Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 3, 1990                   TAG: 9007030050
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BIG SOUTH LOSES TEAM, GAINS ESPN

On the same day ESPN announced that for the first time it will televise the Big South basketball tournament championship game, Augusta College said it will leave the league after the 1990-91 school year.

"We're delighted that our schools and athletes will have an opportunity to perform before a national audience," said Buddy Sasser, the Big South's commissioner. "We're also disappointed that we're losing a conference member, but we're leaving the door open in case Augusta decides to re-evaluate its position."

That would seem unlikely. Augusta will be dropping to Division II and seeking membership in the Peach State Conference, primarily for one reason: money.

"You've got to have a $1.8 million to $2 million minimum annual budget to run a Division I program," said Clint Bryant, Augusta's athletic director. "Our budget last year was $931,000, and on that you're living from hand to mouth every day.

"Being a member of Division II is much more attractive than it once was. The bottom line is that we feel we have an opportunity to win a national championship in Division II and that we didn't in Division I."

After gaining a new member this year in Davidson, the Big South will go back to seven schools for 1991-92.

"We regret losing a charter member of the conference," said Chuck Taylor, Radford's athletic director. " . . . Conferences in transition are the rule rather than the exception these days."

The ESPN deal is considered a major coup for the publicity-starved Big South. The cable network also will show all three of the new NCAA Tournament play-in games, one of which will include the Big South champ.

The Big South tournament final will be televised at noon on March 2.

The play-in games will be shown live March 6. The Big South winner plays at the Southwestern Athletic Conference winner by virtue of a lower non-conference power rating. That game will be televised at 9:30 p.m.

The NCAA devised the play-in concept because the number of conferences eligible for automatic bids to the tournament exceeds the number of bids that will be offered. The six conference winners play head-to-head, and the three survivors advance to the tournament.