ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington Department of Athletics has partnered with College Sports Solutions (CSS) to create a comprehensive analysis of its current and future conference membership options as the landscape of Division-I athletics continues to shift.
Led by longtime collegiate athletics administrator Jeff Schemmel, UTA's partnership with CSS will yield information and result in strategic recommendations for how the Mavericks navigate current and future conference affiliation options.
An initial in-person meeting, which included Schemmel, UTA Director of Athletics
Jim Baker, UTA Deputy AD
Russell Warren and head Maverick basketball coaches
Greg Young and
Shereka Wright, has already taken place – the first of many information-gathering sessions.
"As the collegiate landscape continues to change, it is imperative for UTA Athletics to evaluate how we can best position ourselves now and in the future relative to conference membership," stated Baker. "We have been engaged in conversations with different conference leadership groups, but remain proud members of the Sun Belt Conference. Commissioner Keith Gill and I have had, and continue to have, open and productive dialogue regarding both UTA's future and the future of the SBC."
This past spring, Baker issued the following statement regarding UTA's conference membership:
UT Arlington Athletics is a proud member of the Sun Belt Conference, and our department's on-going mission is to help strengthen the brand of the league with our successes on and off the playing surfaces. However, we are acutely aware of the ever-changing landscape of collegiate athletics, and conference realignment is – and has been – a driving force in that change. With that reality in place, we are constantly evaluating and conversing about UTA's position relative to our peers. We are located in a national top-5 media market with a growing population and fertile recruiting base. Those factors, among others, make UTA attractive to many; however, every decision we make is with the best interest of our student-athletes, department and university at the forefront of our minds.
Launched in 2013, CSS is a leading full-service and integrated provider of collegiate athletic consulting, strategies and solutions to universities, intercollegiate conferences and collegiate organizations. CSS's team of industry-leading consultants provides comprehensive assessments and evaluations of athletic departments, including risk management, conference affiliation, fundraising and branding and marketing, among many other areas.
"We look forward to working with
Jim Baker and the good people at UTA, and assisting them with information gathering, outreach and strategic discussions about their optimum future conference affiliation, said Schemmel. "In this time of constant and substantive change in Division-I athletics, analysis such as this is imperative."
Schemmel possesses more than 32 years of intercollegiate athletics management experience. A former D-I athletic director, he has served in key leadership positions within the NCAA, the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA, and at schools in the Big 12, Big Ten, and Pac-12 conferences.
After being an independent school from 1959-63, UTA was a charter member of the Southland Conference in 1963 and remained in the league until 2012. Following one season in the Western Athletic Conference in 2012-13, the Mavericks joined the Sun Belt in 2013 where they have resided for the past eight years.
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