Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 20, 1990 TAG: 9005200044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But there are pessimists.
"I don't see much changing," said Pat Kennedy, Florida State's basketball coach. "No one has shown me anything to say to me that that's going to happen."
Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins echoed Kennedy when asked if he thought there were too many obstacles for the league to grow.
"From my perspective, no, it's not," he said. "From other people's perspective, I think probably it is."
If anything does happen, the first concrete steps may be taken this week in Destin, Fla., where the Metro will hold its spring meetings.
Dr. Nancy Hamant, the Metro president and Cincinnati's faculty representative, said she expects the league's joint committee to forward a recommendation to the member schools' presidents on whether or not the league should expand and play football. Hamant and McFillen both said informal contacts would be made with potential Metro schools before the meetings, and McFillen said he thinks the joint committee will include in its recommendation a list of schools most likely to accept the Metro's bid.
The Metro commissioned a report by Raycom Sports & Entertainment on league expansion and the possibility of adding football as a conference, and the league's joint committee reviewed that report at a May 7 meeting. Kennedy admitted he had not seen that report, but said there were too many reasons the high-profile schools that were canvassed for the study and believed to be Metro targets - Miami, West Virginia, Syracuse and Pittsburgh - would resist joining a new Metro.
Although Kennedy said he thought West Virginia, an Atlantic 10 Conference member in basketball and an independent in football, might be willing to move, the coach said he didn't think Syracuse and Pitt would leave the financial safety of the Big East Conference. He said he thought Miami, because of its lucrative independent football program, wouldn't be willing to join a revenue-sharing league even though it might help the Hurricanes' struggling basketball program.
But, Kennedy said, if the Metro brass can put together an attractive enough enticement - including a national television package and a bowl-game tie-in - that might help turn some heads.
"If the Metro is going to pull off a coup, it's got to be Miami and West Virginia," said Kennedy, whose employer has been reluctant to play football in the Metro but may be swayed if Miami joins. "Miami, West Virginia, Florida State and South Carolina, that gives you a top side to your football league. . . . Certainly [in my opinion], Miami would have a great deal of influence on Florida State's posture."
Several Metro basketball coaches were interviewed last week concerning the effect expansion would have on the conference's premier sport. Memphis State coach Larry Finch and Louisville coach Denny Crum did not return phone calls to their offices. Crum had assistant Jerry Jones return a reporter's call. The interviews revealed that expansion likely would affect Metro basketball in two major ways: revenue sharing and scheduling. McFillen said both issues have been discussed among league athletic directors, but said the talks haven't covered specifics.
"Those are to some degree premature issues until we take Step One," he said, referring to invitations being extended to non-league schools.
The eight-team Metro is considering adding two or four schools, which would alter significantly the league's basketball scheduling. Teams either would play a home and away game with each conference member - meaning the conference season would be 18 games in a 10-team league and 22 games in a 12-team league - or the new Metro could be split into divisions, with schools perhaps playing two games against each division rival and one game against each school from the other division. That plan would mean 13 conference games - one fewer than the current 14 - in a 10-team league, or 16 games in a 12-team league.
McFillen said the NCAA requires a basketball league to play a double round-robin conference schedule to qualify for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, but said the rule is waived if a league has 12 or more teams. McFillen said there is sentiment among NCAA schools that the double round-robin rule for 10-team leagues be waived if the NCAA cuts the maximum number of games a school can play each year from 28 to 25.
Jones, an assistant to Crum for 18 of the head coach's 19 years at the school, said the Cardinals would resist a home-and-away series with each team if the league expands. Basketball, he said, brings in so much revenue at Louisville that the school's other programs would suffer if the Cardinals had to increase the number of conference games they play at the expense of nationally televised intersectional games.
"We wouldn't be for expansion if it's going to be a round-robin schedule, playing everybody home and away," Jones said.
South Carolina coach George Felton and Southern Mississippi coach M.K. Turk said they favor a round-robin setup. Tech coach Frankie Allen and Tulane coach Perry Clark agreed that an expanded Metro might have to look into a divisional setup because of scheduling logistics and travel costs. Kennedy said he didn't think there was a choice to be made.
"There's not one conference in America that has a divisional operation right now," he said, "and the Metro I don't see as being a conference that's old enough or strong enough that it could pull that off."
Felton, Allen, Turk and Clark endorsed revenue sharing for any new league without reservation. Jones said Louisville, long the Metro's big basketball moneymaker, would welcome splitting dollars if it was assured of enough revenue from the football side to compensate for its lost revenue in basketball.
Kennedy is skeptical that any revenue-sharing plan will fly. The only revenue shared by Metro schools is from its TV package, which amounted to about $65,000 for each school this year. Any Metro team that makes the NCAA Tournament keeps all its postseason money, McFillen said.
"This conference did not start on that premise," Kennedy said of revenue sharing. "The Metro has made mistakes from all the years past when they initially formed and didn't set profit sharing. I don't think they're going to crack that."
Unless, of course, there is enough potential revenue in an expanded, football-playing Metro to lure Miami, West Virginia, Syracuse or Pitt into the league. Then, if the league had a bowl tie-in, a strong TV package and revenue sharing, the benefits would be clear to at least one Metro basketball coach.
"Revenue sharing has been good for the ACC, good for the Big Ten, good for the Big East," said Tulane's Clark, a former Georgia Tech assistant, who also stressed the large TV markets that would accompany the addition of any of the four schools mentioned above. "TV marketing enables you to turn a program around quicker because of the visibility.
"In the ACC, being able to be on TV up and down the Atlantic Seaboard enabled us to recruit kids like [Bruce] Dalrymple and [Duane] Ferrell, who can help turn a program around, and then you can recruit Kenny Anderson, Dennis Scott and those kids.
"The reason Louisville and Memphis State are mentioned so prevalently is because they're on TV the most. . . . Let's say we had a TV package [such as the Big Ten's] that was tied in with ESPN. Within that, every school had to get at least two games on. That means two times a year, we would go throughout the country. How many times do you think you'd see Wisconsin play if it wasn't for the Big Ten package on ESPN?"
What kind of TV deal any new Metro Conference would be able to land might depend on which teams enter the league. Louisville's Jones said the league should go hard after Syracuse and Pitt, which already have successful basketball programs and would add instant luster to the Metro. The more likely candidates, however, appear to be Miami and West Virginia.
"What does that add to Louisville and Memphis? What does that add to Cincinnati?" Jones said of Miami and WVU. "To improve the basketball, you've got to bring in quality teams as good or better than the top teams in your league."
First, though, the Metro's joint committee must take the big step and recommend the addition of schools and football. And, although many in the Metro say the league is headed in that direction, Cincinnati AD Rick Taylor hinted that he wouldn't be surprised by any developments in Destin.
"Anybody who thinks they have a read on what's going to happen next week are either fooling themselves, or they're a hell of a lot smarter than I am," he said.
by CNB