DATE: Tuesday, October 14, 1997             TAG: 9710140454

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Interview

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                        LENGTH:  171 lines

A CONVERSATION WITH THE NEW DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS AT VIRGINIA TECH

New Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver says he's begun preliminary discussions with Big East officials about an all-sports affiliation and says he'll likely seek membership in the Southeastern Conference if the Big East doesn't accept the Hokies in all sports.

``The Big East may be the right home for Virginia Tech,'' Weaver said. But he added that Tech ``brings a lot to the table for other conferences in the way of new television markets and a quality university and athletic program.''

Tech plays football in the Big East and is a member of the Atlantic 10 in all other sports. Tech applied to become an all-sports Big East member 3 1/2 years ago, but the application was rejected.

Like his predecessor, Dave Braine, who left for Georgia Tech, Weaver acknowledges there is little chance the Hokies can join the ACC, considered the first choice of many Tech alumni.

He says Virginia Tech's goal is to emulate Penn State, which built a perennial Top 25 football power while maintaining a squeaky-clean image, and that he plans few changes in the athletic program.

Weaver, a 52-year-old Harrisburg, Pa., native, was named Tech's athletic director three weeks ago. A former Penn State football player and assistant coach, Weaver made national headlines in 1994 when he resigned as athletic director at Nevada-Las Vegas rather than agree to allow basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian to hire an assistant coach implicated in NCAA violations.

Weaver comes to Tech from Western Michigan University, where he was athletic director for two years. Prior to moving to UNLV, he spent nine years at Florida, working largely in NCAA rules compliance. He was associate athletic director when he left Florida.

Weaver was interviewed by The Virginian-Pilot. Edited excerpts of the interview follow:

Virginia Tech president Paul Torgersen said when he announced you'd been chosen as athletic director that your No. 1 priority was to find an all-sports conference for Virginia Tech. How quickly will you begin working on that issue?

I've had discussions in the time I've been here with some people (in the Big East) about that already on the telephone and will continue to do that. . because that's when the conference television contracts expire. There's going to be change and there are going to be opportunities. It's important for this university to continue the momentum it has going so it can position itself for what's going to be available at the turn of the century.

Nearly four years ago, Tech, West Virginia, Rutgers and Temple were promised by the Big East's other football members that if they were not admitted in all sports the eight football schools would leave the Big East and form their own league. But only West Virginia and Rutgers were admitted. Since that time Tech's football program has won or shared two Big East titles, has been to four straight bowl games and this season is the only ranked Big East team. Don't you have a lot to offer the Big East you didn't have four years ago? Don't they have a lot to lose if you go elsewhere?

That's a very astute observation and I think there are some people in the conference at member institutions who see that right now who maybe didn't see that a few years ago. What comes out of that remains to be seen. It very well could be that the very best place for us to be is the Big East Conference. Most of our students, other than our in-state students, come from suburban areas of Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. We're smack dab in the middle of Big East country. We bring something to the table for the Big East that we don't bring to the Atlantic Coast Conference. We don't add anything that Maryland and Virginia don't already give in terms of television markets. We do that for the Big East. We do do that for some other conferences.

Such as the Southeastern Conference?

Yes. We would do that for the Southeastern Conference.

Dave Braine said his first choice for conference affiliation was always the Big East, but number 1-A on his list was the SEC. Do you agree?

Yes. I'd say that's probably what the best options are for us. I say that as someone who's been in the Southeastern Conference at the University of Florida.

There are many issues to tackle at Tech other than conference affiliation, such as gender equity and facilities. What will be your immediate priorities?

My most pressing issue is to get to know our people on staff. I need to get to know how to get through the maze and the bureaucracy of a new institution. People are what make things happen, not buildings and facilities. So I want to get to know our people.

This university made a commitment to gender equity prior to my arrival and is ranked sixth in the nation in proportionality. In facilities, we have a new softball stadium, a new track and soccer facilities that are all nicely done. We just put a new roof on Cassell Coliseum. The Merryman Athletic Center (to include conditioning, training and academic centers for athletes) will be a wonderful facility. There's work to be done to refurbish some areas in Lane Stadium. But I'll tell you this, the most important thing for every Hokie fan to understand is that we never ever get to the end of the journey when you're dealing with facilities. The minute you think you've arrived with facilities, you're headed downward.

