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

DATE: THURSDAY, October 28, 1993                   TAG: 9310280069
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ASHEVILLE, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

SOUTHERN CONFERENCE MODIFIES SCHEDULING FOR MEN'S BASKETBALL

The Southern Conference has unveiled plans to utilize a modified divisional format in men's basketball for scheduling purposes beginning in 1994-95.

The format will allow each school to play 14 conference games during the regular season instead of the current round-robin format requiring each school to play 18 league games.

The scheduling change will not affect the way the conference standings are compiled or how the seeding for the league tournament is generated. Those two things still will be determined using total combined conference won-lost records and not won-lost records within each division.

"It is not a true divisional plan in that respect," Southern Conference Commissioner Wright Waters said Wednesday. "This is simply an attempt to improve our conference's RPI [ratings percentage index] by allowing teams flexibility in their non-conference scheduling."

Currently, each team is allowed to schedule 26 regular-season games. Each team has eight non-conference games this season and 18 conference games. In 1994-95, each team will be able to schedule 12 non-conference games.

Appalachian State, Davidson, East Tennessee State, Marshall and VMI will comprise one scheduling unit. The Citadel, Furman, Georgia Southern, Tennessee-Chattanooga and Western Carolina will comprise the other.

Each team will play the teams in its unit twice, one team in the opposite unit twice and the other four teams in the opposite unit once.

by CNB