Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990 TAG: 9005270151
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: DESTIN, FLA. LENGTH: Long
"I don't know."
"I can't tell you."
Another oft-repeated quip from Metro athletic directors was borrowed from David Letterman's late-night TV madness: "Ask Dave."
That's Dave as in Dave Braine, Virginia Tech's AD and the outgoing chairman of the Metro athletic directors' committee. Braine spoke for his associates at three days of news conferences. His words didn't include much wisdom.
Given the chance to enter the 1990s as a conference developing into one of the nation's foremost alliances, the Metro did just about what it has done on expansion and football in the last decade:
Nothing.
Given the best opportunity it has had in a 15-year history to reshape its destiny, the Metro - if you listen to its administrators - took the advice of a sports marketing and consulting firm, shook hands, and left Florida's Gulf Coast all smiles.
For years, the criticism of the Metro has been that basketball power Louisville has been running the show. Now, it appears a marketing firm, Raycom Sports and Entertainment, is in charge.
The Metro ADs sat through 15 hours of meetings at this beach-side resort, and more than half of that time was spent discussing the major issues of expansion and football. Commissioner Ralph McFillen had said those proposals would be approved only if they went hand-in-hand.
After raving for three weeks about the thoroughness of a commissioned study on the subject from Raycom, Metro officials told the assembled - and seemingly intimidating - media that the league needed more numbers.
For three weeks, Metro athletic directors and McFillen spoke of how the Raycom study - for which the Metro paid about $25,000 - would show the potential invitees how serious the league was.
At the start of these meetings, several athletic directors said they figured their group would leave Florida prepared to make a recommendation to the Metro schools' presidents. That didn't happen.
Even the most-anticipated guest, Raycom executive vice president Ken Haines, couldn't pass up the chance to parody the interest in the Metro moves.
"Well, you heard about Maryland being put off live TV," Haines said after arriving from the ACC meetings in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Thursday evening. "We're moving Maryland into the Metro to play basketball."
Somebody asked Cincinnati athletic director Rick Taylor what he knew.
"Only the Shadow knows," Taylor said. Who's the Shadow, somebody wondered aloud. "Nobody knows," Taylor said.
If not for a large dose of levity among the attendees, the highlight film of these meetings might have been titled "Beach Blanket Boredom."
Southern Mississippi basketball coach M.K. Turk sat by the pool and wondered aloud what was happening. He wasn't alone.
"Well, at least we have a Braine in charge of the athletic directors," Turk said. "That's never happened before."
The Metro athletic directors and faculty representatives spoke of a new unity and common ground among Metro members. They didn't say much else.
Between 15 and 20 media members were in attendance, because the potential expansion and addition of football would have been the biggest story in league history. Last year, only two writers attended the Metro meetings.
The Metro's history is loosely bound. The league members really haven't shared much except a basketball schedule. When the athletic directors speak of new-found unity, they are playing catch-up with other leagues.
As a league, the Metro hasn't generated compelling conference coverage because of a lack of rivalries and a geography lesson that most college sports students would flunk. But this was a real Metro story, and the Metro men struggled to handle it.
One athletic director told the reporter from his local paper that another AD spoke out in one meeting and said the media was trying to pressure the group into expanding.
When the ADs scheduled a special meeting that ended just before midnight Thursday, a couple of reporters staked out the conference room. When one athletic director suggested somebody should check outside to see if the reporters were stationed too close to the door, another party in the room actually walked out and checked.
In news conferences, not even the hot weather could melt the icy answers. Braine's last words as chairman of the ADs committee were too much of nothing, and he wasn't apologizing for that.
What kind of stories were media highlights? How about McFillen going to play tennis Thursday and locking his keys in his rental car - with the motor running for the next two hours.
The message from Metro officials was obvious: We're not going to tell you guys anything, because you'll mess it up for us. As one radio reporter said, "The shoe [on expansion and football] is going to drop, they just weren't going to let it happen here."
Given a chance to join the nation's top all-sports conferences with a significant move, the Metro sat poolside on its collective lounge chair.
Raycom looked at nine football independents for its Metro report. Nobody was saying who the prominent candidates were, but when a reporter mentioned West Virginia, Miami and Pitt to one conference leader, the response was, "You're on the right track."
West Virginia is looking for an all-sports affiliation, and athletic director Ed Pastilong has been very open about his desire to talk with the Metro.
Why didn't the Metro bring in West Virginia, with a commitment to play football in the future, to help display its seriousness about expanding and becoming an all-sports conference?
"That's a good suggestion, and a good option," said King Dixon, South Carolina's AD. "It might be what we want to do, but it might not be all we want to do."
by CNB