Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 13, 1990 TAG: 9005130077
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Many Tech fans, after hoping for years for a smooch from the ACC, probably wouldn't even consider a date with the Colonial Athletic Association.
"I think it's a dumpy idea," said Tech alumnus Thomas Burns, president of C&P Telephone of West Virginia and a former Tech football player, who professed not to know what the initials CAA stood for.
But it could happen.
Tech is trying to become part of an all-sports, revenue-sharing conference and is involved in talks about an expanded Metro Conference and a grouping of Eastern football independents that would form either an all-sports or a football-only league.
It seems unlikely Tech would wind up seeking membership in the CAA, a seven-team, non-football playing league searching for an eighth member after Navy's defection on Thursday. However, if the Metro folds and Eastern Seaboard talks stall, the Hokies may not have another choice.
The idea has its detractors inside and outside of Tech's athletic department, but the Hokies could benefit from such a move in several ways. And, apparently, it is not a question of whether the CAA would welcome Tech. CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said Tech would give his league a better chance of sending more than just its tournament champion to the NCAA basketball tournament each year, thus helping the league grow in prominence.
"By default, we may become a pretty attractive port in the storm," said Yeager, who added that he has talked informally with Hokies athletic director Dave Braine and other Tech officials about a Tech-CAA hookup. "I don't think there'd be a minute's hesitation on anybody's part [within the conference] to think that [Tech] would be a terrific addition to the conference.
"If the time becomes right . . . we'll get together at the drop of a hat."
Because conference trips would take the Hokies by bus to Richmond, William and Mary, James Madison, American, George Mason, North Carolina-Wilmington and East Carolina and replace flights to distant Metro cities, Tech's travel budget would be reduced significantly.
There are other benefits, too. Tech would be in alliance with schools that are more academically compatible than the current Metro members. The CAA would afford Tech geographic rivalries, something it doesn't have in the Metro. And the Hokies' operations budget would be one of the biggest in their league, not the third-smallest, as it is in the Metro.
The average SAT score of incoming Tech freshmen last year was 1,125; five of the eight Metro schools had averages of 960 or lower. Richmond's average SAT score was 1,250 and James Madison's was about 1,100. Six Metro schools admit Proposition 48 casualties; no CAA school currently has a men's basketball player who did not meet Prop 48 standards.
Tech fully funds 192 scholarships, fifth-highest in the Metro. Richmond and James Madison, two of the CAA's most successful basketball schools, fund 141 and 171, respectively. Excluding Tech's 95 football scholarships and Division I-AA James Madison's 70, the Dukes fund 101 scholarships to Tech's 97. The Hokies' athletic operations budget is about $6.4 million, compared to $5.3 million at East Carolina, the only CAA school that plays Division I football.
Braine said he likes the idea of playing football in an expanded Metro and will continue to talk with the Eastern independents. After the Metro athletic directors and faculty representatives met Monday and decided to pursue expansion and football, Braine said he is more optimistic than ever that the Metro will expand and play football.
But, Braine said, if those options fall through . . .
"It doesn't take a genius. You have to have someplace to go to schedule," Braine said of considering the CAA. "If the Metro folds and we don't have any other place to go, that would be the realistic thing to do until something else better comes along."
In a recent interview, Braine was animated when asked how moving to the CAA would affect the financially strapped Hokies.
"We'd be much better off," he said. "Our travel [budget] would be cut [by] probably two-thirds. We could do a whole lot more, we could spend a heck of a lot more on sports, because the longest trip we'd have would be to Wilmington."
After years of using the University of Virginia as a measuring stick for recruiting and overall success of programs and trying to catch Louisville and Memphis State in basketball, Tech jumping to the CAA could be seen as a step down that could turn off supporters.
Hokies women's basketball coach Carol Alfano, who said she thinks her program would face better competition in front of larger crowds in the CAA, said she wouldn't mind the move. There is, however, at least one Tech coach who would feel a bit blue about a bus trip to Harrisonburg or Greenville, N.C., once a year.
"It's one of those things where it's a good conference and all, but is that where you want to be?" said Hokies basketball coach Frankie Allen, who favors staying in the Metro and worries about public perception if Tech joins the CAA. "[People might say] they're playing out all their options. Are they just settling for anything?"
Allen's worry was echoed by Burns and Stuart Johnson, a former Tech track star who is chairman of the board of Roller Bearing Industries in Richmond. Burns said Tech should align itself with nationally prominent schools, either in academics or athletics. Johnson said the Hokies shouldn't join a league without a place for the football Hokies, and said he would look askance at Tech in the CAA.
"I have difficulty with that, just because of tradition if for no other sound reason," he said. "It just doesn't hit me well."
One Tech alumnus, however, gave a list of reasons the Hokies would be well off in the CAA. Roanoke real estate agent Dave Saunders said his first wish for his alma mater is that it join an all-sports league that would include schools such as Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Miami.
If an all-sports league is not an option, he said he would prefer Tech get in the CAA, especially if the league could lure Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth into the fold. In that league, Saunders said, the Hokies would go to the NCAA basketball tournament more often, their non-revenue sports would prosper and Tech's basketball team would play before more Hokies alumni in cities such as Richmond and Washington, D.C., which Saunders figures would increase donations to the program.
"I don't see that much difference between the Colonial and the Metro," Saunders said. "I don't see the big deal."
One Tech administrator said the school's alumni and contributors would revolt if the Hokies seriously considered moving to the CAA. Braine agreed that many Tech supporters would disagree with such a move, but he doesn't share their reasoning or their outlook.
"How do I feel about it?" Braine asked. "I know all those [CAA] people. I like all those people. I'm not going to look down my nose at them."
by CNB