ACC might vote today on Miami
"I've heard things are moving in the right direction," Florida State University Board of Trustees chairman John Thrasher said last night. "I'm hopeful that [expansion] can get done."
Clemson president James F. Barker, the chairman of the ACC Council of Presidents, can call for a vote on expansion at any time via teleconference. It will take an affirmative vote of seven presidents to approve expansion.
Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski softened his hard-line opposition after yesterday's meeting with ACC commissioner John Swofford, perhaps the best indicator that expansion is gaining momentum.
"I really do not know the direction it will go to, but I do know that the best interests of basketball will be served by those people who make the decision," Krzyzewski said "That's the direction I was most concerned about. ... What I feel confident about is whatever decision is made, we'll be a unified group once it comes out."
Last week Krzyzewski expressed opposition to expansion, which could split the conference into two six-team divisions. Another possibility is three four-team divisions for basketball, which would allow the conference to maintain most of its traditional home-and-home series while preserving geographical rivalries.
"Whether I'm for [expansion] or against it, it doesn't make any difference," Krzyzewski said. "It's a CEO-level decision. I'm for the ACC. At this time I think our CEOs have the information where they will make the decision that's best and I'll follow it."
Krzyzewski's opinion has carried a great deal of weight with Duke president Nan Keohane, who will cast the school's vote. Duke and North Carolina had been on the record as opposed to expansion, while five schools -- FSU, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Maryland and Virginia -- are in favor.
North Carolina State chancellor Marye Anne Fox has been seen as the swing vote, but that may not be the case if Keohane changes her mind.
Regardless, expansion talks appear to have picked up additional momentum through two days of meetings at the Ritz-Carlton Resort among the ACC's top athletic administrators and most influential coaches.
In theory, a decision on expansion before the Big East holds its league meetings May 17-21 at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club would be beneficial to both sides.
"We have a window of opportunity we've never had," Georgia Tech athletic director Dave Braine said. "If we don't do this, we're missing a great chance. Where is the ACC going to be in 2006 if there are four or five other megaconferences and we're not a megaconference?"
The 2006-07 school year is significant because that is when the next generation of college football's Bowl Championship Series -- the money engine driving expansion talk -- is set to begin. It might include some kind of playoff.
Swofford and league expansion supporters have been building consensus on expansion.
"We're here; we're all together," Swofford said. "This is a subject matter that we all have a great deal of interest in. The process is not complete. I'm not sure when it will be complete. ... I don't think this is something that drags on through the summer. I think this is something that will be determined this month or next. It could be sooner. It could be later."
While a great deal of outside conversation has centered around divisional alignments and scheduling philosophy, those issues probably won't be tackled until the presidents approve expansion. And Swofford has no doubt those issues can and will be resolved.
"One of the great things about our league, once something is determined that this is where we're going, the schools in this league have a great ability to bond together and do it as a whole," he said. "If we were to expand, I don't think there would be obstacles we couldn't overcome."
In order to expand, the ACC needs schools willing to jump on board. Thrasher said members of the FSU board of trustees have been courting Miami president Donna Shalala.
"I think she's there," Thrasher said. "I'm really excited about it."
The Virginia women’s lacrosse team advanced to the Final Four by
defeating Georgetown on Sunday. A week later, the Cavalier men will try to do
the same thing.
UVa coach Dom Starsia and assistant Marc Van Arsdale traveled to Piscataway,
N.J., to watch the No. 8 Hoyas upset No. 7 Rutgers, 9-6, in the first round of
the NCAA tournament Sunday.
The No. 2 Cavaliers (12-2) will meet Georgetown (11-3) on Sunday at 3 p.m. in
the quarterfinals at Towson (Md.) University. It will be the first meeting
between the two teams.
“We’ll have our hands full,” Starsia said. “I think they’re an outstanding
defensive team. I don’t think we’ve faced a defense of this caliber in a
while. And they may have the best faceoff guy in the country.”
