ACC to grow by 3 schools; Tech unsure
By TIM PEELER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - Presidents of the Atlantic Coast Conference's nine universities voted to expand the league to 12 teams Tuesday, but now the schools must agree on who will get invitations.
Virginia Tech's role - if any - in the expansion is unknown. ACC commissioner John Swofford would not confirm which schools besides Miami would receive invitations to join the league.
It's a significant decision that will likely change the landscape of college athletics and alter the makeup of the league that has added only Georgia Tech and Florida State since the eight original members began play 50 years ago. A 12-team ACC could stretch as far north as New York down to the tip of Florida, spanning the East Coast.
The ACC has voted to expand because it wants to be one of the largest and most important leagues when a new format is determined for the national football championship after the 2005 season.
The league is courting four schools that are in the Big East Conference: Miami, Boston College, Syracuse and Virginia Tech. Miami has long been considered the most likely new member because of its prominence in football. But there are sticking points from current ACC schools about what other schools to invite, concerns that will be discussed and worked out in coming days.
The nine presidents voted 7-2 in favor of expansion during a lengthy conference call with Swofford on Tuesday morning, according to John Thrasher, chairman of the Florida State Board of Trustees and a political lobbyist in Tallahassee. Duke and North Carolina dissented, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Florida State's president, T.K. Wetherell, told Thrasher that "there are some things to work out, the alignment of the teams, whether Syracuse is in or Virginia Tech is in."
While most of the league's schools favor Syracuse, which won the NCAA men's basketball championship last month, there is political pressure being applied to the University of Virginia to get state rival Virginia Tech into the ACC.
Miami, the driving force in expansion, prefers having Boston College and Syracuse as members. It's a debate that has to be resolved, or it could end the expansion talks.
Thrasher told The Charlotte Observer that Virginia President John Casteen lobbied the ACC to add Virginia Tech when he cast Virginia's vote in favor of expansion.
"Miami wanted Syracuse as part of its package" to join the ACC, Thrasher told The Charlotte Observer. "We [at Florida State] definitely want Miami, Syracuse and Boston College, but a couple of ACC schools have a different view of that."
Those schools are Virginia and Georgia Tech, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
ACC members want Miami and Boston College but disagreed about the third invitee, a source familiar with the proceedings told the Atlanta newspaper. During an unscheduled meeting of ACC athletic directors, there was widespread support for Miami and Boston College.
But when Virginia proposed Virginia Tech, not Syracuse, as a potential third new member, there was a prolonged discussion among the ACC athletic directors.
"The conference call among the league's chancellors and presidents this morning was another step toward completion of an ongoing process that is not yet finalized," Swofford said in a prepared statement.
"It is not appropriate at this time for me to share the particulars of this morning's conference call out of respect to our own schools and to potential candidates.
"At this time, no final decisions have been reached."
Miami athletic director Paul Dee said there is still more information needed before he will ask school president Donna Shalala to consider moving from the Big East to the ACC.
"Even if [the ACC] called us tomorrow and said, 'OK, you're it,' we still have all these discussions to do with them to assure ourselves," Dee said. "All they are really doing here is saying, 'Let's talk.'"
ACC ruins Weaver's evening
"We'll be on pins and needles a little longer until the institutions find out
just who's in the mix," Tech's Jim Weaver says.
By RANDY KING
THE ROANOKE TIMES
STAUNTON - So much for your smiley-face Holiday Inn welcome.
Minutes after walking through the motel chain's front doors for Tuesday night's
Orange and Maroon tour stop here, Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver
probably wished this Hokie Club gig had been playing at Holiday Inn Express. If
you can believe the televisions commercials, that way he may have have looked a
little smarter.
Instead, Weaver was left somewhat ashen-faced when he was informed that the
Charlotte (N.C.) Observer had just reported on its Web site that ACC school
presidents had voted 7-2 in favor of expansion to 12 members. It was not news
that he or anyone else in Hokie Nation particularly wanted to hear.
"No expansion would have been the best news," Weaver said. "Now we've got to
hope for the next best news. And that is Virginia Tech is in the mix."
Who knows now? While the ACC has yet to extend formal invitations, it looks like
invites will go out to three of four Big East schools - Miami, Boston College
and either Syracuse or Virginia Tech.
Weaver confessed it's a nervous situation for him as well as the entire Tech
constituency.
The ACC "has voted to expand, so we'll be on pins and needles a little longer
until the institutions find out just who's in the mix," Weaver said. "I've been
quoted as saying that I hoped things would stay as they were, but I said if
expansion occurs I would hope Virginia Tech would be in that mix.
"I feel there a lot of things we bring to the table that lot of other
institutions don't. Hopefully, the people in the ACC ... I'm sure they know what
those issues are because we've communicated. Through [Tech] President [Charles]
Steger and the athletic administration we've not left any stone unturned.
"I can't tell you what the mix is going to be. But I can go to bed at night
knowing that we've done everything we've possibly could to be in that mix."
Ever since word broke three weeks ago that the ACC was interested in picking off
Miami and two other Big East schools to expand to 12 members, many Tech fans
have been concerned. Syracuse and BC have been the two most common names linked
with Miami as the possible Big East defectors.
"I think everybody is concerned," said Carl Link, a 1974 Tech graduate attending
Tuesday's meeting.
