Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 12, 1990 TAG: 9007120021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The presidents of the 16 schools have been invited to the meeting Tuesday in Atlanta, where the Metro is based. The administrators will review the league's proposal of a 16-team football league and a 12-team basketball league that would include West Virginia, Miami, Syracuse, Pitt, Boston College, Rutgers, Temple and East Carolina as new members.
Athletic directors of the 16 schools met two weeks ago in Charlotte, N.C., to review the Metro's expansion plan. At that meeting, the Metro invited the eight non-league schools, all football independents, to join the 15-year-old basketball conference.
The athletic directors then presented the plan to their presidents, who eventually will determine whether the league will expand.
Dave Braine, Virginia Tech's athletic director, said he doesn't think Tuesday's meeting will produce a final decision on the proposed alignment.
"I think the presidents will come away with a feeling of how many people will be involved [in the concept]," Braine said. "It's too early to get a total commitment. If you asked people right now whether they're in or out, you'd probably lose some people, specifically Miami and Florida State."
Those two schools are seen as the keys if the Metro is to add eight teams. Both are being considered as possible additions by the Southeastern Conference, and Florida State is believed to be a top priority school for the ACC if that league chooses to expand. James McComas, Tech's president, said he expects to find out at the meeting where each of the 16 schools stands.
"I think we need to try to resolve the conference into some kind of permanent arrangement," he said. "As long as we have not done that, member schools are subject to considering other opportunities with greater frequency.
"I think we ought to get some closure [at the meeting]. If we have serious interest, we ought to determine that."
Ralph McFillen, the Metro's commissioner, said the administrators will review particulars of the plan, including topics such as scheduling and bowl tie-ins. McFillen said the athletic directors are leaning toward a football alignment of four four-team mini-divisions, and have been talking to directors of New Year's Day bowl games to see whether the "new Metro" champion could be guaranteed a Jan. 1 date.
McFillen said he expects considerable feedback on the plan at Tuesday's meeting.
"We want to get a better reading on what it would take to make this workable," he said. "Would they be willing to make a commitment, and when could that decision be made? In 30, 60, 90 days, or [we could] set another meeting and at that point finally agree on a direction one way or another. If we let this thing go to January, it won't work. We want it to either be viable or not viable."
The Metro's decision to broaden its expansion goals from adding two or four schools to adding eight was prompted by the SEC's interest in Florida State and Miami, but McComas said he doesn't think the Metro should set a timetable for a decision on expansion based on the actions of other leagues.
However, Cincinnati athletic director Rick Taylor said he hopes Tuesday's meeting produces a deadline.
"Speaking for Cincinnati, I would hope we come out of the July 17 meeting with a firm date on whether people are in or out," Taylor said. "We at Cincinnati want to know by the end of the summer if this is going to go. We don't want an open-ended situation."
Taylor said several hurdles still must be cleared before the Metro's plan can become a reality.
"It's tough to get 16 people to agree on anything, much less something of this magnitude," he said. "Some schools . . . have too many political constituencies to answer to, to satisfy. There are existing relationships that have tradition, and some people are reluctant to look beyond that.
"If people can be visionary and look five years down the road at the potential for this, they'd see this is a hell of a concept, a tremendous concept. But even if they can envision that, they still might not be able to sell their constituencies on it, because of those deep, ingrained feelings about existing relationships."
Virginia Tech, however, doesn't need to be convinced. McComas said the plan offers Tech a chance for stability and to build tradition.
Braine said the proposed league could be a springboard for the Hokies.
"I think it'll promote growth," he said. "It's the thing that we needed. It goes back to one of our main objectives, to get in a very good football/basketball/all-sports conference. This has the makings of all that."
Sportswriter Jack Bogaczyk contributed information to this story.
by CNB