The Towerlight, April 11, 1991

tl19910411_000 "vol. 87 No. 10 Maryland's largest student weekly April 11, 1991 The To 10,1,7 erl� Published by the students of Towson State University, Towson g ID 21t204 IS R JECTE North Atlantic Conference decides not to expand; automatic '92 NCAA bids lost John Cannon Assistant Sports Editor Citing financial concerns, the North Atlantic Conference de-cided not to expand for the 1991-92 season, thereby deny-ing Towson State's application for admission into the New England-based conference. At a conference meeting in Boston last Thursday, NAC of-ficials and representatives from its eight member schools decided that the increase in travel expenses that would re-sult from the addition of Tow-son State and/or Hofstra Uni-versity (both ECC schools ap-plied for admission this semester) wasn't economically feasible. ""This is because of the severe financial problems faced by North Atlantic Conference in-stitutions and they're trying to stabilize,"" said NAC official Len Harlow. ""The decision's not a reflection on the (applying) institutions themselves."" Towson State was motivated to apply to the NAC following the domino-like downfall of the ECC's stability over the past two years. Delaware and Drex-el will leave the ECC for the NAC this fall�a response to the exodus of Lafayette, Lehigh and Bucknell from the ECC (into the Patriot League) last year. These departures, which were countered with only two re-placements in the form of UM-BC and Central Connecticut, had left the ECC one team short of the six-team minimum required for an automatic bid to the NCANs men's basketball tournament. Consequently, the NCAA's basketball committee suspended the KCC's automat-ic bid�which TSU has won the past two seasons�for the 1991-92 season. ""I'm disappointed for our team. Particularly the seniors, it would've been a good confer-ence for us to participate in,"" said TSU men's basketball coach Terry Truax. ""I think the one problem (was) the travel logistics in terms of distance."" Truax added that while bas-ketball travel expenses might only pertain to from 15 to 20 people, sports such as baseball, softball and soccer would con-siderably make expansion look ""like a big expense from the ad-ministrative point of view."" And the NAC has already had to increase see NAC, page 11 Inside: �Recovering addict discusses alcohol and drug abuse with students and faculty. page 2 *Women's Lacrosse takes first two matches of the season. page 10. *Clinical drug study testing: Easy cash or easy prey? page 20 AKAN. MINNOW NOMONN "