Tulane should move conference games from Devlin

A much-needed boost for the Tulane men’s basketball program is on the way. Next season, the Green Wave will play its first season in the American Athletic Conference.

In basketball, the American is a huge step up from Conference USA. Here’s all you need to know about Conference USA. Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech tied for the conference regular-season championship and won 29 games each.

When Tulsa won the conference tournament, neither USM or LA Tech got an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

In the American, Connecticut reached the Final 4. Memphis lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Virginia. Cincinnati lost in the first round to Harvard. And, SMU, in the midst of a hoops revival, reached the NIT semifinals in New York. SMU won NIT games over California, LSU and Cal-Irvine.

It won’t happen, but the best thing for Tulane to do is to move most of its American Athletic Conference games downtown to the Smoothie King Center. Tulane just dumped millions of dollars into a renovation of Devlin Fieldhouse.

But, even after the renovation, what is Devlin? It is a bandbox that holds 3,600 fans. And, those who come still have no place to park, other than the streets around the arena and the Loyola University parking garage.

You say that SMU just went through a major renovation of its on-campus Moody Coliseum? That would be correct. But, Moody had an announced attendance for 7,021 for its NIT win over LSU. That is twice the capacity of Devlin.

A move downtown would draw the usual hue and cry of those who trumpet the need for the student body to walk to games. But, what’s more important, the student body or the ticket-buying public?

Here’s what might interest the ticket-buying public: A home schedule that would include the top teams in the American Athletic Conference and home-and-home agreements with teams from the SEC, Big 12 and the Big East. Those quality non-conference games are just not possible in “historic” Devlin Fieldhouse.

The American Athletic Conference has five or six quality basketball teams. With the departure of Louisville to the ACC, and Rutgers to the Big Ten, you can’t say that in football. What you can say is that next season marks the 20th year since Tulane last reached the NCAA basketball tournament. Since then UNO, Nicholls State, Southeastern, and Louisiana-Lafayette have all reached the NCAA tournament.

For those at Tulane who scoff at the notion of hoops excellence, here are some numbers to chew on. When George Mason reached the Final Four in 2006, the school received an estimated $677 million worth of free advertising. Four years later, Butler got an estimated $450 million in free advertising from a Final Four trip.

Tulane University is moving to a basketball-proficient league. And, Devlin simply doesn’t cut it.

Ed Daniels is sports director of ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at edaniels@clarionherald.org.