The Metro Conference moved to the fore in the conference expansion game Thursday with a proposal to double league membership to 16 teams by adding eight East Coast football independents.
The Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences also are mulling over the idea of adding new members, but the Metro has gone a step further by setting a working deadline of late summer or early fall for the teams under consideration to make a decision.The plan approved Thursday by representatives of the current Metro members - South Carolina, Louisville, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Memphis State, Cincinnati, Tulane and Southern Mississippi - calls for the conference to add football as a league sport and feature competition in two eight-team divisions.
The new members would be Miami (Fla.), West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, East Carolina, Rutgers, Temple and Boston College. All eight schools were represented during two days of meetings in Charlotte.
Twelve of the schools in the expanded league would play an all-sports schedule, but Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College would continue to play basketball in the Big East, and East Carolina would retain its basketball affiliation with the Colonial Athletic Association.
"This superconference concept would make the Metro the largest major conference in the nation," said Metro Commissioner Ralph McFillen. "It would cover greater than 35 percent of the nation's television market in football."
The expanded league would cover 15 percent of the television audience for basketball, according to figures provided to Metro officials by Raycom Inc., a sports broadcasting company.
South Carolina athletic director King Dixon said the Metro megaconference is "a tremendous concept."
"This would challenge any conference in the history of collegiate sports," he said. "If this came to pass, it would be the largest thing in collegiate sports."
But the possibility remains that some of the current Metro members may not be in the fold come fall.
Florida State has been asked to consider membership in the SEC. South Carolina also has been mentioned as a potential Southeastern member and would look favorably on a return to the ACC if that league decides on expansion.