THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610090555
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: 64 lines
The Colonial Athletic Association, home to Old Dominion University, could be going into the football business.
It's not a bad concept if you are Richmond, William and Mary or James Madison, southern schools whose football teams belong to the Yankee Conference.
Playing football under the umbrella of the CAA also would benefit Virginia Military Institute, The Citadel and Furman, small schools that feel dwarfed in the Southern Conference.
Mix these six schools into the conference with Delaware and maybe Villanova, and the CAA would have an eight-member football league capable of receiving an automatic bid to the I-AA's 16-team playoffs.
``It's something that could happen,'' says Jim Jarrett, director of athletics at ODU. ``In general, there's support for the concept.''
Support is there, but, for now, it's mostly a concept.
``Any discussion about it is definitely speculative,'' Jarrett said.
It's fair to speculate, though, how adding new schools to the CAA would affect a college like ODU, where basketball pays the bills.
Once the football concept got rolling, it could result in a conference of 13 or 14 schools.
A futurist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch envisions a North and South Division of the CAA for sports other than football.
He places ODU in the South with VMI, Davidson, The Citadel, Furman, UNC-Wilmington and East Carolina.
That leaves some of ODU's traditional basketball opponents - JMU, Virginia Commonwealth, William and Mary and Richmond - in the North.
Under this alignment, ODU would play its most attractive in-state basketball rivals only once during the regular season, instead of twice.
This will never happen if ODU has anything to say about it.
``We would entirely support the concept of football in the CAA,'' Jarrett says.
While drawing the line at changes that could damage basketball interests on Hampton Boulevard.
``We need to protect our rivalries,'' says Jarrett.
``The key for Old Dominion would be to protect our big games. Obviously that includes VCU, Richmond, William and Mary, Madison and ECU.''
Jarrett need not speculate on
how ODU's core fan base would react if the Monarchs annually played one less game each against these geographical rivals so that they could meet both The Citadel and Furman twice.
This would not go over well.
When you think of ODU basketball, especially men's basketball, you envision home-and-home series against JMU, et al. These matter more to alumni and students than a team junket to Alaska or Puerto Rico.
It is fine for the Monarchs to bring the University of Washington to Scope this season. And it's a kick when North Carolina or Virginia come to Norfolk for a game.
Variety is welcome. But conference grudge matches against longtime antagonists have a flavor all their own.
The new reality within the NCAA had led to the creation of mega-conferences, so it's unrealistic to expect the CAA not to expand someday.
But someday soon?
``It's a little premature at this point,'' says Jarrett.
The CAA was formed as a basketball league for schools with common interests and goals. Football shouldn't break asunder what geography and tradition have brought together. by CNB