Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990 TAG: 9005250119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK and SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITERS
DATELINE: DESTIN, FLA. LENGTH: Long
The Metro did, however, consider the two issues separately for the first time and convened a special meeting of athletic directors and league commissioner Ralph McFillen on Thursday night.
At that meeting, Raycom Sports and Entertainment Executive Vice President Ken Haines was to present supplemental information to Raycom's 200-page feasibility study that provided athletic, academic and financial data on the eight Metro schools and nine other universities considered potential candidates for the league. The data Haines was to present included more academic information on the expansion candidates and further projections of TV revenue should the league expand and add football.
McFillen said he expected Haines to field questions from athletic directors about schools most likely to accept a Metro invitation.
South Carolina athletic director King Dixon said he thinks the athletic directors will make an expansion/football recommendation to the faculty representatives when the two groups gather for the Metro's joint committee meeting this morning. But Virginia Tech athletic director Dave Braine, chairman of the league's athletic directors, said he wasn't sure the joint committee would have a concrete recommendation for the Metro presidents.
"[The talks] are not going along as fast as we hoped they would," said Braine, who on Wednesday said he expected a recommendation would be made. "I'm not so sure now."
The meetings are scheduled to end this afternoon. Braine said the meetings could be extended to Saturday morning.
"But I think [by today] we could tell the presidents where we are and let them make a decision," he said.
The Metro presidents, whose approval is necessary for the joint committee's recommendation to take effect, are scheduled to meet Wednesday in Atlanta. It would take a unanimous vote to add football or any other sport; expansion would take a two-thirds vote. However, only a two-thirds vote is needed to change the league's constitution, so the vote on football could be changed to two-thirds.
If the joint committee is to agree on a recommendation to the presidents, several issues must be cleared up today, including the personal agendas of some Metro athletic directors.
Louisville athletic director Bill Olsen said, "Ten years ago, we were Cincinnati," referring to the Cardinals' desire to play Metro football then, and the Bearcats' stance on the all-sports issue now.
Cincinnati wants its Metro brethren to vote to play football before the expansion issue is considered. However, several schools, including Virginia Tech, will not vote to play Metro football without additions to the league.
McFillen, who before Thursday's meeting repeatedly said he felt the Metro would not expand without football being added, now isn't as certain the two go hand-in-hand.
However, Louisville wants no part of a bigger Metro without football. The Cardinals are reluctant to play more conference games that would cut into lucrative intersectional TV dates and sellouts at Freedom Hall.
"Rick Taylor [Cincinnati's athletic director] is wearing the black hat now," Olsen said, recalling how he once felt when the Cardinals were regarded as the Metro's difficult neighbor. "He's trying to force the football issue.
"What's wrong with the status quo? If we play football, that's fine. But the football issue is not as motivating to us as it was 10 years ago. We're not as forceful on it."
Olsen said he didn't think Metro football would be played without expansion "unless you're talking about forcing somebody in there out."
The athletic directors have done the bulk of the talking about Metro expansion. When they join the faculty representatives this morning, Olsen said, he expects "several options to be presented, as in, `Here's what we considered.' And these won't be opinions. They'll be facts, because of the Raycom work."
Dr. Nancy Hamant, Cincinnati's faculty representative, said the group leads discussed expansion in its meeting Thursday, the first time the faculty representatives have gathered since the Metro basketball tournament in March. Hamant said the faculty representatives are eager to meet with the athletic directors to learn how far the expansion talks have progressed.
The difference in philosophies in the Metro isn't anything new. However, the athletic directors emerged from their Thursday meeting insisting the league members are building stronger relationships.
Before the Metro became serious about expansion and football and commissioned the Raycom report, seven of the eight schools openly spoke of finding different affiliations. Taylor said the Metro schools should have to post membership bonds of $500,000 to ensure conference stability.
"We went through a time where some people took a real hard-line approach, and that was disruptive," Olsen said. "There was a lot of posturing. But now, people are talking and asking questions and starting to find some answers on how we can get where we want to go.
"Whether what we're talking about will ever occur, who knows? But I don't see this conference disintegrating, no matter what happens here.
"I think people are sensitive to everything they read in the paper, about what another [school] said it wanted to do. Being able to talk here, face-to-face, has been very constructive."
The perceived lack of movement in the talks hasn't been frustrating to everyone, however.
"I think it's encouraging it's going slowly," Hamant said. "If everyone came in with a position and didn't want to know the facts, then there wouldn't be these discussions."
Added Braine: "There is a feeling that we all want to do something."
by CNB