Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990 TAG: 9003280081
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
If the schools in the Metro are as eager to remain in the conference as they claim they are, then why are so many talking with other groups? And, what part might a potential basketball conference - the Mighty Midwest? - play in the Metro's future? Is Billy Packer helping pull the strings somewhere for a conference that could command big television markets?
With the NCAA Tournament ending Monday, expect the phone lines among athletic directors to warm up again. Discussions on conference restructuring and organization, which heightened after Penn State's acceptance into the Big Ten, has waned in March, when many administrators are involved with the NCAA or National Invitation Tournament.
When an athletic director does speak on the subject of conference realignment, he generally offers little more than generalities, unless the talking is done off the record. Apparently, it's OK to talk about what's happening, or to speculate on the future, as long as no one knows who's saying what.
This is a high-stakes poker game, and the guys with the cards aren't ready to reveal their hands. It's also a game of dominos. After the first one falls - and that could be a Metro school or even the entire eight-team conference - college athletics from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean could feel shifts and tremors that register on the Richter Scale.
Consider these remarks by either college athletic directors or administrators from various conferences on the subject:
"My feeling is, if the Metro doesn't solidify itself, and that means playing football, then we're going to look someplace else."
"I think the last big Metro Conference event will be the basketball tournament in Roanoke in 1991."
"If Florida State doesn't want to play Metro football, then maybe we should find a couple of other schools that will and go play."
"DePaul is ready to get in the right conference, and Louisville, Memphis State and Cincinnati will go with them. Billy Packer started pushing this about three years ago. He's not quite as strong on it now, but he's still there. He says that kind of conference is what TV is looking for."
"I can promise you something's going to happen in June, if not before."
Increasingly, it seems the Metro's survival is dependent upon the introduction of football as a conference sport. Commissioner Ralph McFillen said the Metro will not play football unless it also expands. Florida State is the major stumbling block, although South Carolina is keeping its options open. Virginia Tech isn't likely to vote to play Metro football unless an expansion includes West Virginia.
"Florida State isn't going to play football in any league except the Southeastern Conference," said a Metro source.
That is where the Raycom report, being compiled and written by Raycom executive vice president Ken Haines, comes into play. Raycom is compiling athletic, academic and marketing statistics on the Metro schools, as well as football independents who are potential affiliates somewhere - West Virginia, Miami, Rutgers, Temple, Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College and East Carolina.
One school of thought is that if the Metro could get the right two expansion schools - West Virginia and Miami or Pitt - then the league would ask balking Florida State to leave.
"All we're asking is for Florida State to do for our football what the Metro has done for Florida State's basketball," said one Metro AD.
FSU isn't interested in changing its status - and why should the Seminoles be? They are a football power making big bowl bucks without having to split the take. They play in a good basketball league, and, as the Metro school in a warm climate, lead the league in competition in outdoor sports.
"Dave Braine [Virginia Tech's athletic director] and I could put $10,000 more each into our baseball programs," said one Metro AD. "It would be like throwing it down the toilet, because we aren't going to beat Florida State. They have one advantage we can't touch - location."
Cincinnati's Rick Taylor speaks for most of the Metro athletic directors when he says: "We have a very strong preference to stay in the Metro. We'd like the Metro to expand to football. If not, then, like other schools, we hold out our own right to study other options."
There are a couple of options, depending on geography.
Virginia Tech has been involved for several years in off-again, on-again talks about an Eastern Seaboard conference. Braine has been up-front with his Metro brethren, stating that Tech will leave the Metro if it can get an affiliation that would include football.
Miami athletic director Sam Jankovich has been chairing conference calls on the proposed league. The other schools involved in the discussions are Metro members FSU, Tech and South Carolina; WVU, Rutgers and Temple, who play Atlantic 10 basketball, and Pitt, Syracuse and Boston College of the Big East.
"There's been a lot of good conversation, but we're not close to putting anything together," said Charlie Theokas, Temple's athletic director. "We'll continue to have dialogue in several different directions, but nothing is scheduled at the moment.
