Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 8, 1994 TAG: 9401080105
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Two Big East athletic directors confirmed this week that if the league's 10 basketball-playing schools don't vote to admit Tech, West Virginia, Rutgers and Temple in all sports, those four schools and the league's four Division I-A football schools - Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Miami and Boston College - could form their own all-sports league.
That would fracture what has been one of the country's top basketball leagues since its inception in the 1980s and would leave behind six of the seven top basketball-playing schools in the Big East, including former national champions Georgetown and Villanova and 1989 NCAA runner-up Seton Hall.
"That's an option," said Jake Crouthamel, Syracuse's athletic director. "If the issue is totally finances, I know which option is best: to form another league."
Ed Pastilong, West Virginia's athletic director, said it "could happen," adding that it "would be an awfully good conference."
Dave Braine, Virginia Tech's athletic director, said the Hokies would love such a league if a 14-team Big East didn't work out.
Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese noted that Syracuse, Pitt, Miami and BC would owe the league $1 million each if they pulled out. Tranghese said those four likely would ask the football-only foursome to help them defray the cost. Braine said Tech would pay willingly.
Braine, however, said he thinks the Big East would expand if threatened with a split. The Big East's basketball television revenue will decline after its contracts are up in 1995-96, sources say, and Braine thinks that financial pressure - plus the issue of protecting the conference against a predicted raid from the Big Ten - will force the hand of anti-expansion schools such as Seton Hall.
In any case, major news isn't expected this weekend from the NCAA convention in San Antonio. Informal meetings may occur, but Crouthamel said there will "absolutely not" be a decision made during the convention.
The next formal Big East meeting isn't until the end of the month. The Big Ten's self-imposed moratorium on expansion ends in late February. Pastilong said the Big East needs to move quickly.
"If a school or schools are removed from the Northeast because of an affiliation with another conference [as Penn State was by the Big Ten], then we're going to miss a tremendous opportunity," he said. "After that, it's too late. If one or two went, [Big East expansion] wouldn't be as attractive as it is today."
Tranghese said seven of the 10 basketball-playing Big East schools must approve expansion for it to pass. Seton Hall, St. John's, Villanova, Connecticut and Providence are said to be skeptical or opposed outright. Tech privately has spread word that Georgetown favors expansion, but league sources say the Hoyas are undecided.
Crouthamel said he "philosophically" supports a 14-team Big East, but doesn't buy the argument that basketball schools sharing in football money - this year, a combined $18.3 million from television and bowls - will make up what the basketball schools lose from their TV contract and from the possible disruption of the Big East Tournament.
Syracuse's athletic director said one expansion scenario includes the Big East not having a tournament, like the Big Ten and Pacific 10.
"Can I afford to be philosophical? [Maybe not,] and we're not alone there," Crouthamel said.
"We'll all take a hit financially. Who says bowl money and football TV money is going to be split 14 ways?"
Braine said a sketchy revenue-sharing formula is part of the football-only schools' pitch. It starts with no sharing, 20 percent of revenue would be shared the following year, 40 percent the next and so on until 100 percent of revenue was split.
Tranghese said the four football-basketball Big East members are collecting data on expansion that they will present to the full Big East membership. Those issues, Crouthamel said, include how that group would survive decreasing basketball revenue and giving up some football money, which is shared minimally in the Big East.
Crouthamel said there are an "infinite" number of expansion or new-league scenarios and said the Big East is a long way "from zeroing in on something."
"The four schools [Tech, WVU, Rutgers and Temple] have asked us to move quickly," Crouthamel said. "We're trying to understand the impacts among us all."
by CNB