The Hoyas have allowed just seven goals per game, tied for fifth fewest in
the nation. Despite losing All-American long-stick midfielder Kyle Sweeney to
a broken ankle on April 26, they shut down Rutgers by forcing 22 turnovers.
Georgetown is not a strong offensive team — no player has more than 21 goals —
but it gets plenty of possessions thanks to sophomore Andy Corno, who has won
65 percent of his faceoffs.
Virginia will counter with sophomore Jack deVilliers, who has won 60.8 percent
of his draws.
“Jack’s had a great year,” Starsia said, “and this should be his greatest
challenge.”
Busting loose. Matt Poskay set a national high school record with 362
goals, but he has had trouble finding the back of the net as a Virginia
freshman. He entered the NCAA tournament with two goals on 16 shots in 13
games.
Still, Starsia has said for weeks that Poskay was ready to break out as a
scorer, and the midfielder did so last Saturday in UVa’s 19-8 first-round
victory over Mount St. Mary’s. He finished with three goals, two of which came
in the first quarter.
“I think he’s going to be a great player here,” Starsia said. “Hopefully last
Saturday was the start of that.”
Poskay is likely to join the first midfield unit and become a primary option
next season with the departure of seniors Chris Rotelli, A.J. Shannon and
Billy Glading. But Starsia said Poskay and fellow freshman middies Kyle Dixon
and Foster Gilbert can make an impact in their first NCAA tournament.
“I met with the freshmen as a group and I told them: You have to think of
yourselves as sophomores,” Starsia said. “Don’t think about next fall. We need
you now.”
See ya, Hoyas. The No. 3 Virginia women (16-4) may have played their best
game of the season in Sunday’s quarterfinal against No. 6 Georgetown. They
scored the first five goals, went up by as many as 10 and won 16-9 against the
national runner-up in 2001 and 2002.
“It’s hard to put into words,” said UVa coach Julie Myers. “It’s so exciting
to see everything coming together at just the right time.”
The Cavaliers own the nation’s most prolific offense and among the stingiest
defenses, but they have been inconsistent much of the season. They failed to
score more than eight goals in three of their defeats and junior goalie Andrea
Pfeiffer has been up and down all year.
Against the Hoyas, however, Pfeiffer was outstanding, tying a season high with
12 saves. Lauren Aumiller tied an NCAA tournament record by scoring eight
goals, and Virginia forced 15 of Georgetown’s 22 turnovers.
“Everything worked out [Sunday]. They were almost throwing it into our
sticks,” said senior defender Lauri Kenis.
“Everything was working well,” Pfeiffer said. “The defense and the offense.”
Home, sour home. It was a disappointing homecoming for Georgetown senior
defender Bethany Feil, the 1999 Central Virginia player of the year at St.
Anne’s-Belfield.
Feil’s first game against Virginia and her first game at Klockner Stadium
turned out to be her final one as a collegiate player.
“It was nice to come home,” Feil said. “But I wanted to give my home fans a
better game.”
Still, Feil had a satisfying senior season. In her first year as a starter,
she was fourth on the team in minutes and caused 18 turnovers.
Exclusive club. Sophomore attack Cary Chasney scored two goals against
Georgetown, giving her 100 for her career. Teammate Amy Appelt (108 goals) is
the only other sophomore in Virginia history to reach 100.
Aumiller is the school’s career leader with 216 goals. Appelt and Chasney are
10th and 13th on that list with two seasons of eligibility remaining.
MELIA
ISLAND, Fla., May 12 - Bobby Bowden, the Florida State football coach, does not
own a vote on expansion in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but he does possess
two national championship trophies and plenty of gumption. Age has only
sharpened his sense for what makes for great theater. In sports, it is
competition. And in the A.C.C., Bowden said, it should be Miami.
"I want Miami," Bowden said in a telephone interview today at the A.C.C.'s annual spring meeting. "And then go up, all the way up to New York, and that would put the A.C.C. all up and down that East Coast."
