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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 8, 1995                   TAG: 9502080061
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTON, OHIO                                LENGTH: Medium

TECH PLANS TO JOIN ATLANTIC 10

Virginia Tech President Paul Torgersen and athletic director Dave Braine will notify the school's Board of Visitors either Sunday or Monday that the Hokies plan to join the Atlantic 10 Conference next season, sources said Tuesday.

Notification to the Board of Visitors will be the final step in Tech's move from the Metro Conference to the A-10 in all sports except football, in which the Hokies compete in the Big East Conference.

An A-10 source said the league's athletic directors were informed Monday in a teleconference call of Tech's intentions. The Hokies have been on the A-10's short list of potential new members for several months.

Braine, who was in Dayton on Tuesday for a Tech men's basketball game against Wright State, refused to confirm the school's intentions.

``We have not finalized our decision,'' Braine said. ``Then again, I'm not saying that the sources are not correct in the way we're leaning.''

Torgersen and Braine will address the Board of Visitors in Blacksburg either Sunday or Monday. The move does not require a vote of approval from the board, which is the governing body of the university.

Following the notification, the A-10 will make a formal announcement, likely on Feb.15, that Tech and two other schools - Dayton and LaSalle - have been granted membership. The addition of Tech, Dayton and LaSalle will give the conference five new members and 12 schools total for the 1995-96 school year. Xavier and Fordham were accepted earlier.

The other seven schools are: Duquesne, George Washington, Massachusetts, Temple, St.Joseph's, St.Bonaventure and Rhode Island.

Rutgers and West Virginia, currently in the A-10, announced in March 1994 they would be leaving to join the Big East Conference in all sports for the '95-96 school year.

The 12-team league will be divided into two six-team divisions. Speculation is that Tech will be in a division with George Washington, Dayton, Xavier, Duquesne and one of the league's three Philadelphia-based schools - Temple, St.Joseph's or LaSalle.

Tech also was courted aggressively by the Colonial Athletic Association, which is based in Richmond, Va. But Tech officials apparently felt the Northeast-dominated A-10 would be a more effective springboard toward eventual membership in the lucrative Big East for all sports than membership than the Colonial.

Tech has competed for the past 17 seasons in the Metro. The Hokies were left free to join another league when the school agreed Thursday to a $1,135,000 settlement from the Metro to leave the conference, effective June 30.

by CNB