"Right now, from the Eastern standpoint, the three schools in the Big East create a problem. They have to decide whether they want that or something that involves all-sports . . . It would have to be all sports. It's got to be something in which there's revenue sharing and cost sharing."
Jankovich has been otherwise occupied recently, seeking a basketball coach for the Hurricanes. Miami, because of its recent football history, is a desired affiliate by several conferences. Of course, the Hurricanes, because of their football power, don't necessarily need affiliation in that sport.
Haines' Raycom study for the Metro will be completed by late April, and the league athletic directors then will meet to discuss their options. Haines said the report will put together potential groups of schools, based on athletic and academic compatibility. Then, the ADs likely will talk among themselves and with potential expansion schools, leaving the presidents of the eight Metro schools to make a decision in late May at the conference's spring meetings in Destin, Fla.
If the Metro doesn't add football, and without expansion it isn't likely, then the league is very likely to lose its two basketball powers - Louisville and Memphis State - and the rekindled Cincinnati program. Of the 15 Metro Conference tournaments, those three schools have won all but the '79 title taken by the Hokies.
Louisville, Memphis State and Cincinnati - historically connected back through the Metro's genesis and the Missouri Valley Conference - are in this together. They have met with DePaul at least twice about the formation of a basketball conference concentrated in large Midwestern markets.
Other potential "Mighty Midwest" members include Tulane of the Metro, Marquette, St. Louis, Detroit and possibly Dayton of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, and even Miami. One source said DePaul athletic director Bill Bradshaw has talked to the TV networks about the proposed league, and five different sources said Packer is no small player in the game. Another source said Jefferson-Pilot Teleproductions is trying to help put the conference together.
Packer, a CBS Sports analyst, said such a grouping was first discussed three years ago, when he did some consulting work for Jefferson-Pilot. "It was to be a made-for-TV conference," Packer said. "But I'm not the guy behind it. . . . There's good potential movement there again."
Asked if he was involved with the potential Midwest conference, Packer said, "I'm not going to talk to you about my business. My business is my business."
Why are the aforementioned schools interested in the "Mighty Midwest" concept?
"The Metro has a five-year Raycom contract for about $4 million in TV money," said a source at one Metro school. "We've been told that we could get about $20 million in five years with the markets we'd have in the Midwest."
The perceived drawback of forming a new basketball conference is the league might have to wait eight years to qualify for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. But that would seem of little consequence. Louisville, Memphis State and DePaul are regular NCAA players, and likely would be major factors in selections for the 34 at-large bids.
Another athletic director said earnings and recruiting potential would be greater in a Midwestern conference anchored by DePaul and the three Metro schools: "Look what the Big East has done for Seton Hall last year and Connecticut this year. They've gone up a level."
If the Metro doesn't vote for football and Cincinnati, Louisville and Memphis State leave, the league is left to choose between disbanding or adding lesser basketball programs and continuing. If the Metro sticks with hoops and non-revenue sports, Alabama-Birmingham, Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion from the Sun Belt Conference would be potential Metro additions after a Midwest defection.
There also is talk that Penn State may never play in the Big Ten, that the vote to admit the Nittany Lions will be rescinded. The Atlantic 10 will meet soon and is expected to allow Penn State to play in the league in 1990-91. That adds another year to the option timetable. If Penn State doesn't go to the Big Ten, then the Eastern Seaboard alliance is more likely.
"The question we're all still trying to answer is: `Does it all make sense?' " said Temple's Theokas. "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen in the spring. If it doesn't, that doesn't mean we don't pick things up later. But I think people would like to be able to do something soon."
The Eastern Seaboard group also is awaiting a consultant's study. That report is being compiled by former Big Ten Conference commissioner Wayne Duke.
Increasingly, it seems the Metro's survival is tied to expansion and football competition. If the Atlanta-based conference doesn't get either, then Virginia Tech and several other schools will be looking at a weaker affiliation or none at all.
by CNB