The 73-year-old Bowden is lending a strong voice in favor of the A.C.C.'s expanding - perhaps somewhat of a surprise considering Florida State's traditional place as the mightiest football program in the conference. This speaks not only to Bowden's confidence in his team but also to the future structure of the Bowl Championship Series, which could include a playoff system starting in the 2006 season.
Bowden points to his own experience at Florida State, which joined the A.C.C. when the conference expanded in 1991. Florida State's presence, Bowden said, elevated the quality of football in the conference.
"For a while, we were kind of superior to everybody," Bowden said. "But the conference has really grown. Look at Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina State. The conference is stronger now."
Miami, which won the national championship after the 2001 season, could further fortify the conference and keep it well represented in the B.C.S., Bowden said.
"I think that's the way it's heading, to get into a big enough conference and then have divisions and then a playoff," Bowden said. "I just see it helping."
In addition to Miami, Bowden pointed to fellow Big East universities Syracuse and Boston College to complete his vision of a new A.C.C., although he did say he hoped Miami would be placed in the other half of a two-division conference so that the Seminoles would not have to play the Hurricanes twice.
Bowden's voice is strong, but it will be the A.C.C.'s nine university presidents who decide expansion's fate (seven would have to vote yes).
It has been speculated that Duke and North Carolina, traditional basketball powers, are the only two universities leaning hard against expansion, with North Carolina State viewed as being on the fence.
The Duke athletic director, Joe Alleva, said last week that conferences with 12 teams lose some of the intimacy of the home-and-home rivalries in basketball, because they might play each other only once during the regular season.
Still, others believe the A.C.C. can thrive as both a basketball power and a football power.
"You can feed off each other," Chuck Amato, the North Carolina State football coach, said today. "If you're bringing a basketball recruit to a full house for football, he's going to be excited. Look at what the S.E.C. was years ago. The perception was that it was a football conference and Kentucky was the only basketball team. Well, there are an awful lot of good basketball teams now."
Amato was an assistant under Bowden when Florida State joined the A.C.C.
"F.S.U. has done wonders for the A.C.C., just like Miami did for the Big East," Amato said. "If not for expansion, I don't think those two conferences would be in the B.C.S. What if the Big Ten," which has 11 teams, "brings in three new schools and goes to 14, or the S.E.C. says, 'We'll take Miami'?" Amato said. "There will be conferences that the B.C.S. won't want. Nobody really knows what is going to happen, so the timing is right to get a jump on it."
Like Bowden, Amato looked at the potential boon from universities in the Northeast.
Since the Miami athletic director, Paul Dee, was quoted in the News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla., on May 4 saying he had inquired about expansion in the A.C.C., the athletic directors at Syracuse and Virginia Tech said they would consider following Miami out of the Big East. Boston College is also considered a potential defector.
"You're picking up media from the whole Eastern Seaboard," Amato said. "That's two-thirds of the country's population. It's got to be a plus."
Bowden said he could not think of a better time, or a better team than Miami, to see expansion through.
"I'm hoping it happens," Bowden said.
"I really feel like if our conference doesn't expand, I'm afraid we're going to be left out in the cold."
Governor admits to affair
He ‘absolutely’ won’t resign, aide says; alleged accuser denies naming Wise
By Phil Kabler
STAFF WRITER
In a potentially catastrophic blow to his political career, Gov. Bob Wise
released a statement Monday admitting he “was not faithful to my family,” in
response to allegations he had an extramarital affair with state employee Angela
Mascia-Frye.
Wise’s office released the statement at about 12:40 p.m. Monday, after media
inquiries about a divorce lawsuit in Kanawha County Family Court that allegedly
implicates Wise.
“Several weeks ago, I had to do the toughest thing I have ever done — tell my
family I had not lived up to their trust, expectation and love,” Wise’s
statement reads. “I was not faithful to my family. I knew it was wrong, and now
I must take full responsibility.”
