ACC expansion? Time might be right
By JOHN HOLLIS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

The ACC might be on the verge of the greatest transformation in its 50-year history, from a nine-team league known primarily for basketball to a 12-team conference boasting two of football's last four national champions.

A lot depends on Miami.

WHO PLAYS WHERE?

Dividing a 12-team ACC into divisions would be difficult. A straight north-south split would divide the North Carolina schools and ruin rivalries. If Miami and Virginia Tech join the league, this modified north-south split would leave the North Carolina teams together but would group most of the football powers in the south and most of the men's basketball powers in the north:

South: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia, Virginia Tech

North: BC or Syracuse, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest

An alternative is to throw out geography, and thus increase travel costs, to attain more competitive balance. That could bring a split like this:

Blue: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State

Red: BC or Syracuse, Maryland, Miami, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

If the Hurricanes jump from the Big East to the ACC, two other Big East teams are likely to follow. In addition to Miami, the ACC is looking at Syracuse, Boston College and Virginia Tech.

Miami athletics director Paul Dee told The Palm Beach Post last week that Miami is happy in the Big East but "there are pros to joining a conference like the ACC. It would be a place where the University of Miami would feel comfortable."

Syracuse athletics director Jake Crouthamel has said his school would "strongly consider" changing its conference affiliation if Miami were to leave the Big East. There's no guarantee the Orangemen would join the ACC; they could become the 12th member of the Big Ten.

Virginia Tech athletics director Jim Weaver has said that his school has not been contacted directly by anyone from the ACC. However, he added that he hoped Virginia Tech would be one of the teams considered should the ACC expand to 12 teams.

"It seems to me that Miami is the linchpin," Weaver said.

Miami and the ACC held talks 13 years ago before the Hurricanes chose the Big East. The ACC looked at expansion again in 1999 but voted it down. Things have changed.

The success of the SEC and Big 12 football championship games has increased the desirability of expanding the ACC to 12 teams, the minimum required for a league championship game.

The expiration of the ACC's television contracts in 2005 gives the league an incentive to act quickly to make itself more appealing to the networks.

The recent success of football teams at Maryland, N.C. State and Virginia has broadened the sport's influence in the ACC.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese was so concerned about ACC expansion that he took the extraordinary step of complaining about it publicly.

"I have no use for the ACC right now," Tranghese told the New York Daily News. "They're a bunch of hypocrites. They operate in the dark. They'll never acknowledge this, but I'm aware the ACC for last couple of years, without ever picking up the phone or calling me, has basically gone out and tried to convince our teams to enter their league."

Neither Tranghese nor ACC commissioner John Swofford returned phone calls from the Journal-Constitution. But others say there's a growing perception that some Big East members might switch to the ACC.

"It's certainly not helping the cause of the Big East," Crouthamel said. "Now there's this notion that the Big East is fragile. I don't think it's the case, but [the talk] isn't helping the Big East at all in recruiting."

Football vs. basketball

Four years ago, the last time the ACC talked about adding Miami, the ACC's football coaches supported expansion and its basketball coaches opposed it. Expansion would still be a football move.

Georgia Tech, Clemson and Florida State, the only ACC schools that have won football national championships, are the three members most in favor of expansion.

"Georgia Tech has always been in favor of expansion," athletics director Dave Braine said, referring all other questions to the league office.

Adding teams like Miami, Syracuse or Boston College would increase travel costs, but expansion proponents say that drawback would be offset by increased television revenues and the $600,000 to $900,000 per member school that a football championship game could bring.

"I look at expansion as something all Division I leagues that don't have a football championship game have to consider," Virginia athletics director Craig Littlepage said. "I'm open to [expansion] yet mindful of the many consequences. The question is whether what you're giving up is worth the benefit of what you're getting in the long run."

One of the things the ACC might have to give up would be its double-round-robin basketball schedule. Unless the league decided to expand its conference schedules from 16 games to 22, it would have to come up with another format. SEC teams, for example, play a double-round-robin within each six-team division and play the teams from the other division just once a season.

In tradition-rich ACC basketball, any change would be controversial.

"I think we have to be very judicious in what we do with the ACC," Wake Forest men's basketball coach Skip Prosser said. "It's already a great league. It's tough to tamper with great."

What each school offers

Miami would bring the ACC the large South Florida media market and beef up the league's football credentials. The Hurricanes won the 2001 national championship and played in last season's national championship game. They've won five of the last 20 national titles.

Syracuse would bring the ACC the New York media market. (Though the school is upstate, it has a following in New York City.) The Orangemen won this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Boston College would give the ACC a foothold in New England. Virginia Tech offers the best fit with the league's current geography and has become a nationally recognized football program.

The ACC membership hasn't changed since Florida State joined the league in 1991. That was a time of big shakeups in college sports, with Penn State joining the Big Ten and Arkansas and South Carolina joining the SEC. Things have been relatively quiet since the mid-1990s, when the Big Eight absorbed four Southwest Conference schools to become the Big 12.

Now, the ACC is poised to make the next big move.

"It takes seven of nine schools to vote," said Tech President G. Wayne Clough. "Finding the match between the will, the desire and the right set of circumstances is going to be the real trick."

Growth appeals to U.Va.
ACC weighing three additions
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 30, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The possibility of ACC expansion intrigues the University of Virginia.

"I think the university's position would be one of having interest if everything made sense," Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said yesterday.

"It would have to be something that would improve and enhance the standing of the ACC overall. If there's not a significant benefit to the conference or the spirit of cooperation that exists among its members, expansion would not be worth it, from my point of view.

"But if it would build on those things by having additional members, it would make serious sense to consider what options there might be."

Littlepage said U.Va. "is not lobbying for any one school versus another." Still, if Virginia Tech became a candidate for membership in an expanded ACC, the Hokies might well have the Wahoos' support.

"My feeling is that [Tech has] a lot of qualities that would make it an attractive candidate," Littlepage said. "We would not be opposed to Virginia Tech because it's Virginia Tech, a rival of ours."

As it did four years ago, the ACC again is studying the pros and cons of adding three schools. With 12 members, the confer- ence could split them into two divisions and hold a revenue-producing title game in football.

Expansion might well generate significantly more income for each ACC school. It also could mean increased travel costs and more missed classes for athletes, whose schoolwork might suffer as a result.

Moreover, expansion might damage the ACC's traditional rivalries - the Big East suffered that fate after expanding - and it would mean the end of the home-and-home basketball series every school plays annually with each of its counterparts.

"Certainly there are pitfalls if we're not diligent in terms of some of those roadblocks," Littlepage said.

After the University of Miami, the school the ACC most covets, decided in 1999 to remain in the Big East, public discussion of ACC expansion abated. But Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese's comments April 16 to the New York Daily News revived the issue.

In no uncertain terms, Tranghese accused the ACC of trying to poach some of his schools, mentioning Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College and Syracuse.

Among ACC athletic directors, Littlepage said, expansion remained a hot topic even after Miami reaffirmed its commitment to the Big East in'99. Expansion may not be inevitable, he said, but it merits discussion.

"I can only speak for Craig Littlepage right now, but I'm certainly interested in expansion if the right opportunities are available to us," he said.

For the ACC to grow, seven of its nine schools would have to approve expansion.

"I would say that probably there are some schools that have more significant reservations than others," Littlepage said. "I don't know if I'd characterize anyone as being adamantly opposed."

The ACC will hold its spring meetings next month at Amelia Island, Fla.