"Most everybody's first choice would be to stay in the Big East with Miami,
Boston College and Syracuse. That obviously has been a wonderful association for
Tech and helped give it some of the resources to help get the program to the
level it's at. It's a level we're all excited about, but obviously if you take
it away there's a risk you go down a notch in national stature and in your
ability to recruit players."
If Tech is left out of the ACC expansion puzzle, the Hokies backers know their
beloved football program could be forced to take a step backwards.
"To me it makes perfect sense for us to be in the ACC," Link said. "The only
reason I can see for them to not to want to include us are competitive reasons,
such as they want to get an edge in recruiting. If we get knocked down in the
conference realignment, it's going to make lot harder to stay at level we've
been at."
George Reed, president of the Staunton-Waynesboro Hokie Club chapter, said he's
confident things will work out for Tech, ACC invitation or not. However, if Tech
doesn't land in the ACC, it may have to settle for playing in a realigned Big
East that likely would lose its automatic BCS bid.
"That's the worst-case scenario people are worried about," Reed said. "It's not
just so much being left out of the three, but what could happen to the [Big
East] conference after that.
"But I think with the level of competition Tech has been playing in football and
what it's done with facilities that it's going to end up in OK shape. You can't
leave out schools like West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech - all who
have played for the national championship - and still have a valid BCS."
Tech has got a lot riding on this one
BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST May 14, 2003
Contact Bob Lipper at (804) 649-6555 or e-mail blipper@timesdispatch.com
PETERSBURG The Frank Beamer outfit of the day was straight off a GQ cover, not a
golf course or a Lane Stadium sideline. Blue blazer. Gray slacks. Black tassled
loafers. The man could've been dressed for a wedding or a funeral.
He'll find out which applies soon enough.
The ACC's other shoe fell yesterday, and Virginia Tech can only hope the fallout
doesn't leave its athletic program - and particularly its powerhouse football
team - without shelter or a viable home. That possibility dangles precariously
now that the ACC has formally endorsed expansion. Miami awaits its engraved
invitation. Boston College is advised to check its mail box as well.
The third seal of approval could go to Tech or Syracuse.
The loser will have a good cry on Lee Corso's shoulder.
Hard news caught up with Beamer just as he arrived for a Hokie Club shindig at
the Country Club of Petersburg. This is the sort of event where Beamer partakes
of heavy hors d'oeuvres and tells dewy-eyed boosters a swell season is just
around the corner. Seismic shifts on the College Sports Inc. landscape aren't
normally part of the agenda.
Said the pride of Fancy Gap, "Oh, this is big stuff here."
It's big stuff nationally. It's big stuff regionally. It's earth-tremor stuff in
Blacksburg. Look, Tech hasn't dropped a seven-figure package on Beamer and
expanded and luxury-suited its stadium and thrown up a fancy support building
because it's aspired to be Louisville or Memphis. No offense to the Cardinals or
Tigers, but we're talking apples and filet mignons here.
We're also talking survival. If Tech doesn't make the ACC cut - and my guess is
its odds are slim - then its cash-cow football program is trapped between a rock
(a diluted Big East) and a hard place (the unknown). Either way, its stature,
cash flow and access to big-time bowls are at risk.
An anxious moment for Hokie Nation? Beamer was asked. "Oh, I'd say it's real
anxious," he replied.
Elsewhere on the premises, nervous boosters nursed beers and churning stomachs.
Some tried a little long-distance press agentry. Somehow, I don't know if John
Swofford is listening.
"We think we have a program that can play in the ACC," John Clary of
Lawrenceville said hopefully. "We can help the ACC. We can fill up Wallace Wade
Stadium [at Duke]. We can fill up Wake Forest. We can help the travel budgets of
the non-revenue sports."
What Tech can't do is dangle a heavyweight TV market. Syracuse does lousy
Nielsens in New York and BC barely registers in Boston, but perception is
reality - and the ACC will sell, sell, sell the spectre of all those Sonys and
Panasonics to the suits it hopes will line up with sacks of loot for its next TV
package.
TV dollars and a big-bucks championship game for football are what's driving
this bus. The problem for Tech - its natural fit in the ACC notwithstanding - is
it might be left by the curb with its thumb out and exhaust fumes wafting over
those orange and maroon uniforms.
"The one thing I know is we have a great program," Beamer said. "You know, we
had 30,000 for the spring game. We fill our stadium. We'll fill the other team's
stadium. We've got a great academic school. Our TV ratings have been good. I
think those are the facts. As to where we fall, we'll have to wait and see and
go from there."
He shrugged a helpless shrug. I left him sitting in front of a wide-screen TV.
The remote was in his right hand.
He didn't look like he was ready to be the life of the party.
ACC votes to expand to 12
schools
The ACC voted to expand yesterday in a move that could reshape the landscape of college football.
The conference's nine school presidents and chancellors voted during a teleconference with Commissioner John Swofford to add three schools. An ACC athletics director said that the vote was 7-2, with Duke and North Carolina opposed. That was confirmed by an ACC official.
The athletics director said that the ACC will target Miami, Fla., and Boston College, both members of the Big East Conference, for membership. Opinion is divided on the third candidate, either Syracuse or Virginia Tech, also Big East members. The athletics director said that Syracuse is attracting more interest from ACC members because of an overall stronger athletics program.
