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Props this morning to paid up subscriber and Daily Bull cub reporter William Fralin on his Republican nomination for the 17th District House seat in Virginia.

 

Fralin rides wave of support to nab GOP bid

The Roanoke lawyer's opponent, Fred Anderson, conceded the nomination for the 17th District House seat before ballots were counted.

By TODD JACKSON
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   William Fralin's hard work in the past few months made his morning much easier Saturday.

    The Roanoke lawyer took what was expected to be a close Republican intraparty battle for a state House seat and made it his own campaign kickoff party. So overwhelming was his support - "I think all of South Roanoke is here," several of his backers said - that Fralin's opponent, Roanoke County Treasurer Fred Anderson, conceded the nomination before ballots were counted.

    The meeting held in the Roanoke Civic Center Exhibit Hall was finished in 23 minutes - one of the shortest party nomination contests in recent memory. Of the 1,000 people in attendance, GOP officials estimated that Fralin had at least 70 percent to 80 percent of the vote.

    "I am deeply humbled by the number of people who came out to support me," he said.

    The Fralin-Anderson race offered a contrast to a messy GOP intraparty primary Saturday in the 22nd Senate District, where candidates and party officials have clashed over allegations of vote tampering and unethical conduct.

    There was none of that in the House race.

    In a recent interview, Anderson said that if he lost, he'd stand and offer the motion to nominate Fralin.

    He did just that Saturday, receiving a standing ovation.

    "United Republicans are winning Republicans," Anderson said.

    Fralin had worried that the race could be decided by the vote of ultraconservatives spurred to support Anderson. Anderson's campaign focused on what it said was his stronger anti-abortion views.

    Fralin countered, saying he's personally against abortion except in the cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in jeopardy. Fralin also said he recognizes the legal right of a woman to have an abortion.

    But while some at Saturday's mass meeting said they did concentrate on the abortion issue, several Fralin supporters said they simply believe he has the mettle to best represent the Roanoke Valley in Richmond at a point when several longtime area legislators are retiring. The retiring lawmakers include 17th District Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke, whom Fralin is hoping to succeed.

    Lawyer Bob McAdam of Southwest Roanoke has known Fralin for years. McAdam supported Fralin on Saturday, although McAdam said his politics may be closer in line with Anderson's.

    "William's just a great guy," McAdam said.

    "William worked his butt off," said Gil Butler, a longtime city Republican who lives near Fralin in South Roanoke.

    Fralin said his campaign made sure his supporters would take the time to come to a mass meeting on a Mother's Day weekend Saturday.

    In recent weeks, Fralin, his wife, Karen, and campaign staffers repeatedly called and visited their strongest supporters. They asked their most loyal backers to sign a card pledging that they would attend the mass meeting. Then they put those people on a list and used it to gauge their base of support.

    Fralin said his campaign team contacted those on the list one last time Friday.

    "The drop-off was miniscule," he said.

    "He got his people out," said Anderson, county treasurer for the past 28 years. "We didn't do as good a job. You have to give him credit."

    Anderson said he was working at a disadvantage from the start because most of Vinton, which encompasses his strongest base of support, isn't in the 17th District.

    Fralin began eyeing a run for the House of Delegates shortly after he lost his first political race in 1999 to state Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke. In 2001, the Republican majority in the General Assembly redrew political boundaries and carved out a Republican-leaning 17th that included Fralin's address.

    Now that he's defeated Anderson, Fralin will turn his attention to a general-election race against Democrat Linda Wyatt, a member of the Roanoke City Council since 1994.

    Wyatt moved from Northwest Roanoke to Southwest Roanoke so she could run in the 17th, which includes sections of Roanoke and Roanoke County and a part of Botetourt County.

 

 

Virginia 19,Mount St. Mary's 8
Cavs' foe offers little resistance in opener

Johnny Christmas and Matt Poskay each score three times, and UVa rolls up a 13-1 lead in the first half in its lacrosse tourney opener.

By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   CHARLOTTESVILLE - A trace of Johns Hopkins' colors was evident in the uniforms worn by Mount St. Mary's, Virginia's opponent in the first round of the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament.

    That's where the resemblance to a national power ended.

    Second-seeded Virginia scored nine goals in the first quarter and rested most of its starters for the second half in a 19-8 victory at Klockner Stadium on Saturday.

    It was the seventh straight victory for the Cavaliers, who advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals next Sunday in Towson, Md. They will meet the winner of today's game between host Rutgers and Georgetown.

    In past years, the second seed would have received a first-round bye, but the field for the Division I tournament was expanded from 12 to 16 teams this year.

    "I was telling my wife this morning, 'I just don't know how I could have survived another week without a game,'" said UVa coach Dom Starsia, whose team had not played since April28. "You get the pregame tension in the morning - and I can do without that - but it helps get you through the week.

    "It can be physically painful to sit for three weeks without playing."

    Mount St. Mary's (10-8) entered the game with nine victories in its previous 10 games but was little match for a Virginia team that scored 10 straight goals in taking a 13-1 lead with 7:27 remaining in the second quarter.

    "You kind of forget what it feels to have a game like this," said senior midfielder and ACC player of the year Chris Rotelli, who did not play in the last 2 1/2 quarters. "We've played really good teams and had close games all year."

    Virginia (12-2) has played 10 games against teams in the top 25 and had five games decided by one goal, including both of its losses.

    The Cavaliers lost continuity with their wholesale substitutions and went scoreless during the third quarter, when Mount St. Mary's cut the deficit to 13-3, but The Mount got no closer than 14-5.

    "I didn't want to put the first guys back in the game," Starsia said. "We needed to remain confident that we were in control of the game and I needed not to get too upset that we weren't playing well in the third quarter."

    Starsia said the best thing that happened Saturday was that the subs improved their play in the fourth quarter.

    Freshman midfielder Matt Poskay, who had scored two goals before Saturday, had three goals against Mount St. Mary's and shared team honors with All-American Johnny Christmas. Five other UVa players had their first goal of the season.

    "I think this was good for the sport of lacrosse," said Starsia, whose sentiments were echoed by Mount St. Mary's coach Tom Gravante. "We need to be thinking of the emerging programs and not just the teams at the top."

 

 

Alumnus' seed ready to blossom
Center will play host to hoops, special events
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Barry Parkhill doesn't remember much about the men's basketball game Jan.5, 2000, in which Duke outlasted Virginia 109-100 in overtime.

What he recalls most vividly is the morning after.

At the other end of Parkhill's telephone line was Paul Tudor Jones, a 1976 UVa graduate and Connecticut money manager who had been in attendance at University Hall the previous night.

It had been a memorable evening - the first game in 95 years of UVa basketball in which both teams had scored 100 points or more - but Jones had something else on his mind.

"In a nutshell, he said, 'When are we replacing that dump?'" Parkhill said.

Parkhill knew Jones, but he didn't know him that well, and he thought somebody might be trying to fool him.

"He said, 'Do you mind if I write President [John] Casteen a letter?'" said Parkhill, UVa's associate athletic director for development. "I wanted to say, 'Who is this?' Subsequently, he not only wrote a letter to John, but he also said, 'I'd like to commit some seed money.'

"The seed money that was talked about was about $250,000. I went up to see him that summer and said, 'I'd like to come up and update you.' Well, there was nothing much to update, but I asked if he could see himself becoming a bigger player.

"He basically said, depending on how business went, he could see himself donating anything from nothing to $20 million. I walked out of that visit, reading between the lines, thinking $20 million.'"

By the time UVa announced the receipt of a $20 million gift from Jones, it had another $20 million gift from an unnamed donor, "but, among a handful of incredibly generous people, one person has put this on his back," Parkhill said.

"In a project of this size, that's what it takes, and Paul Tudor Jones was the guy."

Jones subsequently donated another $10 million and Richmond business entrepreneur Bill Goodwin gave $5 million. In other words, three men have contributed $55 million to the nearly $80 million that has been raised to date.

Total cost of the arena, scheduled for groundbreaking May30, is $132 million.

"Make that 'special-events center,'" Parkhill said. "Every once in a while, I slip up and use the term 'arena' myself, but it's a special-events center because it's going to be used for more than just basketball.

"We'll finally have a place that's big enough and air-conditioned, with all of the auxiliary things you need. We can have big-time concerts. We can almost house our entire student body in there. You're talking about a potential graduation site if it rains.

"U-Hall has outlived its usefulness."

Resemblance to stadium

If the new building opens in the summer of 2006, as projected, University Hall will have been in service for nearly 41 years. With a capacity listed at 8,392, it is the smallest basketball arena in the ACC.

The new facility will be able to accommodate a crowd of 15,000 for basketball in a space not much larger than University Hall. That does not include a practice floor for men and women that will be at the back of the building.

"You don't build a round basketball arena," Parkhill said. "That's what happened in the '60s and '70s, not just here but at a lot of facilities. At University Hall, there's so much wasted space on the floor - behind press row and behind the team benches.

"Now, our seats are going to come right down to the floor. It's just more user- and fan-friendly. The hallways are wider. There's more bathrooms. There's more food areas. In today's world, it's not just a game. There are going to be a lot more amenities."

The new building will have a horseshoe configuration, with upper and lower decks. At the open end of the floor, there will be retractable student seats that can be rolled up and replaced by a bandstand for concerts.

Parkhill says he thinks that the Dave Matthews Band, which has Charlottesville ties, would be a perfect first act. The Dave Matthews Band once played at Scott Stadium but would be too big for U-Hall.

Parkhill and a team that included special assistant to the president Terry Holland looked at newer arenas such as those at Michigan State, Ohio State and Xavier. There will be some similarities to the new 17,950-seat Comcast Center at the University of Maryland.

"As much as [UVa feels] our football stadium is the best, if not the biggest, this has the potential to be that for sure," said Holland, a former UVa men's basketball coach and athletic director.

The most striking feature of the design is the columns that guard the entrance and stand atop the seats at the open end. The most obvious comparison is to the pergolas, a series of connected columns with open roofs, that tower over the north end of Scott Stadium.

"I think the immediate reaction is, 'Wow, that looks like the stadium!'" Parkhill said. "There are two architects, one national and one local. Based on what happened [with the football stadium] they were under the gun to do something as spectacular."

Holland described the special-events center as "the crown jewel" of North Grounds area, the fastest-growing area of Virginia's campus. Part of the project involves a connector road that will take motorists directly from the U.S.29 Bypass to the special-events center.

Parkhill said it is conceivable that a $5 million gift might be rewarded with naming rights to the connector road. A name for the arena is under discussion but would not necessarily result in additional donations.

"When the stadium opened, we were still raising money," Parkhill said. "I would hope, over the next three years, that we would pretty much get it done. But, no other state school has built a building of this size and scope and had to raise anything near to what we've already got committed."

Parkhill legacy

There is no state money available for sports facilities in Virginia. At UVa, arena fund raising has fallen largely to Parkhill, a former ACC player of the year who was named one of the 50 greatest players in ACC men's basketball history.

"I've been very impressed with his ability to raise significant dollars, particularly in a market that is not attractive for giving," said Roanoke lawyer and businessman Heywood Fralin, member of UVa's arena executive committee. "I've known a lot of fund-raisers and, believe me, he's excellent."

Before joining the athletic department, Parkhill was a university and alumni fund-raiser without a specific connection to athletics. He still reports to Bob Sweeney, senior vice president for development and public affairs.

"This is one of the best fund-raising closers of big gifts at the university, not only in athletics but in any form," Sweeney said. "Nobody at UVa is more recognizable to a wider array of people. To a lot of our alums, he is an icon, one who is absolutely unaffected by his success."

There's symmetry involved in Parkhill, the point guard on the first Virginia teams to fill University Hall, becoming the point man for the building that will replace University Hall, whose fate has yet to be determined.

"I remember coming here for a visit my senior year in high school," said Parkhill, who was from State College, Pa., "and I was just in awe of the place. At the time, it was 4 years old. Even now, when U-Hall is rocking, there's no greater home-court advantage."

A former first-round draft pick, Parkhill played pro basketball and coached in college, most notably as the head coach at William and Mary, before returning to a place where he remains "extraordinarily popular," Fralin said.

"I am not a hard-sell person and I don't think I ever will be," said Parkhill, 52. "Know what? I don't think you have to be. From the day I was hired, I've felt very lucky to have a chance to work here. Unless I get fired or die, I'm not leaving this place."

He wouldn't say that about a dump.

 

 

Christmas, Poskay help Cavs advance easily
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER May 11, 2003
NCAA LACROSSE
U.VA. 19 MT. ST. MARY'S 8
NEXT:
Quarterfinals: U.Va. plays winner of Georgetown-Rutgers next Sunday.

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The NCAA men's lacrosse tournament was expanded from 12 to 16 teams this year, which means the top four seeds no longer receive first-round byes.

That's fine with No.2 Vir ginia. The Cavaliers opened the tourney yesterday by rocking Mount St. Mary's 19-8 before a crowd of 1,155 at Klockner Stadium.

"This is definitely better than a bye," All-America midfielder Chris Rotelli said. "We'd always rather play than sit at home and waiting to see who we're going to play."

Sophomore attackman John Christmas and freshman midfielder Matt Poskay led U.Va. (12-2) with three goals apiece, and little-used attackmen Brendan Gill and Hatcher Snead scored two each. Sophomore attackman Joe Yevoli had a career-high four assists - all in the first half - and Rotelli set up three goals.

Virginia will play either Georgetown or Rutgers in the quarterfinals next Sunday in Towson, Md. The Scarlet Knights (10-4) play host to the Hoyas (10-3) this afternoon.

U.Va.'s regular season ended April 28, and coach Dom Starsia, like his players, was happy to do without a first-round bye.

"I just don't know how I could have survived another week without a game," Starsia said. "It actually gets physically painful to be sitting for three weeks and not playing."

This was the first NCAA tourney appearance for Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion Mount St. Mary's (10-8), and it struggled to keep pace with the more talented Cavaliers. After Rotelli passed to Gill for a goal that made it 13-1 with 7:27 left in the second quarter, Starsia had his team slow the tempo for the rest of the half.

"He's just a class act," Mount St. Mary's coach Tom Gravante said. "You guys saw the same halftime score I saw - 13-1 - and he started playing numbers early in the second quarter. He took the air out of the ball. I have to appreciate that."

Of Virginia's starters, only the defensemen played in the second half, and then only briefly.

The Cavaliers went ahead to stay 23 seconds into the game when Christmas spun free of his defender and fired a shot past goalie Dave Lambour. The Mount pulled to 3-1 with 9:58 left in the first quarter, but that was all-ACC goalie Tillman Johnson's lone lapse. At the other end, the Wahoos were ruthlessly efficient before the mass substitutions began.

"We were pretty sharp right off the bat and we hit a lot of shots," Rotelli said. "It was good. We were able to get a lot of guys in the game, and nobody got hurt."

 

 

ACC to discuss adding schools
Expansion will be hot topic at league's spring meetings

By Bill Cole
JOURNAL REPORTER
 

The ACC's spring meeting is scheduled to begin today in Amelia Island, Fla., and when it ends on Wednesday the conference could be headed for increased membership.

Expansion will be chief among several issues to be discussed by the nine schools' athletics officials. New membership is almost always talked about at ACC meetings, spring or winter, but the conference seems intent this year on adding Miami, Fla., and other schools.

Syracuse and Boston College appear to be the likely additional candidates if Miami agrees to join the ACC. Commissioner John Swofford said on Thursday, at a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ACC, that three schools will be added if expansion is approved or there will be none at all.

The ACC schools' officials will have to decide now or at a later meeting if it's best to grow to 12 schools or stand at nine and leave the Big East alone.

If expansion is approved and candidates eventually are presented for membership, the nine ACC school presidents will decide whether to admit new members. The presidents will not attend the spring meeting.

Ron Wellman, the athletics director at Wake Forest, said he expects expansion discussion will be intense. He said he's uncertain if a decision will be made.

"I don't know if I would want to compare it to anything we have done in previous years," Wellman said. "I do think this is a serious matter that needs to be discussed in great detail and probably with some length before any decision is made.

"Obviously the interest in expansion by various ACC institutions as well as external institutions - by their public comments anyway - would suggest that it is a serious matter this time and we've got to treat it accordingly."

Paul Dee, the athletics director at Miami, has already presented to his school's board of trustees the pros and cons of moving to the ACC. Dee said that he and school President Donna Shalala will make the decision to stay in the Big East or leave for the ACC.

If Miami decides to join the ACC, Syracuse and Boston College are expected to follow as a matter of survival. The loss of Miami would severely damage the Big East's football presence. Syracuse and Boston College have strong football programs that they want to maintain.

Adding three members would allow the ACC to split into two six-school divisions and play a football-championship game that could generate $10 million for the conference in ticket sales and television rights. The SEC makes about $12 million for its football-championship game and the Big 12 about $6 to $9 million.

ACC membership would mean more money for Miami, Syracuse and Boston College. The ACC has higher-paying football-television contracts than the Big East. Some Miami school officials have said they find the financial lure of the ACC appealing, given that Miami's athletics department lost $1.4 million in the 2002 academic year.

ACC basketball would be greatly affected by 12 teams and two divisions. The ACC Tournament would have to be redesigned to accommodate three extra teams. Longtime rivalries might be played once a season.

Wellman said it's for those reasons and others that the matter deserves closer examination before a decision is made.

"It's such a fluid situation and it's very difficult to anticipate what is going to happen," Wellman said. "And if we start guessing publicly what is going to happen, I think that has a tendency to back us into corners.

"So I think it's important for all of us to attend the meeting or go into the meeting with a completely open mind as to what might happen."

Seven votes are needed for expansion to be approved. Joe Alleva, the athletics director at Duke, and Dick Baddour, his counterpart at North Carolina, are against expansion.

Legislators in Virginia might ask Virginia school officials to vote against expansion to protect Virginia Tech, a Big East member. The legislators, many of them Virginia Tech alumni, could be worried that the Big East would collapse if Miami, Syracuse and Boston College leave and Virginia Tech would be without a conference for its successful football program.

 

 

Miami's decision on conference choice could alter college sports
BY BARRY JACKSON
Knight Ridder Newspapers
 

MIAMI - (KRT) - A quarter-century ago, the University of Miami had an inconsistent football program, no men's basketball team and a limited sports identity beyond Ron Fraser's budding baseball powerhouse.

Now, the Hurricanes find themselves as the potential linchpin of changes that could dramatically impact college sports.

If UM leaves the Big East Conference and joins the Atlantic Coast Conference, Syracuse and Boston College likely would join the Hurricanes, and that would launch a domino effect that could doom or severely damage the Big East as a football league and impact two or three other conferences.

If UM doesn't end up in the ACC, it would stay in a potentially restructured Big East or could join a new league with only football-playing members.

``To a large extent, Miami is a big banana - it could have in its grasp what happens to the Big East and the ACC,'' said former Miami News publisher David Kraslow, a UM Board of Trustees member since 1978.

``People should remember this is a private school, compared to the state schools that usually dominate Division I-A college football,'' added Kraslow, who believes Miami is ``better off'' staying in the Big East. ``It's remarkable what they've accomplished.''

Although UM president Donna Shalala said Friday the university has not decided whether to join the ACC, there is increasingly strong support internally to make the move, officials close to the discussions say.

UM athletic director Paul Dee is among those who favor the move, largely for financial reasons, a source said.

But obstacles remain. The ACC, which begins meetings on Sunday at Amelia Island, needs to secure the support of seven of nine presidents before it can expand. That's no certainty, even though ACC commissioner John Swofford remains privately optimistic about securing the necessary support.

Whatever UM decides, college sports might never be the same.

SCENARIO ONE

UM joins the ACC

The ACC generates $57 million a year in broadcast revenue - $25 million in football and $32 million (most in the country) in basketball. Those figures would rise if Miami, Syracuse and Boston College join.

``If we got Syracuse and Miami, we would have the whole Eastern seaboard,'' Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden said. ``That's where everybody lives. We would have the best TV market in the country and the strongest basketball and football conferences. I hope it happens.''

But HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg wonders whether a 12-team ACC football league would be as appealing as some might think.

``I wonder if Miami wouldn't find itself in the same situation it is now, in a mediocre football league,'' Greenburg said. ``The ACC, in Miami's mind, would generate more television revenue, and that's correct.

``But if North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and the other schools stay in the middle of the pack and don't eek their way into the top 20, it's not going to have the desired effect.''

From a football standpoint, a 12-team ACC could add a conference championship game, which would generate an estimated $8 million to $10 million annually.

ABC, whose ACC football contract ends after the 2005 season, might receive competition from other networks.

The ACC also would be in position to compete for two bids in the Bowl Championship Series, should the BCS remain intact after the 2005 season.

The ACC receives $13 million for sending its champion to the BCS. A second berth would net the ACC another $4.5 million.

Despite the increased competition, there appears to be more support for expansion among football coaches than basketball coaches.

``For football, I think it's great,'' North Carolina State football coach Chuck Amato said. ``People think of the ACC for years as basketball. They are starting to think of the ACC as football now.''

Amato said having UM in the ACC ``would make it easier'' for other conference teams to recruit in Miami.

Said Amato: ``It would be, `Son, your mom is going to see you play in the Orange Bowl when we come and play them.' We can say we are on the same level.''

Several basketball coaches oppose expansion partly because it would create two divisions and partly because of the heavy demand for ACC tournament tickets.

``The basketball coaches have a sense of trepidation about it,'' Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said.

``It's a great basketball league, and you don't mess with great most of the time.''

ESPN basketball analyst and former Duke player Jay Bilas says expansion would leave the ACC without a legitimate regular-season champion.

``The ACC is a basketball league whether people want to admit it or not, and this would not be the proper move for basketball,'' he said. ``I realize they want the football playoff money. But adding three teams creates two divisions, and that keeps everybody from playing each other twice.''

Losing three schools would send the Big East scrambling. The five remaining football schools - Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Connecticut (which will replace Temple in two years) - would be left seeking at least three new members.

They could turn to independents Central Florida and Navy or Conference USA schools Louisville, Cincinnati and Army. But such a conference likely would not get an automatic BCS bid.

For basketball, a depleted Big East likely would explore adding Conference USA schools or Atlantic 10 universities such as Richmond, Massachusetts, Temple and Rhode Island.

``We will react - we will have a plan,'' Ray Cella, the Atlantic 10's assistant commissioner, told The Charlotte Observer. ``We are not going to twiddle our thumbs and go like Ralph Cramden and say, `Hummina. Hummina. Hummina.' ''

The five remaining Big East schools also could try to attract interest from the Big Ten, which has 11 members and has considered adding another member so it can have a conference football championship game. Pittsburgh might have the best chance of attracting a Big Ten bid.

SCENARIO TWO

UM doesn't uoin the ACC

Miami's athletic program reportedly lost $1.72 million in 2001-02 despite winning the football national championship, and struggles consistently to break even.

That's why changes figure to happen in the Big East eventually, even if UM doesn't end up in the ACC.

Adding Notre Dame - which plays in the Big East in basketball but not football - would bolster the conference's finances dramatically. But Notre Dame isn't interested because of its lucrative NBC television contract.

One option that has been debated internally is the Big East's eight football schools, including Miami, branching out on their own.

Such a scenario would leave Big East basketball members Notre Dame, Georgetown, St. John's, Villanova, Providence and Seton Hall in position to form a basketball-only league.

``If the football schools do their own thing, you're still left with five of the most prominent private institutions in the country - some of the best basketball schools and Notre Dame as a wild card,'' Villanova athletic Vince Nicastro told The Philadelphia Daily News.

Such a league could pursue DePaul or Marquette from Conference USA or Temple, Rhode Island or Richmond from the Atlantic 10.

``A school like Marquette or Xavier would be ready for Big East basketball,'' Bilas said. ``You could pick among a number of schools. It's like throwing darts at a board.''

After criticizing the ACC's pursuit of Miami three weeks ago, Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has declined all interview requests to discuss the conference's future.

`It all feels like a greedy money-play,'' HBO's Greenburg said. ``At the end of the day, instead of jumping between conferences, I would like to see the colleges focus on making sure all the student-athletes attend class and have some semblance of an academic life.''

If Miami, Boston College and Syracuse stay in the Big East, the ACC likely would remain at nine schools, unless the ACC's athletic directors could be convinced to add West Virginia, Virginia Tech or Pittsburgh. Virginia is said to support including Virginia Tech instead of Boston College.

A nine-team ACC likely would maintain its automatic BCS bid but would find it difficult to get a second BCS berth.

WHAT ABOUT THE BCS?

Besides the Big East and ACC, the Bowl Championship Series also faces an uncertain future.

Under the current system, bids are awarded to champions from six major conferences - the Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-10 and Southeastern are the others - and two at-large teams (usually Notre Dame or members of a major conference.)

The teams play in the Rose, Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls.

The system was designed to guarantee a meeting between the teams ranked first and second in the BCS rankings.

But there was controversy three years ago when Florida State received a championship-game berth ahead of Miami, which had beaten the Seminoles that season.

Because the setup has resulted in somewhat diminished interest in BCS games that do not determine the national champion, the system might be tweaked.

Conference commissioners and university presidents will decide the BCS' fate in the next year, well before the television contract with ABC expires after the 2005 season.

Shalala is representing the Big East on a committee that is studying the possibilities.

One option being considered is adding a fifth bowl to the rotation. That would create an opportunity for a team from a midmajor conference that finishes the season unbeaten or with one loss.

Another option is adding a one-game playoff after the BCS bowls.

``That may have some merit, but this year, there would have been a Miami-Ohio State rematch if there had been a one-game playoff after the bowls,'' UM coach Larry Coker said.

The BCS bowls would be resistant to change that would lessen their prestige.

``Bowl executives like the system the way it is,'' Orange Bowl Committee CEO Keith Tribble said.

``In November, all the conversation is about the BCS, and you can't buy that type of marketing.''

Although some believe a playoff is inevitable, it's still a long shot for 2006 because of opposition from college presidents.

 

 

Expansion not certain for ACC

By TONY BARNHART
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

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The Atlantic Coast Conference has reached a critical moment in its 50-year history and now has a big decision to make. Do the nine members want to cling to one of the richest traditions in college athletics or embark on a bold -- but perhaps risky -- future?

That decision -- to expand or not to expand -- certainly will be a major topic of discussion when the ACC begins its annual spring meetings today at Amelia Island, Fla.

The ACC has held discussions with the University of Miami, a member of the Big East Conference, about becoming the league's 10th member. The ACC needs yes votes from seven of its nine schools in order to extend the invitation. It is believed the league has only five or six votes as the meetings get under way in Florida.

If the ACC can get the seventh vote, the invitation will be extended to Miami, which is expected to accept. Once Miami commits, the ACC then may invite two more Big East members in order to form a 12-team conference. Once that is in place, the ACC would go to divisional play, like the SEC, and hold a conference championship football game.

The battle lines are clearly drawn.

One side believes the ACC is just fine as a nine-team league. It says that whatever financial benefits are gained by expansion are not worth the loss of tradition and the family-type atmosphere that has been such a part of the conference.

The expansion advocates say the ACC must be proactive in the football marketplace. The ACC's television contracts end with the 2005 season, and the next round of negotiations could be difficult, given the state of the economy. The ACC must do something to compete with larger conferences such as the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, and Pac-10 for what will be a limited number of television dollars.

Stuck in the middle of this debate is ACC commissioner John Swofford, whose job it is to convince enough members that the conference can have it both ways -- that it can be aggressive in the marketplace without losing its charm.

"Our league has always been concerned about its culture, its history, and this is a point in time when culture and history and tradition may -- and I emphasize may -- meet opportunity," Swofford said. "The world never stays the same, whether we want it to or not."

The ACC presidents will cast the deciding votes on whether to extend the invitation to Miami. North Carolina and Duke are solidly in the "No" camp. Clemson, Florida State and Georgia Tech have been pushing hard for expansion. Maryland appears to be for it, but basketball coach Gary Williams is said to be against it. The other three schools -- N.C. State, Virginia and Wake Forest -- appear to be going back and forth on the issue.

While parts of this debate will be about tradition vs. change, it is really about money. Miami's athletics department lost $1.5 million during the 2001-02 academic year despite winning the national championship in football. Miami president Donna Shalala, who will make the decision, has been told the school's revenue stream will be more consistent each year if it joins the ACC.

"The Big East has been very good to us," said Shalala, a former president at Wisconsin and a former Cabinet member during the Bill Clinton administration. "We have to make a very careful decision."

The big question is whether the ACC could use expansion to generate the $30 million it would need to make the move worthwhile. Each ACC member received $9.7 million in shared revenue last year. Current ACC members do not want to see that figure go down in the future because the financial pie would be split 12 ways instead of nine.

"We're not interested in a scenario that provides less support," North Carolina chancellor James Moeser said.

An ACC championship football game would generate between $8 and $10 million dollars, according to industry sources. The rest would have to come from increased revenue in the new football and basketball television packages.

Could ACC expansion generate all those dollars? Swofford must convince enough of his members that the answer is yes or the deal won't get done.

 

 

Virginia Men's Lacrosse Posts 19-8 Win Over Mount St. Mary's in First Round
Record-breaking first quarter outburst sparks Cavaliers.

Charlottesville, Va. - Virginia opened the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament with a 19-8 first round win over Mount St. Mary's this afternoon at Klöckner Stadium. The second-seeded Cavaliers improve to 12-2 overall this season with their seventh consecutive win. The Mount, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance, finishes with a 10-8 record this season.

The skies were overcast all afternoon and the rain predicted for the area held off until after the game, but the Cavaliers came out crisp and scored three goals in the game's opening three minutes to establish the early momentum. Virginia struck quickly as John Christmas found the back of the net for the first of his three goals 23 seconds into the contest. After Jack deVilliers won his second consecutive faceoff, Virginia scored quickly again as Chris Rotelli found Matt Ward in front to put the Cavaliers ahead 2-0 65 seconds into the game. Matt Poskay pushed the lead to 3-0 by following a rebound of a Joe Yevoli miss at the 2:51 mark of the first quarter.

The Mount's first offensive possession didn't come until nearly five minutes had elapsed, but they made their first chance a good one as attackman Daniel Hatton took a pass from Billy Jautze and beat goalie Tillman Johnson from up top.

The Cavaliers closed the first quarter with a six-goal run to take a 9-1 lead after 15 minutes of action. The nine goals are tied for the second-most goals in a quarter in tournament history and the most in a first round game. (Maryland scored 10 goals in the first quarter of a semifinal game against Navy in 1976.)

Virginia slowed the pace in the second quarter but extended its run by outscoring the Mount 4-0 in the second quarter to take a 13-1 halftime lead. Ten different Cavaliers scored in the first half, led by Christmas' three goals.

Ryan Thompson replaced Johnson in goal in the second half as head coach Dom Starsia substituted freely in the second half as all 32 eligible players saw action in the game.

Mount St. Mary's held Virginia scoreless in the third quarter and got goals from Matt Warner, his 36th of the season on an extra-man opportunity, and Andrew Petcoff to trim the Virginia lead. The two goals highlighted a mini run as the Mount outscored the Cavaliers 4-1 over a 12-minute period to cut Virginia's lead to single digits at 14-5.

Virginia pushed the lead back to double figures for good with three unanswered goals midway through the final quarter as the lead grew to 17-5. The teams traded goals the rest of the way to close the scoring.

Christmas and Poskay paced the Cavalier offense with three goals apiece as 13 different players scored. Hatcher Snead and Brendan Gill scored two goals each to lead five different Wahoos who scored for the first time this season.

deVilliers was spectacular at the faceoff X, winning 10 of 11 attempts, all in the first half. Overall Virginia won 23 of 31 faceoffs.

Johnson allowed one goal and recorded three saves before giving way to Thompson for the final 30 minutes. Seeing his most extended action of his career, Thompson made four saves and relinquished seven goals.

Eight different players scored goals for Mount St. Mary's as no player scored more than once. Dave Lambour opened in the cage for head coach Tom Gravante's squad and had a rough outing before being replaced by freshman Dan Whitehurst late in the first half. The Cavaliers touched Lambour for 13 goals in 23 minutes, while Whitehurst registered five saves, while giving up just six goals.

The Cavaliers advance to the tourney quarterfinals where they will meet the winner of tomorrow's Georgetown/Rutgers game. The South Region quarterfinals are next Sunday (May 18) at Towson University. Game times are to be determined.