does it count as a conference game, or does it just go as a non-conference game?” Selig said. “The beauty has been the creativity that everyone has brought to these conversations. And it’s not just contained within a particular conference. There’s been considerable dialogue across leagues to determine if there can be benefits enjoyed by all.”

Just make regional conferences. What’s the point of this other than maintaining the TV contracts already in place?

I've floated a reorganization of CUSA and SunBelt, along these lines:

CUSA WEST
NMSU (add)
UTEP
UTSA
Texas State
Rice
La Tech
North Texas
UT-Arlington (non-football)

CUSA EAST
ULaLa
UL-Monroe
Arkansas State
UALR (non-football)
Southern Miss
UAB
FIU
FAU

SunBelt South
Troy
South Alabama
Ga Southern
Ga State
Middle Tennessee
Western Ky

SunBelt North
Coastal Carolina
UNC Charlotte
VCU
Liberty (add)
Marshall
Appalachian State

Might make a bit more geographic sense to put the Florida schools in SunBelt and Troy and South Alabama in CUSA. The problem with that is it leaves SunBelt with only 5 carryover schools, and that could cost them their NCAA automatic bid.

That gives each league pieces of the following TV markets:
CUSA--Houston (shared), San Antonio, DFW (sorta), Birmingham (3rd), Miami (2nd/3rd/4th)
SunBelt--Atlanta (shared), Charlotte, Norfolk, Columbia/Charleston (3rd)

This could get interesting. I'm most curious to see how far they are willing pursue scheduling alliances. The era of "regionalization" among the G5 conferences may be here. I hope any games with outside schools will count in the standings. Put some weight behind them.

As for Karlgaard being on the committee, I'm glad. We need to be leading some of these initiatives. I'm encouraged that it's being done in athletics as opposed to academics for a change. He is someone who I have noticed goes to great lengths to learn what the fans are thinking. I'm sure he'll communicate to the committee how we feel about the conference and the changes that at least we'd like to see made.