Metro Conference - History

History

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. However, South Carolina rejoined the Metro for 1993 and 1994 men's soccer seasons in that sport only, because the SEC does not offer the sport for men (four schools are required to sponsor a sport; the SEC had just three, now two). Charter members Cincinnati and Memphis State also left the conference 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 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. Virginia Tech (who was banking on an invitation to join the Big East Conference) was left out of Conference USA, and joined the Atlantic 10 Conference (it is now in the Atlantic Coast Conference). It was joined by Great Midwest member Dayton, who 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.