Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 10, 1994 TAG: 9403100117
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BILOXI, MISS. LENGTH: Medium
For weeks, Tech officials believed the Big East would expand to 14 teams, including the Hokies for all sports. Failing that, Tech expected to 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.
Tech president Paul Torgersen said Tech is "deeply disappointed" it is not part of the new Big East, but said Tech is "quite pleased with our football affiliation and believe we . . . will continue to benefit greatly in the future."
In any case, Torgersen said the Hokies cannot afford the $1 million buyout to leave the Big East in football.
He added that the Hokies will continue to study "where we go from here."
The Metro Conference commissioner, Ralph McFillen, said Wednesday night that the seven-team league's initial expansion move would be to approach the six-member Great Midwest Conference to discuss a merger. If that fails, the Metro would explore whether Great Midwest members Cincinnati and Memphis State might return to the league.
"Both of those are options that need to be looked and and seriously pursued in the future," McFillen said.
He added that Metro officials will talk to the four schools orphaned by the Southwest Conference's breakup - Houston, Rice, Texas Christian and Southern Methodist - with the possibility of inviting one or more to join.
Big East presidents Wednesday voted down expansion to 14 schools and then to 13 - with Tech the school to be 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 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 simply was 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, either.
Tranghese said the 14-team proposal 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 the others at least once during the regular season. The number of conference games to be played will be determined later, the league announced.
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 they declare their intentions 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.
In the aftermath, West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong, in a statement released by the school, said he expected something different out of Wednesday's vote.
"I felt the all-sports conference would encompass 14 schools," Pastilong said. "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.
"It was a surprise decision by the Big East," McFillen said. "It definitely is a positive for the Metro. We would have been disappointed if [Tech] had left."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***