- advertisement-
The four-paragraph statement followed inquiries about a divorce petition filed
April 7 by Philip Frye of Hugheston against Angela Mascia-Frye, director of
European operations for the West Virginia Development Office.
On Tuesday, the Charleston Daily Mail reported that Frye’s divorce petition
alleges that his wife had an affair with another man. Frye confirmed that the
man was Wise, the Daily Mail reported.
In the article, Frye was quoted as referring to Wise as a “weasel-faced bastard”
and a “typical Democrat.”
Frye’s attorney, Joe Cometti, later said Daily Mail reporters had made up many
of Frye’s quotes, including an assertion by Frye that he has pictures and other
evidence of the affair collected by private investigators.
“Mr. Frye did not tell [the newspaper] that the governor had an affair with his
wife, or committed adultery with his wife,” Cometti said. He accused the Daily
Mail, which traditionally favors Republican politicians, of trying to bring down
a Democratic governor.
Daily Mail Editor Nanya Friend told The Associated Press on Monday that she
stands by the story and the reporter.
Frye would not speak to a Gazette reporter Tuesday. Neither Mascia-Frye nor
David Satterfield, executive director of the Development Office, returned calls
Monday.
Mascia-Frye, a native of Switzerland, joined the Development Office in January
2001, after working for West Virginia University Institute of Technology for a
few years. She has joined Wise and other members of the administration on at
least one European trade mission.
Wise spokeswoman Amy Shuler Goodwin said the governor will “absolutely not”
resign, and plans to run for re-election in 2004.
Goodwin declined to comment on the alleged affair, or on whether Wise and his
wife, Sandy, had separated in April, saying she would not comment on personal
matters.
The Wises, who married in 1984, have two children. In his statement, Wise asked
that the privacy of his wife and children be respected.
Wise canceled all public appearances Monday and today. He had no appearances
scheduled for Wednesday, and his scheduled public events on Thursday were still
on as of Monday evening, Goodwin said.
Washington political consultant Dane Strother said Wise must act immediately to
minimize the damage to his career.
“He can’t do that in a press release,” Strother said Monday. “He needs to get
that family behind him and get in front of the cameras.”
However, Strother said that in a socially conservative state like West Virginia,
even that probably wouldn’t be sufficient to salvage Wise’s political career.
“I’d run a poll very quickly, with the expectation I’d be advising my client the
governor to update his résumé and start looking for work,” he said, when asked
what he would do if he were Wise’s consultant.
“If I were advising his opponent, I’d say, ‘Get that campaign underway
immediately,’” he added.
Secretary of State Joe Manchin, who has considered running against Wise in the
2004 primary, was on the road Monday and unavailable for comment.
“He feels it’s a personal issue for the governor and he doesn’t feel comfortable
commenting on it,” said Lara Ramsburg, Manchin’s executive secretary.
Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, who would become governor if Wise resigns,
and House Speaker Bob Kiss could not be reached for comment Monday.
Also Monday, leaders of both parties pledged that the 2004 gubernatorial race
would focus on issues, and not the governor’s personal foibles.
“Governor Wise didn’t need our help with this problem, and we don’t need us to
add onto it,” said state Republican Party Executive Director Gary Abernathy.
“The people in the state learned some facts today. I’m sure they’ll learn more
in the future, and they’ll have to reach their own conclusions on his personal
life.”
Democratic Party Chairman Mike Callaghan said Monday he was confident Wise will
remain in office and will seek re-election in 2004.
“Whatever repercussions there are from this, we’ll have to deal with them and
move forward,” Callaghan said, adding, “At this stage, I like to look at
programs and results. The governor has provided very strong leadership for West
Virginia.”
Hoops coaches briefed on expansion
ACC decision due in about a month
BY BILL COLE
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE May 13, 2003
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - Commissioner John Swofford met with the Atlantic Coast
Conference's nine basketball coaches yesterday and presented his case for league
expansion.
The brief meeting on the first full day of the ACC's spring meeting affirmed to
the basketball coaches that their sport would not be harmed if the conference
decides to expand for the first time since 1991 by adding Miami, Fla., and then
probably Syracuse and Boston College - all schools currently in the Big East
Conference.
The ACC has no time frame for expansion, but Swofford believes the matter will
be resolved soon.
"I don't think this is something that drags on through the summer," Swofford
said. "I think it's something that's likely to be determined this month or next
would be my guess."
Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke was almost staunchly opposed to expansion because
the conference would be split into two divisions and some longtime rivalries
would be played only once a season, but he said that he now understands more
clearly the ACC's motivation in seeking more teams.
"I really do not know the direction that it will go to, but I do know that the
best interests of basketball will be served by those people making decisions,"
Krzyzewski said. "And that's the thing I was most concerned about."
The ACC's meeting will continue today. Swofford's talk to the basketball coaches
was the only official discussion of the expansion issue yesterday. Expansion is
not on the list of issues to be discussed before the meeting ends tomorrow.
The ACC will need seven votes from its schools to approve expansion. The
decision to ex- pand or to stay at nine members will be made by the schools'
presidents and chancellors, none of whom are attending the meeting.
Krzyzewski's attitude toward expansion has turned almost completely around, but
Swofford would not say that the move to add schools has gained momentum.
The ACC's football coaches and the athletics directors did not discuss expansion
in their meetings yesterday, but Swofford will talk to each group before a
decision is made.
Swofford feels certain that the ACC can choose to expand now and can work out
the details later. The matter of which schools are moved to what divisions and
scheduling concerns can be resolved once new teams are in place.
"Things have been more and more leaning toward major conferences," Virginia
basketball coach Pete Gillen said. "If we don't do it, then in five years,
someone comes in and snatches up a Florida State, we know that could be really
bad."
Georgia Tech and Florida State favor expansion for strengthening football, the
prominent sport at their schools, and because of the possibilities of increased
revenues. Dave Braine, the athletics director at Georgia Tech, said some ACC
schools need persuading that expansion is best for the conference but that the
time is right for adding new members.
"I think we have a window of opportunity right now that we've never had," Braine
said. "Where's the ACC going to be in 2006 if we have four or five other
mega-conferences and we're not a mega-conference?"
ACC NOTES
May 13, 2003
PRO-GROWTH: Several ACC men's basketball coaches have expressed reservations
about the possibility of expansion. Virginia's Pete Gillen isn't one of them.
"I think it's good," Gillen said last week in Charlottesville. "I think you've
got to move into the new millennium. It's a great conference - the ACC has great
tradition - but I think it's the era of the power conferences."
The nine-school ACC is considering adding three members, splitting into two
divisions and staging a championship game in football. Gillen said having 12
basketball teams would give "our league more power, more juice" and could help
the ACC get more teams into the NCAA tournament each year.
If the ACC expands, there is sure to be grumbling about its division of teams,
no matter how they're split. Given that, Gillen said, "I don't think it would be
bad to rotate teams every four years."
LEADER OF THE PACK: N.C. State football coach Chuck Amato will be in Richmond
this month to speak to alumni, fans and members of the Wolfpack Club. Amato will
hold court May 29 at the Westwood Club.
The event will start at 6 p.m., and the cost is $22. RSVP by Thursday to Dave
Fuller at (804) 746-1286.
CHANGING FORTUNES: In a span of about a week, Georgia Tech went from probable
title contender to potential also-ran in ACC men's basketball. First, 6-8 Ed
Nelson decided to transfer. Then 6-10 Chris Bosh announced he would enter the
NBA draft.
Nelson, who's likely to land at Connecticut, fell off as a sophomore, but he was
ACC rookie of the year in 2001-02. Bosh, the ACC's rookie of the year in
2002-03, is expected to be among the first 10 players chosen in next month's NBA
draft.
The Yellow Jackets went 16-15 last season with a senior-less roster. Now their
top returning post players are 7-0 Luke Schenscher and 6-9 Theodis Tarver.
"You just move on," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt told the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. "You can't wallow over it. We'll be OK."
TAKE FIVE: The demise of the Seattle Bowl, which the NCAA recently declined to
re-certify, leaves the ACC with five postseason tie-ins for the coming football
season.
"Certainly we are disappointed that the Seattle Bowl will not be held next
year," ACC Commissioner John Swofford said.
In the first Seattle Bowl, in 2001, Georgia Tech beat Stanford 24-14. In last
year's game, Wake Forest crushed Oregon 38-17.
The ACC still has contracts with the Bowl Championship Series and the Gator,
Peach, Continental Tire and Tangerine bowls. Seven ACC teams played in bowls
last season. Georgia Tech earned an at-large invitation to the Silicon Valley
Football Classic.
"Our goal is to provide as many opportunities as possible for our schools in
postseason play," Swofford said, "and we will continue to aggressively pursue
any other tie-ins that might be available to our teams."
LONG TIME COMING: The ACC baseball tournament is coming to Virginia for the
first time. It will be held May 20-25 at Memorial Stadium in Salem.
The tourney has been played in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and
Florida. In 1973, the inaugural ACC tournament was held in Chapel Hill, N.C.
POWER PLAY: Only four ACC schools field lacrosse teams - Virginia, North
Carolina, Duke and Maryland - but the conference maintains a high profile
nationally in the sport.
Of the semifinalists in the NCAA women's tournament. two are from the ACC.
Second-seeded Maryland takes on third-seeded Virginia in Friday night's second
game at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. Maryland is seeking its 11th NCAA
title.
In the NCAA men's tourney, eight teams remain, including two from the ACC.
Second-seeded Virginia faces Georgetown on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Towson
University. Third-seeded Maryland will meet Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon
at the Carrier Dome. - Jeff White
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - The Atlantic Coast Conference has always been a basketball league: Duke, North Carolina, Tobacco Road and national titles have gone hand and hand for 50 years.
The conference's long-term survival, however, hinges on football. Trying to secure its future, the ACC is in a courting process with Miami, a school that has been in college football's national title game the last two years but has never distinguished itself in hoops.
Expansion - whether it will happen and how it could change the landscape of college sports - is the buzz of the week at the ACC meetings. It will be again this weekend when Big East officials, desperate to stave off a raid of the Hurricanes and two other top programs, meet 40 miles down the road in Ponte Vedra Beach.
"Things have been more and more leaning toward major conferences," Virginia basketball coach Pete Gillen said. "If we don't do it, then in five years, someone comes in and snatches up a Florida State, we know that could be really bad."
In 50 years, the ACC has only expanded twice - the last time when it accepted Florida State in 1991. Since joining, Florida State has won 10 of 11 conference championships in football and given the conference a well-recognized presence in the Bowl Championship Series.
Sensing that the future and the big money lies with football, ACC leaders have visions of turning it into a megaconference. The idea is to expand from nine teams to a possible 12, split into divisions and add a conference title game, a cash cow that has brought in about $12 million a year to the Southeastern Conference since 1992.
More teams could also bring a more lucrative TV contract; the current deal expires in 2005. It would also give the ACC a better chance of placing two teams in the BCS, something it has never done; each BCS bid is worth $13 million to the conference.
The decision isn't likely to come this week. Instead, it is in the hands of presidents of the nine ACC universities. ACC commissioner John Swofford said he expects them to decide before the end of June.
Seven of the nine presidents must approve a decision to invite Miami and two other schools. Before they vote, however, they must know those schools will accept the invitation. Thus, a delicate balancing act has begun in which nobody wants to say the wrong thing.
"Nobody wants to do anything incendiary," Gillen said.
Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese refused comment Monday, although last week, he went on record as saying, "I have no use for the ACC right now. They're a bunch of hypocrites. They operate in the dark."
