Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 6, 1995 TAG: 9501060080
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It also appears the Metro is headed from one kind of court to another. Within a few days, the Metro, always a geographic stretch, may span all the way from Blacksburg to Richmond.
That's because UNC Charlotte and South Florida appear headed for the same new, football-rooted conference that already gulped Metro members Louisville, Tulane and Southern Mississippi. Seven minus five equals Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth. Two isn't enough.
UNCC and South Florida will meet with presidents from the other 10 schools of the Great Midwest/Metro metamorphosis Monday night at the NCAA Convention in San Diego. Word is that the 49ers and Bulls likely will be issued invitations.
``I'd be very surprised if we left there not knowing something certain one way or another,'' said USF athletic director Paul Griffin, a former Roanoke College athletic director and lacrosse coach. ``They wouldn't have asked us to come if they weren't interested.''
If South Florida and UNCC aren't invited to the new group, they'd stick with Tech and VCU, keep the Metro together for at least a year - to retain the league's $1 million-plus worth of NCAA Tournament units - and add at least two more schools to get back to six. The possibilities include Dayton, Western Kentucky, Jacksonville, Central Florida and LaSalle.
Don't count on that. Five-sevenths of the Metro figure to be playing in a new league next season with Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Alabama-Birmingham, Marquette, DePaul and St. Louis. It's a six-team football league, with UAB to make it seven in two years. In basketball, it's a 12-team, two-division league, with each school playing 16 conference games.
The five Metro schools will retain their NCAA units as individual institutions. And will the five have to pay $500,000 each for leaving the league before a five-year commitment that won't expire until mid-1996?
No, because there won't be a Metro.
Tech and VCU will be left with no league and no palimony. The Hokies may head to the Atlantic 10, where John Chaney and John Calipari are the best-known wrestling coaches. Tech would expand that conference to an actual 10 members for 1995-96. The others are Temple, Massachusetts, George Washington, Rhode Island, St.Joseph's, St.Bonaventure, Duquesne, Xavier and Fordham.
One Metro source said Tech ``has enough votes to get into the A-10 tomorrow.'' Another Metro source said the vote is in, the Hokies have been approved and supposedly the A-10 is waiting for Tech to help sign the Metro's death certificate. Tech already has told the Colonial Athletic Association it prefers the A-10.
As for VCU, the Rams could go to the CAA - and to court. VCU hasn't just threatened a lawsuit. It apparently has retained lawyers to handle the case, and it could be an intriguing one. When VCU, UNCC and South Florida bolted the Sun Belt for the Metro, which had lost eight members, the promises to remain a family were made in writing.
The word is that VCU would sue the five Metro members headed for the new league for leaving the Rams homeless, not to mention much poorer than they'd be in a league with 26 NCAA units and $500,000 promises from six other schools.
The new league with the five Metro movers would have around 40 NCAA units and an impressive basketball power rating for starters. It may be a football-driven league, but basketball wouldn't be in the back seat. And eight of the dozen were members of the same league at one time or another.
The new conference still needs a name.
How about the Metro?
by CNB