At the time, James McComas was President of Virginia Tech. The same James McComas who was President of the SEC Executive Committee six years earlier when he was also President of Mississippi State.

During this time of conference speculation in 1990, The Collegiate Times published an editorial saying Virginia Tech's best bet for the future was to join the SEC and called on McComas, with his very strong ties to the conference, to broker a deal with his old pals and save the athletic program. The alternative, the editorial speculated, would likely be a future in the Colonial Athletic Association as the proposed Eastern Seaboard Conference seemed unlikely to invite Tech.

As the guy who wrote the editorial, I never found out what McComas thought of my proposal, but Tech AD Dave Braine wasn't too pleased with a similar column I had written in the sports section. Little did I know he was formulating a plan for the Big East that would soon change the fortunes of the athletic program.