Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 10, 1994 TAG: 9403100104
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BILOXI, MISS. LENGTH: Medium
Tech believed the Big East either would expand to 14 teams, including the Hokies for all sports, or that expansion would fail and Tech would join its Big East football brethren to form an eight-team, all-sports league.
Instead, presidents of the 10 basketball-playing Big East schools voted Wednesday to add only West Virginia and Rutgers, excluding Tech and Temple in a new all-sports alignment.
The Big East's move leaves Tech's basketball and non-revenue sports in the Metro Conference, and Tech president Paul Torgersen said the Hokies cannot afford the $1 million buyout to leave the Big East football conference.
Torgersen said Tech is "deeply disappointed" that Tech was not part of the new Big East, and said the Hokies will continue to study all-sports conference options. He added that Tech is "quite pleased with our football affiliation and believe we . . . will continue to benefit greatly in the future."
Big East presidents voted down expansion to 14 schools and then 13 schools - with Tech excluded - before voting 7-3 to add WVU and Rutgers. Balloting was not released, but sources indicated the "nay" votes came from basketball-only schools - meaning Big East Division I-A football schools Syracuse, Miami, Pittsburgh and Boston College finally abandoned their push for a 14-team superconference.
Torgersen said Syracuse president Kenneth "Buzz" Shaw told him that "economically speaking, walking away from the Big East was simply too expensive. We couldn't afford to divorce ourselves."
Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese cited another factor.
"This without question was a compromise decision," Tranghese said. "A lot of it centered on the fact that people didn't want certain relationships to die."
If the eight football teams had split to form their own league, Tranghese indicated, longtime rivalries such as Syracuse-Georgetown might have ended.
Some observers believed that after CBS recently struck a multimillion dollar deal to televise Big East football, the basketball-only schools could not afford to walk away from expansion.
Tranghese said the 14-team expansion was shot down for two reasons: the conference tournament and round-robin league play.
"There was adamant opposition to keeping teams out of the tournament," he said, "and if we had 14 teams, there would be no way that everyone could come to New York. Secondly, divisional play was not wanted."
The new league, which will begin play in 1995-96, will operate in a single-division format, with each team playing every other team at least once during the regular season. The number of conference games to be played will be determined later, the league said in a release.
The league presidents also said the Big East would "provide the opportunity for current Big East members who play Division I-AA football (Villanova, Connecticut and Georgetown) to play I-A football in the Big East" by 2002 if a school declares its intent by 1998.
Torgersen said he was told by Miami president Edward "Tad" Foote that the Big East's move Wednesday would in no way affect Tech's football membership.
Even West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong, in a statement released by the school, said he expected something different from Wednesday's vote.
"I felt the all-sports conference would encompass 14 schools," said Pastilong, who was a supporter of Tech's inclusion in the Big East football league when it was formed in 1991. "The number 12 will be somewhat of a surprise to some people. I really don't feel it's appropriate for me to comment on why Temple and Virginia Tech were not invited. They have been good partners in the Big East Football Conference, and I hope that will continue."
The Big East began discussing expansion in the fall when Syracuse, BC, Pitt and Miami agreed to lobby the rest of the Big East - Georgetown, St. John's, Seton Hall, Connecticut, Providence and Villanova - to accept their football mates Tech, WVU, Rutgers and Temple for all sports.
Until Wednesday, the eight football schools were thought to be united in the view that if the Big East voted down expansion, the eight would form their own league.
Asked Monday about the 12-team rumor that became reality Wednesday, Tech athletic director Dave Braine had said: "I do not think the football schools would allow that to happen to us."
by CNB