ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
THE RETRIEVERS, the most remote of the Big South's members, will leave in 1998.
The University of Maryland-Baltimore County, the most geographically removed of the Big South Conference schools, announced Wednesday that it intends to defect to the Northeast Conference beginning in 1998.
UMBC, which has been in the Big South since 1992, has been increasingly isolated since its immediate neighbor, Towson State, left the league after the 1994-95 school year. UMBC's move to a more northerly affiliation was expected.
UMBC's stay in the Big South was in many ways a difficult one for all concerned.
The Retrievers won but one conference championship, that in volleyball. Furthermore, distances between UMBC and other conference members were a problem. Even for teams from Radford University and Liberty, the closest conference schools to UMBC, the trips back and forth to Maryland were arduous.
North Carolina-Greensboro will leave the Big South next season. When UMBC goes the following year, the conference will still have Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina, North Carolina-Asheville, Winthrop, Radford, and Liberty. All six schools have been in the conference long enough to satisfy the NCAA's continuity of membership requirements for an automatic bid to the Division I basketball tournament.
``I don't think this will hurt either us or our conference too badly,'' said Radford associate athletic director Greig Denny. ``UMBC will still be here the next two years and that will give us some time to find replacements for it and UNCG that will fit in nicely with the rest of the conference.''
Certainly, the latest departure comes at an inconvenient time as the conference goes about looking for a replacement for outgoing commissioner Buddy Sasser. Among those believed to be in the running for the job are a couple of Big South athletic directors, Chuck Burch of Liberty and Tom Hunnicutt of UNCA.
``The conference will be naming a new AD[commissioner] soon and I think he or she will be taking a very proactive approach to the membership area,'' Denny said.
UMBC will be joining a conference that includes Fairleigh Dickinson, Long Island, Marist, Monmouth, Mount St. Mary's, Rider, Robert Morris, St. Francis (N.Y.), St. Francis (Pa.), and Wagner. Rider and Marist will be joining the Metro Atlantic Conference after the 1996-97 season.
Denny is one of three finalists who have yet to be interviewed for the vacant Radford University AD's job. Moorhead (Minn.) State athletic director Katy Wilson will be on campus today and Friday and Clemson associate AD Steve Nelson visits June 23-24. Denny will be the last to be interviewed. His turn comes July 2-3.
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB