Virginia Tech will become a full member of the Big East Conference beginning with the 2001-02 academic year. A charter member of the Big East Football Conference, which was formed in 1991, Tech will become the 14th full member of the conference, which conducts 20 championships in 16 men's and women's sports.

"Virginia Tech is thrilled to become a full member of the Big East Conference and looks forward to its academic and athletic associations with the entire membership," said Tech president Paul E. Torgersen.

Single-conference affiliation in one of the major athletics conferences has been a long-standing goal of the institution. Tech's last single-conference affiliation for all sports was its membership in the Southern Conference from 1921 until June 1965.

In addition to being a football member of the Big East, Tech currently competes in the Eastern Wrestling League in the sport of wrestling, and its 19 other NCAA-sponsored sports programs compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

NBA drafts Eddie Lucas

The Utah Jazz picked former Virginia Tech basketball standout Eddie Lucas during the second round of the NBA draft in June.

During the 1998-99 season, the six-foot-six-inch forward/guard led the Virginia Tech men's basketball team in points per game (15.1), three-point field-goal percentage (45.5; the university record is 46.7), and free-throw percentage (86.0). He led the Atlantic 10 Conference in three-point field-goal percentage and three-point goals per game. Near the end of the season, he was ranked ninth in the NCAA Division I-A men's basketball statistics for three-pointers per game. He is the first Hokie drafted by the NBA since Bimbo Coles in 1990.