Swofford declined to meet with reporters here covering the ACC's spring meeting but did issue a statement late last night confirming his talks with the presidents and chancellors.
"The conference call among the league's chancellors and presidents this morning was another step toward completion of an ongoing process that is not yet finalized," Swofford said.
"It is not appropriate at this time for me to share the particulars of this morning's conference call out of respect to our own schools and to potential candidates. At this time no final decisions have been reached."
Paul Dee, Miami's athletics director, said last night that Miami is interested in joining the ACC but that the decision will be made by school president Donna Shalala.
"Even if they (ACC officials) called us and said, 'OK, you're it,' we still have all this discussion to do with them to assure ourselves," Dee said. "All they can really do is say, 'Let's talk.'"
Marye Anne Fox, the chancellor at N.C. State, and G. Wayne Clough, the president at Georgia Tech, were asked by the ACC to meet with Shalala and present the ACC's invitation to Miami. The reshaped conference could begin play with the 2004 football season.
Chancellor Buzz Shaw of Syracuse is an old friend of Shalala's, which could help the ACC's chances of landing Syracuse. Shaw headed up the University of Wisconsin system when Shalala was the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin.
The ACC athletics directors had an unscheduled meeting yesterday that lasted four hours to discuss the expansion and the possible candidates.
The Big East will hold its spring meeting starting Saturday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and its officials are expected to make concerted efforts to keep Miami from leaving.
Coach John Bunting of North Carolina said he thinks that the addition of Miami and any two of the other three possible members will give ACC football unprecedented strength.
"It will be the best football conference in the country," Bunting said. "It's pretty damn good right now. I think most of the football coaches in the ACC want to see it."
Chan Gailey, the coach at Georgia Tech, said that Miami will make ACC football better and give the conference a second annual contender for the national championship.
"It raises the bar," Gailey said. "Florida State did that for the ACC in football when they came in (in 1991). This would probably continue to raise the bar, which is good."
The ACC football coaches met yesterday, discussed expansion and possible six-team conference divisions and then adjourned. Bunting said that Swofford and other conference officials have told the coaches that the ACC could expand and then work out the details of realignment.
Several ACC sources said that Miami and Florida State would likely be in the same division, to continue their rivalry. The game would be played early in the season so that the loser would have ample time to earn a spot, along with the ACC champion, in the Bowl Championship Series.
The SEC has the same arrangement for two of its top football teams, Florida and Tennessee, who play in the same division. Coach Bobby Bowden of FSU said he would prefer that Miami play in the other division, however, so that FSU and Miami could play in the ACC championship game.
Bowden said he knows what he would do if FSU and Miami are placed in different divisions.
"I'd smile," he said. "If we're in the same division, I'm going to frown. But (being in the same division) is better than not doing this thing."
Bowden has backed adding Miami to the ACC, although Florida State's reign as the conference football kingpin would be threatened.
Basketball, traditionally the ACC's top sport, could be governed by different changes. Coach Paul Hewitt of Georgia Tech said that some discussion among the nine basketball coaches has included three divisions with four teams in each division.
Three divisions would give ACC schools 18 conference games, two more than it has played each season since FSU joined the league. Teams would play home-and-home series with the teams in their divisions (six games); they would play home-and-home series with the four teams of another division, (eight more games); and then play the four teams in the remaining division once. Play would rotate each season.
Hewitt was an assistant at Villanova when the Big East experimented with three divisions, and he said that the 18-game conference schedule made for a tough season.
"We beat each other up," Hewitt said. "It was murder. It was a hardship."
Such concerns as the ACC Tournament format and location must be dealt with. Joe Alleva, the athletics director at Duke, said he's worried that the ACC might have to move its basketball tournament to a domed arena to prevent a cut in tickets allocated to the schools.
UM awaits bid after ACC approves expansion
By Omar Kelly and Craig Barnes | National Correspondents
Posted May 14, 2003
AMELIA ISLAND -- The Atlantic Coast Conference inched closer toward expansion on
Tuesday when the presidents voted to expand the conference from nine to 12
teams, clearing the way for Miami to join the league if it chooses. The
framework for expansion has been laid, and Miami should receive an official
invitation from the conference in the coming days.
But before the Hurricanes opt to leave the Big East, UM Athletic Director Paul
Dee said a number of lingering issues regarding money, which Big East teams join
Miami in the ACC, the proposed divisions and scheduling issues need to be worked
out to Miami's satisfaction.
UM President Donna Shalala will ultimately pull the trigger on Miami's expansion
stance once an invitation is extended. Dee said the outcome of certain pertinent
issues and the comparison of the financial ramifications for UM will likely
impact her answer. Shalala's preferences are not known, but Dee said she "keeps
an open mind."
What is known is that UM officials will undergo the process at a pace with which
they are comfortable. When Dee was asked if he needed to know where Miami stood
as it heads into the Big East's annual spring meeting this weekend in Ponte
Vedra Beach, he said no.
"In fact, I don't know if we would accept [an invitation] if it comes because we
have issues with our friends in the Big East that we need to get through," Dee
said. "We have issues we need to resolve if we were to consider moving, looking
at financial structures, looking at organizational structures, looking at how
the divisions would be worked out. The only thing that's been determined at this
point is the concept."
According to sources familiar with the situation, the decision on the other two
teams to join the league was left open-ended. But it should be decided by
another vote by early next week. The expansion question passed by a 7-2 margin.
North Carolina and Duke dissented.
The schools originally thought to be in the three-team package were Miami,
Syracuse and Boston College, which are all Big East schools. The Hurricanes have
been resolute in their position about having the two schools join them if they
opt to leave the Big East.
Marye Anne Fox, the chancellor of North Carolina State, and Dr. G. Wayne Clough,
the president of Georgia Tech, will contact Shalala to discuss the situation.
After the affirmative vote on expansion, the presidents were prepared to vote on
the Miami, Syracuse and Boston College grouping.
At that point, a representative from Virginia offered an amendment replacing the
Orangemen with Virginia Tech. Virginia's administration has been under heavy
political pressure to protect the Hokies' interest in the expansion process.
A three-hour debate ensued with merits of the potential schools being presented.
Even Notre Dame became part of the discussion as a possible invitee. When no
consensus could be reached, the issue was tabled with Fox and Clough appointed
to discuss the matter with Shalala.
It has been apparent from the beginning that Miami favored Syracuse and Boston
College as the two teams to join it in the move from the Big East to the ACC.
For Miami, the absence of Boston College would be a deal breaker, sources say.
If it becomes apparent that the absence of Syracuse is a deal breaker for the
ACC presidents, Shalala, according to sources at Miami, might be willing to
listen to arguments for Virginia Tech. It should be pointed out that Syracuse's
Chancellor, Buzz Shaw, was the chancellor of Wisconsin's university system when
Shalala was the school's president.
"Whatever argument is made to include Virginia Tech will have to be very
convincing," the source said.
"The idea has been to include the northeast television markets from the start.
Miami would need a very strong reason not to continue insisting on that."
Although nothing is firm, the earliest projected date for an expanded ACC to
operation is 20054, but it's more likely to happen in 2005 or 2006 when the
league's new television contract and the new BCS contract would go into effect.
What would happen to the Hurricanes until then is unclear.
In order to withdraw from the Big East for the 2003-04 season a team would have
to notify the league by June 30 and pay a seven-figure sum, reportedly about $1
million. After that date the figure increases significantly for withdraw unless
a team's exit would come after 2004.
The ACC, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, hasn't expanded since
1991 when Florida State was added, but expansion is presently being pushed to
secure the league's position in the ever-changing landscape of college
athletics, which many speculate will undergo a significant shift in 2006 when
the BCS agreement is redone.
League hits panic button
Published May 14 2003
David Teel
This couldn't be a worse decision. The ACC portrays its expansion from nine to
12 members as visionary and essential. Arrogant and selfish are more like it.
Nothing against Miami, Syracuse and Boston College, mind you. Fine institutions
all. We love the restaurants in Little Havana, the beer joints in Syracuse and
the architecture at BC.
But pillaging the Big East to bring them to the ACC? It makes as much sense as
adding Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and Smokey Robinson to the Backstreet Boys.
Yes, I know formal invitations were not extended Tuesday and that Virginia
prefers Virginia Tech to Syracuse. But that's cover-Virginia's-butt politics.
Miami and most of the ACC's expansion advocates want Boston College and Syracuse
for their northern media markets, and in this shakedown, Miami gets what Miami
wants.
Might Miami change its thinking? Might university president Donna Shalala watch
some tape of Tech's punt-block team and starting humming the Hokey-Pokey?
Don't hold your breath. This delay simply allows Virginia president John Casteen
to tell Virginia Tech prez Charles Steger and all the Hokies controlling purse
strings in the state legislature: Hey, I tried.
But even if Tech were included, it wouldn't alter the truth: The ACC's quest for
potential revenue leaves long-term, if not permanent, scars on several
institutions.
ACC expansion zealots such as Georgia Tech athletic director Dave Braine (more
on his cruel irony later) counter that 12-team "mega-conferences" are the future
of major college sports (read: major college football). Any league without 12,
they argue, won't be a player when football's next postseason structure is
created in 2006.
So if the Pacific 10 and Big Ten don't expand, they won't be included? A Big
East with Miami and Virginia Tech wouldn't be included? An ACC with Florida
State wouldn't be included?
What a crock. This isn't vision. This is panic.
Yes, the ACC's football television contracts expire after the 2005 season. And
yes, if Florida State continues to slide, the league will have little leverage
in negotiations.
But last year the ACC distributed $9.7 million to each of its members, more than
any conference. Isn't that enough?
Stupid question. In today's Darwinian business world, enough doesn't exist. Your
company posted $20 million in profit last quarter? Sorry, pal. Wall Street
expected $22 million, and your stock price just Enroned.
How to reverse that stock slide? Layoffs, bay-bee. Don't let the door hit you in
the ...
And who perpetuates this garbage? Who approved ACC expansion? University
presidents, those purveyors of academia, virtue and honor.
Who gets hurt? Where to start?
Let's go to Virginia Tech. Frank Beamer has toiled 16 seasons building the
Hokies into a national power. The university just spent $37 million to expand
Lane Stadium, with blueprints for $48 million more. Now, barring a drastic
change in course by the ACC, Tech's investment could implode.
Big East football without Miami, Syracuse and Boston College? That leaves Tech,
West Virginia and Co. courting the likes of Louisville, Central Florida and
Marshall to join in a contrived marriage that holds little appeal to television
networks, bowl games and a potential national championship playoff.
Without such access, Tech's athletic department figures to lose recruits by the
dozen and money by the millions. So scratch the second stadium expansion and,
worst-case scenario, say goodbye to several sports.
And to think, among those causing this Hokie heartache is Braine, the man who
guided Virginia Tech's athletic department from 1988-97 and orchestrated the
football program's entrance to the Big East.
Next on the hurt parade is Connecticut. The Huskies in 2000 upgraded their
football program from Division I-AA to Division I-A, and last season they won at
Iowa State and nearly beat Boston College. They open a $90 million stadium this
season and are scheduled to begin Big East competition in 2005. Now what?
Rutgers, Pittsburgh and West Virginia, the latter two legitimate national
programs, are asking the same question. Pittsburgh might eventually slide into
the Big Ten, but the others are hurting.
Ditto ACC basketball, especially the conference tournament. Twelve teams dictate
four games the first day, four games the second. Now I love hoops, but I'm gonna
need a Diet Coke I.V. to stay awake for eight games in two days.
Hey, there's an idea: The Diet Coke ACC Tournament. Surely the conference
presidents would approve.
Anything for a buck.
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - Expansion might have been the easy part.
Watch the ACC try to find a two-division split that appeases all 12 schools.
"It won't happen," said N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler. "This is a big deal to a lot of folks, and everyone's not going to agree."
Adding Miami, and two from among Boston College, Syracuse and Virginia Tech would expand the ACC's north-south borders by several hundred miles, and a divisional split along geographic lines would break up the Big Four: Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest.
Wake Forest athletics director Ron Wellman said the league has considered a dozen or more alignments. Some have the Big Four in the same division, but most do not.
Arch-rivals Duke and North Carolina, already aligned in their vote not to expand -- the other seven schools voted Tuesday in favor -- will find themselves in agreement again when they seek to stay in the same division.
"Isn't that something?" UNC basketball coach Roy Williams said, grinning at his school's uneasy alliance with Duke.
Meanwhile, Florida State already is breaking into two camps -- those for and against playing in the same division with Miami.
"I'd smile," FSU football coach Bobby Bowden said of being placed in separate divisions. Asked how he'd feel if the Seminoles and Hurricanes share a division, Bowden said, "I'm going to frown."
That's not the case with Florida State's board of trustees chairman, John Thrasher, who said the Seminoles should play alongside Miami to maintain their annual rivalry.
"We want to play Miami every year," Thrasher said. "Clearly we don't want to be in different divisions, because (in some seasons) the only time we'd play would be in the title game."
Georgia Tech athletics director Dave Braine, who was at Virginia Tech when that school joined the Big East, remembers being concerned about sharing a league with Miami.
"I thought to myself, `We'll never beat Miami.' It didn't take long to turn that around," Braine said. "If you worry about those things, you'll never get it done."
ACC approves adding three from Big East
Football power Miami, basketball titlist Syracuse to be invited to join league;
3rd spot: Either BC or Va. Tech; Still 'issues' to resolve, but 2004-05 start
seen; Terps' placement up in a
By Don Markus
Sun Staff
Originally published May 14, 2003
The Atlantic Coast Conference took a significant step toward its first expansion
since 1991 and its most radical refor- mation in the league's 50-year history
yesterday when the presidents and chancellors of the nine current member schools
voted to add three schools from the Big East.
In a 7-2 vote taken during a conference call, the ACC moved swiftly toward
offering membership to Miami, Syracuse and either Boston College or Virginia
Tech. The decision came while the ACC was holding its annual spring meetings in
Amelia Island, Fla., and days before the Big East was scheduled to meet in
nearby Ponte Vedra Beach.
Unless the invitations are rejected, the 12-team conference will begin play with
the 2004-2005 seasons. The ACC would then encompass nearly the entire Eastern
seaboard, bringing in new television audiences and fans as well as revenue from
renegotiated television contracts, corporate sponsorships and a conference
championship football game.
It would give the ACC a much greater stature in football, given Miami's
perennial position in the national championship picture, The Hurricianes won the
Bowl Championship Series title game over Nebraska two years ago and played in
the championship game last season, losing to Ohio State.
In addition, Syracuse won last season's basketball championship.
ACC commissioner John Swofford would not go as far to say that expansion was a
definite, hedging a bit as he and other league officials figure out exactly
which schools will be asked to join. He called yesterday's conference call
"another step toward completion of an ongoing process that is not yet
finalized."
But the chairman of the Florida State University Board of Regents said that it
is a done deal.
"There are still a couple of issues, but the ACC will be expanding," John
Thrasher told the Charlotte Observer. "Miami really wants Syracuse as part of
its package. We definitely want Miami, Syracuse and Boston College, but a couple
of ACC schools have a different view."
While the ACC received the necessary votes to expand - a minimum of seven was
required - the one squabble seems to be on whether to invite Boston College or
Virginia Tech. Boston College would provide a larger market, but Virginia Tech
seems more geographically suitable and has a much stronger football program.
Miami athletic director Paul Dee, whose recent disclosure of talks with Swofford
was a solid indication of the school's interest in joining the ACC and provided
the catalyst for the three other schools to listen as well, said that more talks
will have to take place before a final decision is reached.
"Even if they called us, and said, 'OK, you're it,' we still have all this
discussion to do with them to assure ourselves," Dee said. "All they can really
do is say, 'Let's talk.' "
The three new schools would become the first to join the ACC since Florida State
in 1991. The biggest question seems to be whether the three schools can generate
some $30 million a year for the league's coffers, since ACC schools earned a
reported $9.7 million each in 2001-2002.
Another issue would be how the league divides itself. The most logical grouping
seems to be the four North Carolina schools - Duke, North Carolina, North
Carolina State and Wake Forest - with Maryland and Virginia in one division and
the Big East schools with Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson.
The most likely scenario is for the schools to have two six-team divisions for
football, but play as a 12-team conference for basketball, as the Big 12 has
done the past couple of years. If the ACC decides to invite the Hokies, a move
that Virginia is believed to be pushing, that could throw a wrinkle into the
divisions and could affect Maryland.
Given Virginia Tech's proximity to Virginia as well as the North Carolina teams,
the Hokies could push the Terrapins into the other, more geographically diverse,
division. Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams wants to keep the Terrapins
playing traditional rivals such as Duke and North Carolina twice each season.
That sentiment is shared by most of the basketball coaches in the league. On
Monday, they came out in support of whatever decision the league's presidents
reached. While some believe that it still might become a basketball-vs.-football
issue, the basketball coaches are continuing to show their loyalty.
"We're open-minded enough that we want to know about the process," said N.C.
State basketball coach Herb Sendek. "That doesn't mean certain coaches don't
have their minds made up. But to represent this as football coaches on one side
and basketball coaches on the other isn't necessarily the case."
Though the presidents were not expected to vote on expansion until later this
year, the timetable was pushed up dramatically by whispers that the Big East
schools with Division I-A football programs would break off and form their own
conference sometime this summer.
That still might happen, but it is likely to happen without Miami, Syracuse and
either Boston College or Virginia Tech. The next round of fireworks will take
place in a few days, when the Big East convenes for its spring meeting. The tone
there might be of survival, not of expansion.
The Hurricanes are not playing their entire hand, though most believe they will
accept the ACC's offer.
"We'll be deliberate. There's nothing that's rushing the decision by anybody,"
Dee said. "We'll do it in the right way, and the right time."
The ACC has expanded. Let the secondary violations begin.
The age-old question of what will the dog do once it catches the car is now a reality. Hang on. This could be a bumpy ride.
The image of the staid old ACC has always been that of a packed house inside Cameron with the Heels coming to play the Devils on a cold night in February. The new-look conference will now include hot nights in the empty Orange Bowl with the Devils down 79-3 and driving for a safety.
Welcome to the machine. The football factory at Wake Forest now has a night shift.
The fallout from the ACC's decision to add three schools -- Miami and either Boston College, Syracuse or Virginia Tech -- will not be felt for some time, and maybe we're being too dramatic here but the conference hasn't seen culture shock like this since, well, ever.
Picture the first game between Clemson and Boston College. You think Frank Howard's rolling in his grave? So is Danny Ford, and he's not dead yet.
Football money has always driven the business of college sports, so it's really no surprise this has happened. It was inevitable, but in our naivete we hoped things could stay the same.
We hoped the ACC Tournament could come to Greensboro forever, and maybe it will. But this can't be a good thing for our little coliseum that's suddenly going to have to compete with, oh, Madison Square Garden.
But let's think positive. The addition of these schools will make the ACC a lot stronger in football. And lacrosse. And hockey.
The last three NCAA basketball champions could be ACC schools, and the next three sailing champions could be, too.
Baseball will get a boost, and presumably golf could. Wait, do they have golf courses in Syracuse? Yes, but only in July.
The Atlantic coast itself will undergo a seismic shift with the conference logo suddenly including the coastal towns of Blacksburg, Va., or Syracuse, N.Y., and a big gap between the states of Maryland and Massachusetts and New York.
We're going to have to rethink everything. First and foremost is football. It's one thing to hide a 12-man basketball team on a campus of thousands. It's another thing altogether to try to hide 85 Forrest Gumps who weigh as much as the chemistry building, some of whom would have trouble spelling SAT if you spotted them the S and the A.
Internet geeks who devote their lives to recruiting periods will now have add to their watch the semester-ending exams.
OK, so we're taking cheap shots here. Let's face it, football has always left a stain behind in the ACC. Clemson's national title was followed by probation. Georgia Tech's was followed by George O'Leary. Florida State's was followed by an FBI gambling probe.
North Carolina's brief run at national prominence ended when Mack Brown left for the Texas football nation. N.C. State's current run could end when the new divisions are announced and Western Carolina has to be replaced on the schedule by five-time national champion Miami.
There's only one way to keep up now. Well, there are two, but they both include lots of money and one includes the aformentioned secondary violations.
You think we're kidding? List the last 15 or 20 national football champions and add up the NCAA investigations.
Big-time football isn't like big-time basketball. It's really big-time with millions of dollars at stake and coaches coming and going like cars pulling in and out of the strip joint over on Wendover and scandals that go beyond the walls of academe and sometimes all the way to the state house.
Alabama legislators once drew up a resolution claiming a national title after the Crimson Tide finished second in the AP poll. The corruption that brought down the football program at SMU started with a prostitute and ended at the governor's mansion. Pizza delivery heists and tennis-shoe schemes pale in comparison.
We can only hope the history of the ACC with its strong emphasis on academics and its strong leadership at the schools and the conference offices can keep the league above the quagmire of college football's recent history. You just can't picture Carl Franks hooking up with some chick named Destiny, can you?
A great Alabama football player once asked his mom, "What's my destiny?"
Some 80,000 football factory fans had the best answer.
Run, Forrest. Run.
NOT DONE: Expansion plans
need fleshing out
At the affirmation end of telephone calls yesterday, nine presidents and chancellors approved the framework for a growth spurt that would enlarge the conference to 12 members. They didn't agree unanimously with Commissioner John Swofford, but he rounded up the seven votes necessary to sustain his campaign for mega-conference status.
Put the emphasis on status. The status bone is connected to the ego bone, and they both swing fluidly as long as television mechanics keep greasing the financial joints.
Although expansion has taken giant leaps in recent weeks, the devil still fiddles with the details, according to knowledgeable conference sources. The biggest detail: punching the Miami ticket. The squeaky details: completing the math, which means selecting two willing schools from the odd threesome of Syracuse, Boston College and Virginia Tech.
The gap between framework and framed ACC membership cards might look no more daunting that the narrow platform between the dining car and the caboose, but prudent expansionists warned last night against labeling anything a done deal.
Swofford might have everything locked up, unless allies break promises. Other advocates still wonder about potential quirks.
Such as: Miami's commitment to leaping into ACC arms while decimating the Big East, a jump that seemed logical geographically until Miami's president, Donna Shalala, emphasized that the university draws its students from New York and other Eastern cities.
Such as: Virginia's delicate role, rife with internal conflict, as the hated rival and political protector of fellow state university Virginia Tech. The governor of the great commonwealth, appealing to the largest possible voting-age audience, wants the ACC to admit Virginia Tech ahead of the Northern candidates. Virginia has to work that angle, or at least appear to do so, a convoluted speaking part for Elizabethan actors with stronger visceral ties to the British than the French. The penalty for duplicity or insincerity might be greater than the penalty for failure, depending on the eventual appropriations power and leverage of Virginia Tech delegates in the statehouse.
Can UVa. talk one way and vote another without inviting budget recriminations?
And that's just the Southern part of the heavenly alignment. The ACC can't get to 12 without a Northern frontier.
Boston College has the leafy aura and academic profile that appeals to certain ACC presidents and chancellors (and its basketball team won't knock many serious contenders off the bubble).
Syracuse doesn't have leaves very long after summer gives way to those biting, tree-stripping hawks whipping across Canada and the Great Lakes (and Syracuse will wear you out on the Carrier Dome basketball court). Plus, the Syracuse athletics director's first public reaction dripped with resignation, something along the lines of: If Miami pulls out, I guess we'll have to follow them.
No turning back
At this stage in the proceedings, expansion starts to look like a train clearly out of the station, with eyes focused on the process and the destination. Not too many people will stand beside the tracks and holler at the conductor to hit the brakes.
That became evident on Monday when Mike Krzyzewski and other basketball coaches started mouthing a conciliatory party line instead of harping on the obvious fact that expansion will mangle their league schedules, further diminish the regular season and overpopulate the ACC Tournament.
"I want to make sure that basketball is being looked at, whether we stay the same or expand," Krzyzewski said. "Based on the last 24 hours, I think that will happen. We are being considered. People do know the impact."
Swofford stroked the coaches in ways that averted a potential deal-killing revolt. It's funny how millionaires need the same kind of cuddling as children (and it's downright weird how much they need it).
Expansion is a football-driven vehicle, as Maryland's Gary Williams points out with such repetition that you can almost hear his unspoken second line about Maryland's administration favoring football.
Maybe someone should yell at the conductor. At least Commissioner Swofford should shout something in full public view explaining why the ACC must expand before the diabolical monster of another mega-conference edges the piddling little six-state conference into secondary status.
The ACC sends larger checks to member schools ($9.7 million last year) than any league, but Swofford obviously senses that he needs 12 football teams, a $6 million-to-$10 million title game and a greater shot at two big-time postseason slots (whether in the current Bowl Championship Series or a possible eight-team national playoff).
Potential problems
Swofford and his foot soldiers keep raising the same issue: We can't afford to get left behind. He has adopted the Bush Doctrine of the preemptive strike and applied it to the college-sports industry.
But when you peruse the landscape, who's going to knock the ACC into the sea? The Big East would need about 20 schools to field 12 football teams.
Sorry, but the specter of UConn's passing game hardly seems like a death knell for ACC football. Conference USA, which is less cohesive than a shingled roof in a hurricane, barely registers on the meter.
Two mega-conferences are set (Big 12, SEC). The Big Ten keeps alive the Notre Dame dream, with Pitt as the practical fallback. The Pac-10 could find two partners but has shown no such inclination. Is the pressure really building and forcing the ACC to pounce on Miami or insist on 12 teams just to leverage a title game?
Probably not. The expansion lunge emits the foul scent of fear and greedy opportunism.
Bigger isn't always better, especially if you're committed to preserving various ruses about athlete-students and lofty academic standards. In this case, bigger means richer and more influential.
