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A Brief History of the Metro Conference and Its Breakup
by Go VT
posted 6/5/98 - written March 10, 1998

Note from Will:  when animosity towards Louisville surfaces on the message board from time to time, relative newcomers to Tech sports often ask, "Why do some Hokies hate Louisville so much?"

That question was posed to me one day on the message board, and I passed it on to Virginia Tech's resident Internet historian, Go VT (who runs the excellent web site Go VT's Homage to All Things Orange and Maroon).

Go VT did such a great job of answering the question that I saved the post, and with his permission, I'm now posting it here in the Member's Forum.  Thanks to Go VT for the material, and I hope this information educates Hokies everywhere on why you should watch your back when you play with Cardinals.

From a message board post by Go VT, dated 3/10/98:

Here it is to the best of my recollection. I have tried to stay away from obscenities, but with loserville and the old metro it gets kind of hard. Just cover you eyes in case one sneaks in. I'll wash my brain with soap for thinking about them.

In the mid to late 80's the Metro conference was an all but Football affair that had a pretty good run in basketball and baseball.

The members were:  Tulane, Louisville (hereto referred to as loserville), Memphis State (now known as Memphis), Southern Miss, Florida State, South Carolina, Cincinatti, and Tech (am I missing one?). Georgia Tech had been a member until an invite by the ACC.

The weak link was that there was no football conference. A lot of the teams played each other but there was no 'official conference'.  Their was also no revenue sharing (or very little) or NCAA tourney money or tv money.  loserville was the kingpin and called most of the shots. Memphis had some good teams but they weren't as nationally known.

There was talk of forming an East Coast Superconference that included all the metro schools, PSU, Syracuse, WVU, Miami, VT, and a few others (ECU, Navy, Army). Some incarnations had 12, 14, or 16 teams depending on the day and the source. However many teams would have been involved doesn't matter - the conference would have kicked butt. Part of the deal would be REVENUE SHARING! One school was very vocal about this.

Some of the schools (read: all except loserville) wanted to band together for football and/or share basketball money. Well, one school (loserville) played hardball and said if that's what you want, we will take our ball and go home. Cincinatti, South Carolina, and FSU got sick of it and left. Cinci joined forces with some other schools and formed the Great Midwest for basketball, USC lobbied the SEC at just the right time and got in, and FSU got an invite for the ACC.

The Metro was close to losing its automatic bid to the NCAA, because the number of members was down to 6, and Tulane didn't count, so it was really 5 (Tulane had shut down their basketball program for a bit due to gambling problems and had not been back long enough to make any difference for the "average number of teams for x years" rule, I think...)

The Metro found USF (Southern Florida), UNCC, and VCU to add. This is when I think WVU really wanted us to join the A-10. One problem, the Metro had just put in a clause that said that any member leaving the conference would forfeit all tourney winnings and make a huge payment to the league as a buyout clause. Tech still had a huge debt and was still trying to get a Metro football conference together. So Tech stayed.

The Metro petered along for a bit and Tech started to get a bit better (was this why we were kicked out then?  hmmm.....). Then the Big East decided to start a football conference. Tech was invited. No other Metro member was. Tech finally had a football home. I think this irked off some of the Metro presidents who seemed to think that we would have a Metro football conference eventually.

Well a bit after this, and unbeknownest (sp?) to Tech (and VCU) the other Metro presidents and AD's were working on a new basketball and football conference (which later became Conference USA). They were probably ticked that the Big East got so much press (Miami won a title and played for another one right off the bat).  They held a secret meeting and voted Tech and VCU out of the Metro. Called Dave Braine and said "See ya, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Oh, we almost forgot, you owe us the buyout fee since you had already left the conference."

Well, this was a shock to Tech, Braine, and most of the Metro basketball coaches (except maybe dinner crumb,....er....denny crum).  MK Turk (USM) said he was saddened and that he had no idea and felt it was the wrong way to go about it. This happened during the basketball season, by the way. Tech said, "We don't owe you crap" and sued, along with VCU.  Tech and VCU won and received a million bucks or so apiece in damages.

Tech went on to have a pretty good year and went to the Metro tourney and took their Metro patches off their jerseys. We got screwed by the NCAA selection committee, but got an NIT bid.  Sometime during this, we got asked by the A-10 to join.

The NIT team had shirts made up that said 'Thanks a million Metro' on them and might have had the A-10 logo on it. I can't remember, but I think we might have even had the A-10 logo put up in the Cassell. I know they covered all the Metro signs up almost immediately.

The Metro almost immediately got together with the Great Midwest and formed a new conference (which was their intentions all along) called Conference USA. The trick was that they didn't want Tech. They wanted to leave the Metro but didn't want to pay the exit fee. So, they decided to try and make us pay it, fold up shop and then form a new conference. Sounds like something Nixon might try and do. Kick us out and make us pay the fee. Dirty tricks is what I call it.

So- screw loserville, screw dinner crumb, screw em all.

FSU and South Carolina got it right. Cinci made the mistake of getting involved with them again. Some folks never learn.

Sincerely-

Go VT

(all misspellings, non capitalizations, and name calling are intentional and reflect the views of the poster. Any wrong information may be wrong but in my vindictive soul it seems right.)

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