Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 26, 1990 TAG: 9005260174
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DESTIN, FLA. LENGTH: Long
They need more information.
The report, produced by Raycom Sports & Entertainment, was dissected during four separate meetings of the athletic directors and a two-hour joint committee gathering of athletic directors and faculty representatives. Three days of conference meetings in this resort town ended Friday with what athletic directors chairman Dave Braine called a feeling of "togetherness" - but with no decision on league expansion and football.
"We just didn't reach the point where someone could make a recommendation whether to fish or cut bait," said Ralph McFillen, the Metro commissioner.
Virginia Tech faculty representative Bud Robertson said the joint committee discussed the expansion/football issue for perhaps 10 minutes Friday. Braine said the joint committee was content to put off further discussion.
"Raycom has asked us not to make any decision on conference status until they have an opportunity to present additional options that are being studied," Braine said.
Braine said Wednesday that he expected the joint committee to reach a decision on expansion and football and make a recommendation to the league's presidents, who were scheduled to meet May 30 in Atlanta.
Now, Braine said, it probably will be a "couple of months" before Raycom has collected the additional data. Raycom executive vice president Ken Haines said the data will focus on academic compatibility and TV marketing potential.
Cincinnati faculty representative Nancy Hamant said the main topic of the presidents' meeting was to be the joint committee's recommendation. But now, she expects that meeting to be postponed until after the joint committee digests the new information from Raycom.
South Carolina athletic director King Dixon said he expects Haines to present Metro officials with the new information, along with a recommendation on expansion and football. The joint committee, Dixon said, then will consider its options.
The athletic directors had expected to receive the new information Thursday night at a special meeting that lasted almost two hours. However, Haines told the athletic directors the information had not been collected, and only the original report was discussed at the session, which ended shortly before midnight.
Haines was asked if Raycom would gather information from any schools besides the nine football independents included in the original study.
"The basic purpose we started out with and the basic parameters we set have not changed," he said.
There may be more meetings of the league athletic directors next month at the College Football Association meeting in Dallas and at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics meeting in Marco Island, Fla.
Braine and McFillen agreed Wednesday that the earliest any expansion might be announced would be in late July. McFillen altered that timetable Friday, saying that, in his opinion, it would be at least September before any additions were announced.
McFillen said the next formal expansion/football discussions could produce a decision.
"I'm sure most schools don't want this to be a back-burner issue," McFillen said. "Once all the data we need is secured, we're going to move."
On Thursday, Cincinnati athletic director Rick Taylor tried to push for a vote on adding football, not necessarily with expansion, but he was unsuccessful. Braine said expansion without football and football without expansion both were discussed during that session.
Friday's joint committee talks included what Dixon characterized as "frank" discussions about each school's position on the football/expansion issue.
Louisville athletic director Bill Olsen said Friday's talks were less confrontational. Asked if he thought there was a possibility football and expansion would not go hand-in-hand, Olsen said: "It'd be impossible for me to answer that. They didn't force that issue.
"It [the meeting] was professional, it wasn't shouting or threatening. [We] probably accomplished more . . . than any meeting I've been involved with. Even if it's only that we're going to stay together, that's a major accomplishment."
Braine said the athletic directors' objective when the meetings began was "not to lose anybody." Each Metro school except Southern Mississippi has at one time or another publicly stated its intention to examine other conference affiliations.
Braine said the eight Metro members are more unified than ever - perhaps even to the point of making concessions in order to achieve a new, football-playing Metro.
"Everyone is willing to give to get what we desire," Braine said.
Is that a new Metro, or the status quo? No one is saying, but it is clear the league's athletic directors are wary of what they perceive as forthcoming changes in other conferences and in the lucrative TV packages that can increase exposure for league schools as well as boost them financially through revenue sharing.
"The safest thing is not to change," Olsen said. "But that may be the greatest mistake, it may be the riskiest option.
"By not changing, you'd be in a marketplace where you've created less options. You'd position yourself where you have no choices to do anything in the next decade."
by CNB