Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409130007
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: HATTIESBURG, MISS. LENGTH: Medium
Metro football never happened, however, and the 1994-95 season may see the last Metro basketball games between the Hokies and Golden Eagles, too. That's because Southern Miss figures to beat Tech to their common dream - an all-sports conference affiliation.
What has been football-rooted talk about schools from the Metro and Great Midwest getting together has proceeded past the rumor and discussion stages. Southern Miss, Tulane and Louisville, three of the Metro seven, are among six schools who have hired College Football Association executive director Chuck Neinas as a consultant on forming an all-sports conference.
This sounds familiar. The Metro was paying former NCAA Executive Director Dick Schultz a consultant's fee for a football prospectus. Schultz's work is done, and Metro football has punted, primarily because Cincinnati and Memphis weren't going to budge from the Great Midwest, which is a basketball league of superior depth to the Metro.
What is the likelihood of three schools leaving the Metro for the Great Midwest? It figures to happen within the next six weeks.
The reconfigured league's potential brought about a meeting on the Metro's future Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C., attended by Metro members Virginia Commonwealth, South Florida, UNC Charlotte and the Hokies with commissioner Ralph McFillen.
Houston, the orphan of the Southwest Conference divorce, is also part of the Neinas group. Sources in the Great Midwest and TV industry say the Neinas group already has a telecast commitment from ESPN and cable's Prime Network for 1996 and beyond. Four of those schools -Cincinnati, Memphis, Tulane and Southern Miss - with East Carolina have formed the two-year Liberty Bowl Alliance, with the team with the best record getting the host role in the Memphis game starting this December.
Another Great Midwest member, Alabama-Birmingham, will begin playing Division I-A football in 1996 with an opener at Auburn. UAB brings the Great Midwest football league to seven. East Carolina's role in the Great Midwest apparently is one of leverage, sources say.
Louisville continues to waffle. The Cardinals are accustomed to having their way in Metro basketball and coach Howard Schnellenberger selling his football program as the next-best independent to Notre Dame - which it is, although a distant second. The Neinas group keeps telling the Cardinals that if they don't sign on, ECU will get that spot, leaving Louisville with no conference option. However, U of L continues to quietly lobby for Big East inclusion.
If ECU is left out, that would leave the seven football schools with Marquette, DePaul, Dayton and St. Louis for basketball. However, there's another notion that the inclusion of ECU as an eighth football member would bring about the Great Midwest expulsion of Dayton and St. Louis, leaving a 10-team basketball league.
Are the Hokies worried about any of this? Not really. If it happens, Tech will be in more sensible athletic alignments. Asked whether Tech would consider leaving Big East football for another available all-sports conference option, athletic director Dave Braine said, ``No way.''
There's too much money available - $94 million over five years - in the Big East contracts with CBS and ESPN, and $80 million of that is in football. Tech, still hopeful of an elusive Big East all-sports invite, also would be very attractive to another basketball and non-revenue sports conference. The time for the Hokies to play in the Colonial Athletic Association is overdue.
The Metro would lose its automatic NCAA basketball tournament bid if the trio leaves. However, the remaining four would not only retain the 18 NCAA Tournament financial units from the three defectors, but each of those schools would have to pay a $500,000 penalty for exiting. Each NCAA unit is worth about $45,000.
That means the four Metro leftovers would gain more than $5.5 million over a five-year period for the Louisville-Southern Miss-Tulane defection. As long as three of the four Metro teams stay together, no matter where they land, they would take the NCAA units with them.
That would be a nice bargaining chip with the Atlantic 10 or the CAA, where Tech, VCU and UNC Charlotte certainly are no Rand McNally stretch. Whatever happens in the Metro, Tech doesn't figure to stay there past 1995-96, when it can exit without financial penalty. South Florida, starting a I-AA football program next year, likely would want an all-sports future. The Southern Conference would appear to be the optimum option.
So, does this mean the end of the Metro? As usual, it depends on Louisville. Whatever is in the Cards, however, it seems Southern Miss and Tulane have Great Midwest futures.
by CNB