Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409240060
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Virginia Tech has two more years to cross its fingers in hopes the Big East Conference will adopt its basketball and non-revenue sports.
Metro Conference members Louisville, Tulane and Southern Mississippi met Thursday in Atlanta to discuss establishing a new athletic conference with Houston, Cincinnati and Memphis. Houston is a member of the Southwest Conference, and Memphis and Cincinnati belong to the Great Midwest.
While an agreement wasn't announced publicly, Virginia Tech already is preparing for the demise of the Metro.
Tech athletic director Dave Braine participated in a conference call with other Metro ADs in which an agreement to form the new league was announced. It will begin play in 1996.
If the Big East, which has snubbed Tech once, doesn't expand, the Hokies will be looking for a new basketball league. Braine said the four remaining Metro schools - Tech, Virginia Commonwealth, UNC Charlotte and South Florida - probably would try to stay together and join another league as a group. If they do that, they get the Metro's entire stock of NCAA Tournament units, a nearly $1.5 million cache that would accompany them to their new league.
``If you look at the four schools that are together, when you're talking about Charlotte and VCU and Virginia Tech, the logical move is the CAA [Colonial Athletic Association],'' said Braine, who then added: ``Logical things don't always happen.''
Tech basketball coach Bill Foster doesn't want to get involved in conference talk and shrugged when told what Braine said about the CAA.
``So many things'll happen over the next two years that'll affect that,'' he said. ``There's still going to be a lot of changing going on.''
As for Tech and the Big East? Count on Braine having posed that question Thursday night to league commissioner Mike Tranghese, who attended the Tech-West Virginia football game.
``My hope is, they'll make a decision within two years,'' Braine said. ``They know our wants and desires. With the addition of Notre Dame, West Virginia and Rutgers, we've got three people that are going to help us.''
Tranghese said he can't fathom the Big East's football schools allowing expansion talk that would not start with football members Tech and Temple, but reiterated that further Big East growth is unlikely.
Also attending the meeting in Atlanta was College Football Association president Chuck Nienas, who was hired by the group as a consultant, according to Houston president James Pickering.
Pickering said the presidents, who will meet again in about a month, agreed on the need to:
Maintain viable Division I-A football programs.
Capitalize on the strength and tradition of men's basketball.
Position each school's program to take advantage of future changes in collegiate athletics.
Attain an active role in the government of intercollegiate athletics at the national level.
``We have agreed in principal to work together and to move ahead,'' Pickering said.
He said the group asked Nienas to ``explore possible conference configurations that would include others and to help address the financial and academic implications associated with those configurations.''
Nienas also discussed possible television packages for football and basketball as well as the logistics of starting a conference.
by CNB