Heading into this week, the common thought was that presidents of six of the ACC schools were for the move, presidents of North Carolina and Duke were against it, and North Carolina State chancellor Marye Anne Fox was undecided. Fox's spokesman, Mike Kulikowski, said she was not talking to reporters about the issue.
Miami athletic director Paul Dee also didn't respond to messages left by The Associated Press seeking comment.
For Miami to accept any deal, the money has to be right.
Miami's athletic association lost $1.5 million during 2001-02 - a season in which the football team won the national title and the basketball team reached the NCAA tournament.
Switching conferences would likely save a bundle in travel costs. Miami did a study in 1999 that concluded the economics of moving to the ACC would be a good deal for the program.
But the ACC, which rejected expansion in 1999, also has to make sure this is the right move.
In general, football coaches are for it.
"The window of opportunity is here for the league to do it," NC State coach Chuck Amato said.
Most of the resistance comes from the basketball side.
Among other things, Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest and NC State all want to be assured they don't lose their longstanding home-and-home series with each other. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's initial worries seemed to soften a little Monday when he applauded a presentation on expansion.
"The people who make the decisions - I felt great sensitivity toward everything," he said.
New North Carolina coach Roy Williams declined comment.
Programs like Virginia, Clemson, Maryland and Georgia Tech would want to make sure their interests are well represented in any split into divisions.
"If it happens, it should be as fair as possible for everybody," new Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "We will be looking for our interests to be met."
All coaches want to ensure the ACC's decades-old tradition is kept intact.
"The ACC has had the best basketball in the country by any criteria you use," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "Hopefully, we can continue that with whatever happens."
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - The ACC's pursuit of Miami as the first step toward expanding to 12 schools has come down to one president making a decision -- and it's not the president at Miami.
N.C. State's Marye Anne Fox controls the ACC's future, according to numerous sources who arrived here Sunday for the conference's spring meetings.
Late last week, sources said, Miami told league officials it wants to join the ACC, but Commissioner John Swofford doesn't have the seven votes from league presidents required to extend that invitation.
Duke and North Carolina have been against expansion, while N.C. State has been resolute, too, in a way that has stunned sources from across the ACC.
Whether Fox's "no" is negotiable remains to be seen.
"That's the $64,000 question," Georgia Tech men's basketball coach Paul Hewitt said. "Anybody know what's her holdup?"
Fox wasn't available for comment Sunday. ACC presidents aren't attending these meetings, which explains why Swofford said expansion doesn't dominate the agenda.
While athletics directors will have input, presidents will cast the votes.
Even if N.C. State remains against expansion, the ACC is exploring other potential "yes" votes -- specifically, North Carolina. UNC football coach John Bunting said Sunday his school isn't steadfastly anti-expansion.
"I wouldn't say that," he said. "There are some facts people don't know."
Bunting wouldn't identify those facts, but the fact remains the ACC is closer to expansion than it has been since making Florida State its ninth member in 1991.
Whatever the resolution, no one involved wants this issue to linger, Swofford said.
Expansion surely is the most muddled topic in recent ACC history. In one corridor of the Ritz-Carlton resort, Virginia's Pete Gillen said the league's basketball coaches were in favor of expansion.
In another, Wake Forest's Skip Prosser and Maryland's Gary Williams talked negatively about expansion, although both acknowledged their feelings didn't necessarily reflect their schools' positions.
"It's a football decision," Williams said. "Let's face it."
Said Prosser: "What's best for basketball may not be what's best for the ACC."
After days of comparing financial histories and projections, Miami apparently has decided joining the ACC is in its best financial interest.
Its athletics department reported a loss of roughly $1.5 million in 2001-02.
However, sources said Miami President Donna Shalala won't announce her desire to join the ACC until the league extends a formal invitation. And that won't happen until N.C. State -- or North Carolina -- switches its "no" to "yes."
In other words, Swofford's most delicate work is yet to come.
"There can be fluctuations where a particular institution can stand," Swofford said.