Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991 TAG: 9102080715
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This week, Tech became a football-only member of the Big East Conference. That's a coup. Just a few months ago, it appeared Tech might be condemned to continue life as a football independent. That's been Tech's situation since the mid-'60s, but the development of conference-negotiated TV packages and bowl ties has made independence an increasingly precarious condition.
Spurned for years by the all-sports Atlantic Coast Conference, Tech will compete in an eight-team league against such well-known football names as Miami, Pitt and Syracuse. Revenue-sharing lucre is presumably to follow.
Questions remain. Of the eight Big East football schools, Tech has the smallest athletic budget and by some measures the most rigorous academic standards for athletes. On that point, it's heartening to hear talk of raising standards at the others, rather than lowering standards at Tech.
Meanwhile, the future of Tech's affiliation with the non-football Metro Conference is uncertain. The far-flung conference's basketball tournament next month in Roanoke could be its last. Four of its eight members are defecting after this season. Whether at least two of the defectors can be replaced remains up in the air, as well as whether some of the other old members, including Tech, will remain even if the conference could otherwise survive.
Again, though, Tech appears at least to have landed on its feet. If Tech's non-football future isn't in the Metro, it is said, either the Atlantic 10 or the Colonial Athletic Association would be happy to have the Hokies.
As with the Metro, however, what's missing from all three other actual or possible affiliations - the football Big East, and the non-football Atlantic 10 or Colonial - is an abundance of natural rivalries. Of the Big East's other seven football members, only West Virginia is by history and geography such a rival. The Atlantic 10 is a prestigious basketball conference, but Tech would be a lonely Southern outpost. The Colonial includes several Virginia schools, but none with Tech's athletic aspirations.
These days, good fits are hard to find. The current realignment turmoil is driven by TV markets, not student or alumni interests. Still, the commercialization of college athletics hasn't entirely driven out older concerns. Even with Tech in the Big East, for example, it's hard to imagine the time when the Hokies' football game with Virginia of the ACC won't be the biggest one of the season.
by CNB