Hold those banners. Stop those presses printing up the stationery. Don`t bet start drawing up the rivalries in that new Midwest basketball conference fashioned after the hugely successful Big East.
The Big Midwest, which early last month looked well on its way to the altar, now enters November with one of its love birds missing from the nest.
Louisville, it turns out, has gotten cold feet, has gotten them before it could leave the Metro and bless this new group with its cherished ”I do.”
”Joining a new league would be a risk with many unanswered questions. So our first option now is the Metro, and we`re going to do everything possible to see that we stay together,” declared Louisville Athletic Director Bill Olsen in the wake of a meeting Monday of Metro Conference presidents.
”Right. Louisville, initially, won`t be a player. But that won`t kill it (the Big Midwest),” insisted De Paul AD Bill Bradshaw on Wednesday.
De Paul and Louisville were to be the linchpins of this new group, a group scheduled also to include Memphis State and Cincinnati of the Metro and Marquette and St. Louis of the Midwestern Collegiate. And now, after the Cards have taken wing?
”I`m not going to say we`ll do what Louisville does. But I will say we`ve been aligned so long we have a great interest in what they do,” Memphis State assistant athletic director Bob Winn said Wednesday.
”We have to consider our options and not worry about Louisville or anybody else. I think it has enormous potential,” said Memphis State President Thomas Carpenter in Wednesday`s editions of that city`s Commercial- Appeal.
”I don`t think we ever felt threatened by the idea of a new conference forming in the Midwest. I was confident the status would be unchanged in the MCC,” said MCC Commissioner Tucker DiEdwardo on Wednesday.
”We`re looking. We`re listening,” said St. Louis Athletic Director Deborah Yow less than an hour later. ”We`re listening to this option when we normally don`t listen. This is kind of special and warrants listening to. As an athletic director, it would be irresponsible for me to do anything else.” ”I don`t think the failure of Louisville to maintain interest will prevent the formation of the conference in and of itself,” said a source deeply involved in the process.
And when Louisville looks at a Metro without Cincinnati and Memphis State, after already having lost Florida State and South Carolina, ”The smart guys say they`ll jump aboard too,” said another source.
The future of this league all seemed much clearer just weeks ago, after the original six met Oct. 10-11 in Chicago to discuss rules and regulations and all the minutiae that go into the formation of a new conference. They then, in essence, were dickering over the details of a nuptial agreement, and after they completed that, one of the participants described their situation this way:
”You start with a million questions, then cut them to half a million, then cut them to 50,000. That`s where we`re at now, but we`ll get there.”
The hope, then, was to get there by October`s end, and to announce-with attendant fanfare-the formation of the Big Midwest in time for its schools`
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coaches to use it as a selling point heading into the early-signing period
(which begins Nov. 14). But, shortly after that meeting in Chicago, a number of representatives from this proposed league dropped in on New York City`s Broadcast Row and were there dealt this dose of reality: None of the networks was ready to commit significant dollars to their idea.
”I didn`t hear the networks saying that this new association would create a Big 10-type (TV) opportunity or a whole bunch of exposures we don`t have now,” Louisville`s Olsen would say in the wake of those meetings, and then he added this: ”I have more concerns (about the Big Midwest) now than I had a few months ago. So if it`s not going to be a tremendous advantage in the startup phase, then we need to be really protective about what we have at the present.”
Some sources suggested Wednesday that this stance was merely a smokescreen to becloud an internal struggle going on at Louisville (”They have a panoply of issues” to decide, said one). Yet the more important issue here, in this precinct, still remained the future of a league that has yet to have a present, and De Paul`s relationship-if any-to it.
”There`s no shortage of guys” looking to take Louisville`s place, one source said of the first question and then refused to reveal any of their serial numbers.
”We want to make sure we`re headed in the right direction. After 92 years of independence, we want to make sure we understand our options and look ahead five, 10 years,” said Bradshaw of the second. ”The old John Wooden theory-be quick but don`t hurry-applies here. We don`t want to hurry, and regret it. But if we`re not quick, we could be left behind.”
And just how quick does he have to be? He would not say, but St. Louis` Yow did offer this: ”We`re in limbo now, and that`s not a good situation for us or the MCC. I think we should make a decision within a couple of weeks.”