Metro
From Hoopedia
The Metropolitan Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, popularly known as the Metro Conference, was an NCAA Division I athletics conference, so named because all of its charter members were urban metropolitan areas in, or at least on the fringes of, the Southern United States. The conference never sponsored football, although most of its members throughout its history had Division I-A football programs. In 1995 it merged with the Great Midwest Conference to form Conference USA. The merger was driven mainly by football, as several Metro Conference members had been successfully lured to larger conferences that sponsored the sport.
The conference was popularly known as the "Metro 6" during its first season, then as the "Metro 7" during the rest of the 1970s and early 1980s. For most of its existence, it was considered a "major" conference.
In 1978, Georgia Tech left the Metro for the Atlantic Coast Conference. In 1991, Florida State joined the ACC, and then South Carolina joined the Southeastern Conference. Charter members Cincinnati and Memphis State also left the conference in 1991 to become charter members of the Great Midwest. Shortly afterwards, the Metro and Great Midwest conferences began reunification talks that led to the creation of C-USA. The Virginia schools, however, were not interested in the merger. In 1995, Virginia Tech, assuming they were going to be invited to join the Big East Conference in all sports other than football (which didn't happen until 2000), were left behind by the reunification that led to Conference USA. Meanwhile, Virginia Commonwealth joined the Colonial Athletic Association where it continues to be a member. South Carolina also was not permitted to participate in the reunified conference for men's soccer, although they were permitted to rejoin ten years later, after which they also brought Kentucky (the other men's soccer-playing SEC school) to C-USA.
Contents |
Membership
Charter Members
- Cincinnati (1975-91)
- Georgia Tech (1975-78)
- Louisville (1975-95)
- Memphis State (1975-91)*
- Saint Louis (1975-82)
- Tulane (1975-95)*
- From 1984 through 1989, Tulane dropped its men's basketball program after a point shaving scandal but remained a member of the conference in all other sports.
Later Joined
- Florida State (1976-91)
- Virginia Tech (1979-95)
- Southern Miss (1982-95)*
- South Carolina (1983-91, 1993-94 men's soccer only) *MS
Joined after Conference Split
- UNC Charlotte (1991-95)
- South Florida (1991-95)
- Virginia Commonwealth (1991-95)
'* School remains in the reunified Conference USA.
