Metro Conference
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The Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference, popularly known as the Metro Conference, was an NCAA Division I athletics conference, so named because its six charter members were all in urban metropolitan areas, though its later members did not follow that pattern. The conference was centered in the Upper South with some strength in the Deep South. The conference never sponsored football, although most of its members throughout its history had Division I-A football programs (from 1983 to 1991, all Metro schools had independent 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.
History
The Metro Conference was founded in 1975 with institutions that were located in urban metropolitan areas. The charter members were the University of Cincinnati, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Louisville, Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), Saint Louis University and Tulane University. Florida State University joined in 1976, while the University of South Carolina turned down an invitation in hopes of rejoining the Atlantic Coast Conference (from which the Gamecocks departed at the end of the 1970–71 athletic season when the ACC adopted more stringent entrance requirements).
In 1978, Georgia Tech left the Metro for the Atlantic Coast Conference, effective on July 1, 1979; and Virginia Tech took its spot. In 1982, Saint Louis left to join the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, now known as the Horizon League; while the University of Southern Mississippi took its spot in that same year. The University of South Carolina later joined in 1983. In 1985, West Virginia University was in talks to replace Tulane, which had suspended its men’s basketball program due to a point shaving scandal and thus expelled from the conference. Ultimately, West Virginia officials decided to remain in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Tulane was readmitted to the Metro on July 1, 1989 after it announced it was reinstating men's basketball for the 1989-90 season.
In 1991, Florida State joined the ACC, and then South Carolina joined the Southeastern Conference. However, South Carolina re-joined the Metro for 1993 and 1994 men's soccer seasons in that sport only, because the SEC did not offer the sport for men (four schools were required to sponsor a sport; the SEC had just three, now two). Charter members Cincinnati and Memphis State also left the Metro in 1991 to become charter members of the Great Midwest. To replace them, three of the stronger non-football schools from the Sun Belt Conference (the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of South Florida and Virginia Commonwealth University) shifted to the Metro.
In 1993, the Metro and Great Midwest conferences began reunification talks that led to the creation of C-USA. However, the Virginia schools filed a lawsuit in order to prevent the merger from happening, which ultimately failed. VCU joined the Colonial Athletic Association, now known as the Coastal Athletic Association. Virginia Tech (which was banking on an invitation to join the Big East Conference) was left out of Conference USA, and joined the Atlantic 10 Conference (it later joined the Big East in 2000 and is now in the Atlantic Coast Conference since 2004). It was joined by Great Midwest member Dayton, which was intrigued by the prospect of playing against regional rival Xavier.
Initially, South Carolina was not permitted to participate in Conference USA for men's soccer, although it was admitted ten years later, also bringing along Kentucky, the only other men's soccer school in the SEC (coincidentally, Tulane was a longtime SEC member from 1932 until 1966). Until 2021–22 season, South Carolina men's soccer was the last link of the Metro Conference with the reunified Conference USA, although West Virginia, which rejected Metro membership in 1985, was supposed to join Conference USA for men's soccer in 2022 but with the 2021–22 NCAA conference realignment, Conference USA lost almost all of their men's soccer members and was consequently forced to drop the sport. South Carolina, Kentucky and West Virginia joined the Sun Belt Conference in men's soccer.
Proposed super conference
The Metro Conference also had studies into a new "Super conference" in 1990. The study was conducted by Raycom Sports. The conference would have included members of the Metro, Atlantic 10, and Big East conferences, but it was not clear if the conference would become a football-sponsoring conference as many of its members did in fact sponsor football but were either independents or belonged to other conferences. The original study plan also included Penn State, which was invited to join the Big Ten on December 15, 1989.[1]
| North Division | South Division |
|---|---|
| Boston College | East Carolina |
| Cincinnati | Florida State |
| Pittsburgh | Louisville |
| Rutgers | Memphis State |
| Syracuse | Miami |
| Temple | South Carolina |
| Virginia Tech | Southern Mississippi |
| West Virginia | Tulane |
Member schools
Charter members
- Notes
Later members
- Notes
Membership timeline
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id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football plus merger
id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote)
id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference
id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:FullxF from:1975 till:1979 text:Georgia Tech (1975–1979) bar:1 shift:(60) color:OtherC1 from:1979 till:end text:ACC
bar:2 color:FullxF from:1975 till:1991 text:Cincinnati (1975–1991) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:1995 text:Great Midwest bar:2 color:OtherC2 from:1995 till:2005 text:C-USA bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text:Big East bar:2 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2023 text:American bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:end text:Big 12
bar:3 color:FullxF from:1975 till:1995 text:Louisville (1975-1995) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2005 text:C-USA bar:3 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:2013 text:Big East bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:2014 text:American bar:3 color:OtherC2 shift:40 from:2014 till:end text:ACC
bar:4 color:FullxF from:1975 till:1991 text:Memphis (State) (1975–1991) bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:1995 text:Great Midwest bar:4 color:OtherC2 from:1995 till:2013 text:C-USA bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text:American
bar:6 color:FullxF from:1975 till:1982 text:Saint Louis (1975–1982) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1982 till:1991 text:Horizon bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:1991 till:1995 text:Great Midwest bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2005 text:C-USA bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:end text:A-10
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1975 till:1985 text:Tulane (1975–1985) bar:7 shift:(-40) color:AssocOS from:1985 till:1989 text:(no men's bask., 1985-89) bar:7 color:FullxF from:1989 till:1995 text:(1989–1995) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2014 text:C-USA bar:7 color:OtherC2 from:2014 till:end text:American
bar:8 color:FullxF from:1976 till:1991 text:Florida State (1976–1991) bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:end text:ACC
bar:9 color:FullxF from:1979 till:1995 text:Virginia Tech (1979–1995) bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2000 text:A-10 bar:9 color:OtherC2 from:2000 till:2004 text:Big East bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:2004 till:end text:ACC
bar:10 color:FullxF from:1982 till:1995 text:Southern Miss (1982–1995) bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2022 text:C-USA bar:10 color:OtherC2 from:2022 till:end text:Sun Belt
bar:11 color:FullxF from:1983 till:1991 text:South Carolina (1983–1991) bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:1993 text:SEC bar:11 color:AssocOS from:1993 till:1994 text: men's soc. bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:1994 till:end
bar:12 shift:(-30) color:FullxF from:1991 till:1995 text:Charlotte (1991–1995) bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2005 text:C-USA bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:2013 text:A-10 bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:2023 text:C-USA bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text:American
bar:13 shift:(-50) color:FullxF from:1991 till:1995 text:South Florida (1991–1995) bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2005 text:C-USA bar:13 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:2013 text:Big East bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text:American
bar:14 shift:(-10) color:FullxF from:1991 till:1995 text:VCU (1991–1995) bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2012 text:CAA bar:14 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text:A-10
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1975
TextData =
fontsize:M textcolor:black pos:(300,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"Metro Conference membership history"
</timeline>
Notes:
- 1. Because the Southeastern Conference does not sponsor men's soccer, South Carolina was an independent from the 1991 to 1992 fall season, then rejoined the Metro for the 1993 and 1994 fall seasons.
Championships
References
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