Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 8, 1990 TAG: 9005080168
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK and SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Months of speculation has centered on the potential demise of the Atlanta-based conference, which was founded in 1975 and has evolved as a basketball league. The Metro is the only Division I basketball conference that does not share NCAA Tournament and network television receipts.
Several members were studying other affiliations, and when the schools discussed expansion and football as a conference sport, more than half had conflicting desires. But Monday's meeting at an Atlanta hotel ended with the eight schools in concert.
The ADs and faculty reps viewed for the first time a feasibility study produced for the league by Raycom Sports & Entertainment of Charlotte, N.C. It included comparative athletic and academic information on 17 schools - the Metro members plus Miami, West Virginia, Rutgers, Temple, Penn State, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and East Carolina - and grouped them in 246 possible conference alignments.
In creating the various scenarios, Raycom executive vice president Ken Haines detailed for Metro members how much might be earned in television and postseason revenue. In conjunction with expansion and playing football, the Metro has discussed adopting limited revenue sharing.
"You sit around and you talk and you speculate, and that's one kind of conversation," said Dr. Nancy Hamant, Cincinnati's faculty rep and Metro president. "When you have a lot of data in front of you, it's hard to be other than rational.
"I thought that it could have been a little more tense than it was. If people decide to make a stand, that can make it difficult."
Hamant said there will be no expansion without football becoming a conference sport. She said no invitations will be extended before the league's spring meetings May 23-26 in Destin, Fla., but said the league will consider adding either two or four schools. She said the Metro does not have a list of preferred schools, but two sources familiar with the conference's expansion plans said there is a top two.
"I can tell you that for football, with all of the [current] members interested, Miami would have to be a top priority and West Virginia [would be] right there, too," said a Metro member administrator, who requested anonymity. "Those would be two good additions, two great football programs. And they'd also add to Metro basketball."
It would take a unanimous vote to add football, but only a two-thirds vote to expand. Before the Destin meetings, Metro athletic directors will discuss the Raycom findings with university presidents. Virginia Tech AD Dave Braine said he expects the Metro's joint committee of ADs and faculty reps to make an expansion recommendation in Destin for the presidents to consider at their meeting in early June.
"I think there's going to be a lot of discussion," Hamant said of the spring meetings. "I'm not sure anything's going to happen beyond that. . . . There'll be a lot of discussion, but no decision."
Braine, who was to report the result of the meeting to Tech executive vice president Minnis Ridenour on Monday night, said he hadn't expected a harmonious meeting on Monday. Florida State and South Carolina have said they would not play football with the other current Metro members, without expansion. Cincinnati, Louisville and Memphis State have met twice with DePaul about the potential formation of a basketball conference by schools in major Midwest markets.
"Going down there [Monday], I really felt like this would be a waste of time," Braine said. "It didn't turn out that way.
"I was shocked."
The ADs and faculty reps, however, agreed at the meeting not to discuss specifics of the Metro's expansion plans. Braine said several of the ADs from schools in states with Freedom of Information Acts did not take Raycom's report back to their institutions, fearing the media would request copies and the information would be made public.
Among the potential options for the Hokies and several other Metro members are expansion upon the current eight schools; subtraction from the Metro membership, then football-enhancing additions; or the folding or realignment of the Metro, with Tech and other independents creating an Eastern Seaboard conference.
Braine said after Monday's meeting it is his opinion that, of those options, the Metro would add schools to the current eight.
"I'd agree with Dave," said Charlie Cavagnaro, the Memphis State AD. "I'd like to think that's what will happen. That's been our desire, here at Memphis State, all along."
The potential for more informal talks exist this weekend at the Florida Citrus Bowl meetings, which will be attended by Braine, who is chairman of the Metro athletic directors' committee, Metro Commissioner Ralph McFillen and Miami AD Sam Jankovich. West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong said Monday night that no one from the Metro had informed him about Monday's meeting. Braine said he would contact the WVU athletic director, perhaps as early as today.
"I think everyone's first choice would be, certainly, to keep the Metro together and to have the Metro be the kind of conference everyone wants," Hamant said.
by CNB