Have you ever been to the Hampton Roads area?

I scouted North Carolina State-Maryland in the Oyster Bowl in the 1960s. And I did a little recruiting in the Norfolk area. . . . But it has been a long time since I've been there. I hope to get there soon. I realize what an important area that is for Virginia Tech, that we have many, many alumni there.

Your school's athletic presence in Hampton Roads has been sparse in recent years. The basketball team used to play there regularly but hasn't played there in five seasons. Will you bring Tech basketball team back to Hampton Roads?

It's something that I would look at, but there are obviously reasons why people haven't done it in recent years and before I would make any kind of comments as to what the future holds, I would certainly like to know what those reasons are. . . . I'm sure we'll have as good a presence as we can in terms of our alumni people, our fund-raising people, our athletic administration.

Tech's non-conference football schedule has been widely criticized for including opponents such as Arkansas State and UAB. Should Tech play a stronger schedule?

I think there are a couple of things people have to understand. Number one, we want to always have six home games. When you have an eight-team conference, that means one year you're going to play four at home and the next year you're going to play three at home. In the year that you have three at home . . . it's not always easy to get the kind of people you might want to have. Some people on our schedule are in there because we want to have that sixth home game. The other thing is that we want to keep going to bowl games and I think all of our fans do. . . . When it comes time for bowl selection, people aren't looking to see who you beat, they're looking to see how many wins you have. But I understand what fans are saying and there are some legitimate issues.

Sharon McCloskey, the senior associate athletic director, was a candidate for the AD job and was endorsed by every Tech head coach. Under the circumstances, will you have a problem working with her?

I believe that things are going to go just fine. Sharon is going to continue in her role as senior associate athletic director. We're going to work very closely to take this program to even greater heights. . . . I don't have any discomfort at all working with Sharon.

Tech's football team went through about a year of off-the-field incidents that tarnished the program, everything from fights, to arrests for traffic violations to alleged sexual assaults. Are you satisfied the plan put in place to combat those problems last spring is adequate?

I'm familiar with the Comprehensive Action Plan that's been put in place. It seems to be working well and has addressed some of those problems. That plan seems to be very thought out and very carefully organized. It seems to be in the best interest of the athletic program and university. I'm not familiar enough with it to discuss it in detail, but will when I've been here longer.

Tech is isolated from most of the state's large metropolitan areas. How do you overcome this relative isolation in marketing your program?

Our location is not necessarily a bad thing. There are many athletic programs in similar settings that have done very well. It does mean we're going to have to work hard. . . . Athletics is the biggest window of exposure for any university. That's a fact of life. It's not something I or anyone else here decided. We have got to take advantage of it and market this program to the best of our ability. The people here have done that. Virginia Tech could not have bought the exposure it had in the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl the last two years. What is happening now with the increase in admissions applications at this university happened to Boston College 13 or 14 years ago when (Doug) Flutie threw the Hail Mary against Miami. What's happened in athletics here has been a great thing for the entire university and we're absolutely determined to continue that momentum.

You made a difficult decision at UNLV when you resigned rather than allow the school to hire a coach who'd been implicated in NCAA rules violations. Did you worry it would end your career?

I've always believed that if you do what is right, you never go wrong, and it was wrong to do what they wanted to do and I wasn't going to be part of it. So I resigned, without a job. . . . I was confident that my reputation after 27 or 28 years in intercollegiate athletics would stand in good stead. I knew if I was hired by anybody, that my background would be scrutinized and looked up one side and down the other. And I didn't have a problem with that because I didn't have anything to worry about. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Jim Weaver likes the Southeastern Conference if the Big East doesn't

work out.

Photo

ALAN KIM/FILE

Jim Weaver, Virginia Tech's new athletic director, left, fields

questions with Tech president Paul Torgersen when his appointment

was announced.

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