The shuffling of Division I-A college football conferences, which began June 30 when Miami announced it would join the Atlantic Coast Conference, finally touched the Mid-American Conference last Friday.

On that day Marshall's board of governors voted unanimously to sign a membership agreement with Conference USA, and the Thundering Herd is expected to join its new league once other conference realignment issues around the country are resolved.

Marshall football coach Bob Pruett said the move was based on money more than anything else.

“This was a financial move - it's not a competitive move, as the MAC has proved this season,” he said. “Basically this comes down to dollars and cents. We have to find a way to generate more money, and [the board] thought this was the best way to do that.”

Much of the revenue would come from Conference USA's eight-year, $80 million television deal with ESPN. Marshall expects to receive $500,000 in TV revenue from its new league, compared to the $37,500 the school expects to receive in MAC television money this year.

But there will be increased costs as well. First Marshall will pay a $1 million entry fee to join Conference USA in 2005 and a $400,000 exit fee to leave the MAC, with both payments coming from private funds.

Travel expenses for the Herd also are expected to increase. Outside of the 684-mile trip to Orlando, Fla., to play Central Florida, the most distant MAC school to Huntington, W.Va., is Northern Illinois, which is roughly 400 miles away in DeKalb, Ill.

With nearby schools such as Cincinnati and Louisville expected to bolt Conference USA, the closest school in Marshall's new league is East Carolina, which is 340 miles away in Greenville, N.C. No other school is closer than 400 miles away, and schools such as Houston, Rice, SMU and Texas Christian are roughly 900 miles away.

Another factor that makes Conference USA attractive is its five bowl affiliations: the New Orleans, the GMAC, the Fort Worth, the Hawaii and Liberty bowls. But those connections might be tenuous since the league has only one school, TCU, receiving votes in the national polls. The MAC has three in the Top 25 - Bowling Green and Northern Illinois, while Miami also received votes.

While Marshall has determined its new direction, Central Florida ponders its fate. The football-only MAC member received a bid to join the league in all sports, but UCF is hoping for a bid to join the Big East, which is expected to announce its plans to replace Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College next Tuesday.

This week the Knights face Big East member West Virginia, and coach Mike Kruczek said the game could serve as an audition for the new league.

“This is another opportunity to show people where we're at,” he said. “We can show the Big East that we're a competitive program that needs to be looked at.”

DARK CLOUDS? It was a bad day for Akron in East Hartford, Conn., last Saturday. And the worst news wasn't that the Zips lost to Connecticut 38-37 on a field goal as time ran out.

Akron quarterback Charlie Frye was hit on the second play of the game and suffered a painful hip pointer, yet played the rest of the game. Frye's status for the Zips' next game at Marshall is uncertain.

“It was amazing he was able to come back and play the way he was able to play,” Akron coach Lee Owens said of Frye, who threw for 223 yards despite being sacked eight times and harassed many others.

The loss marked the fourth time the Zips have lost this season, and in all four losses UA has been within at least four points of the lead.

“It's like there's a black cloud over this program,” said Matt Cherry, who caught seven passes for 109 yards and a touchdown and also had a 79-yard kickoff return. “I've seen games where we blow leads, where we have a fourth-quarter collapse, where a guy kicks a field goal, where we don't get a first down we need.”

Owens said he already has had a team meeting to address the snake-bit feeling surrounding his club.

“We just can't think like that, that something bad is going to happen at the end of the game,” Owens said. “If you think dark clouds, it's going to rain every day.”

THE LAST WORD: When Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak was asked about injuries following his team's loss at Bowling Green, he said his team had no significant injuries.

“I don't know if we hit anybody hard enough to get hurt,” Novak said.

First Published October 28, 2003, 11:39 a.m.