Officials from Towson State and UMBC have called a joint news conference for 2 p.m. tomorrow, at which time they are expected to announce their admission to the Big South Conference for the 1992-93 year.
Spokesmen from both schools would not comment today, other than to say that the purpose of the news conference was to "address our conference situation."
Buddy Sasser, commissioner of the Big South Conference, also would not comment other than to say he would attend the press conference.
Both Towson State and UMBC are currently members of the East Coast Conference, which under current NCAA rules will be without a bid to the Division I basketball tournament until 1996. The Big South has automatic bids to the men's basketball and baseball tournaments.
Besides baseball and basketball, the Big South sponsors championships in four other sports for men: soccer, cross country, tennis and golf. It sponsors championships in six sports for women: basketball, cross country, softball, tennis, golf and volleyball.
The Big South would operate with nine members in 1992-93. Liberty and Radford are located in Virginia, UNC-Asheville and Campbell in North Carolina and Winthrop, Coastal Carolina and Charleston Southern are in South Carolina.