(12-01-2020 09:17 PM)esayem Wrote:  Here’s a crazy one from 1975!

Richmond Talks New Athletic Conference

Apparently, Richmond wanted to go big-time in football and it never happened. This is one of the reasons they left the SoCon. When they first announced their departure, they wanted to basically start the precursor to the Metro, but with divisions:

Richmond
William & Mary
VaTech
WVU
East Carolina

Cincinnati
Louisville
Memphis
So. Miss
South Carolina

The Liberty Bowl was desired as a tie-in.

Western Carolina was going to be UR’s replacement in the SoCon, but there was some resistance. Ultimately, W&M and ECU went Indy as well.

A similar conference was talked about in subsequent years, but it didn’t involve Cincy, Louisville, and Memphis.

So in essence, Richmond and their (at the time) buddies ECU, W&M, and VT were hoping to be part of the Metro when it was founded in 1975 but Cincy/Memphis/Louisville/Tulane passed them over for GT and FSU but without the commitment of a football conference.

VT, SC, and USM would later get to join the Metro but no such luck for W&M or Richmond.

There was so much interesting potential with the Metro that just never was realized. Imagine if GT, SC, Florida St, and Miami had gotten together and started a football sponsoring conference in 1975? They could have overshadowed and then raided the ACC!