Bigger means fewer seats per school at the ACC Tournament or a tilt toward domes after current contracts run out (which would leave the state of North Carolina in the dust). Bigger means four teams with byes and eight teams with no decent shot at winning. Bigger means the end of round-robin schedules and a regular-season race for first place, and the beginning of races for byes in division settings.
Still, the train rolls on.
Advocates will tell you that trains carry the mail. They will also ignore suggestions that trains sometimes wreck.
Look out SEC: ACC is moving up
E-mail Mark Bradley
The business of college sports is a zero-sum game: Somebody wins, somebody else
loses. As the ACC expands, the SEC is lessened.
The SEC has been the nation's biggest football conference, owner of the most
lucrative TV package and the most brand-name programs. As a football entity, the
ACC has existed to prop up Florida State. Since joining in 1992, the Seminoles
have won or shared the league title every year save one. Adding Miami will give
the ACC a twin tower. Pairing Miami with FSU will change the collegiate
landscape.
Either Miami or Florida State has played in the last five (mythical) national
championship games. By way of contrast, the SEC hasn't sent a team to the title
game since Tennessee finished No. 1 in 1998. Still, the league has drawn bigger
ratings and commanded a higher profile than the ACC because it can generate
compelling games week after week, year upon year. From Florida-Tennessee in
September to Alabama-Tennessee in late October to Auburn-Alabama at
Thanksgiving, the SEC has ruled the national roost with familiar names and
sustained balance.
The ACC now holds the promise of something similar. Having Miami will guarantee
an annual marquee game -- 'Noles vs. 'Canes -- and enhance the potential of
weekly firestorms. For 11 years, the ACC came alive only when Florida State was
involved. To draw attention to itself, the conference took to staging games on
Thursday night, a move some in the snooty SEC derided as low-rent. But the
nation will take heed wherever and whenever Miami plays. It has won five
(mythical) national championships in 20 years; the pre-expansion ACC membership,
FSU included, has won five in 50.
Expansion will make the ACC the closest thing to a national conference.
Stretching from South Beach to upstate New York -- and, if Boston College is
granted admission over Virginia Tech, all the way to New England -- the 12-team
league will lay claim to the entire Eastern Seaboard. The reason folks in the
Northeast watch SEC football is that the Big East has given them no compelling
alternative. A fleshed-out ACC will offer more filling fare.
Of the six conferences aligned in the Bowl Championship Series, the ACC and the
Big East stood fifth and sixth in the ephemeral categories -- profile, prestige
and tradition. Taking three of the bigger Big East schools and grafting them
atop the established ACC will bump the new league up at least two notches. As
the reconfigured league draws more viewers, other leagues will draw fewer. In
the widening matrix of cable outlets and programming blocks, there are still
only so many eyeballs.
The SEC will be the first loser. With no geographic presence north of the Ohio
River and barely one west of the Mississippi, it lacks the big-city TV base
advertisers crave. The 12-team ACC will include Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte (via
the Carolina schools), Washington (via Maryland), New York (via Syracuse) and
perhaps Boston. The broadened ACC won't stop West Coast folks from tracking the
Pac-10 -- and it won't diminish the inherent passion of the Iron Bowl or the
World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party -- but it will alter Saturday-afternoon
viewing habits in the Eastern time zone. That's what this is about.
Television drives sports because television equals money. The ACC has long been
seen as the best basketball conference, and expansion won't hurt the hoops side.
(Indeed, the addition of Syracuse will put the past three NCAA champs under one
awning. How imposing is that?) But for all the money to be made in basketball,
football remains the cash cow -- football with its various weekend TV packages,
football with its zillion lesser bowls, football with its big-ticket BCS.
The occasional individual successes of FSU and Clemson and Georgia Tech and
Maryland notwithstanding, the ACC has spent 50 years only playing around at
football. Incorporating Miami will make it a major player.
Good call for ACC to expand
By FRANK DASCENZO : The Herald-Sun
fdascenzo@heraldsun.com
May 13, 2003 : 11:53 pm ET
I’m in favor of ACC expansion and the sooner, the better. Times are changing,
and the ACC needs to change with them.
The best thing the ACC can do is look to the future and not to its
much-respected history. It’s what’s in front of you that counts, not what’s
behind.
What happens when the BCS deal ends in three years? The ACC needs to stand up to
the stronger football leagues (the SEC and the Big 12 in particular) and compete
for national football titles, not just basketball.
ACC commissioner John Swofford knows what he’s doing, and nobody sees the future
better than this guy. I’ve been a big Swofford fan ever since his days as
athletics director at North Carolina. When Swofford replaced Gene Corrigan as
czar of the ACC, the league couldn’t have found a better man.
The sooner everybody gets on the same page — and realizes the wave of the future
is large power conferences, with postseason football playoff games — the better
off everybody will be.
Now, I know there’s this thing about tradition and nostalgia in the conference.
People’s feelings might get a bit wounded when they try to call the Hurricanes
(not the hockey team) an ACC family member. It might be even more difficult to
say "In an ACC matchup of the Eagles and the Blue Devils" because, well, you
know, we’re just not used to it.
Timing is usually everything. Swofford’s passion to change the landscape of the
ACC — and secure a different look to the league — isn’t something he’s doing for
the sake of ego.
What if the ACC didn’t expand and remained a nine-member conference? Is that
moving ahead or backward? What if Florida State, which favors expansion, bolted
for another power league that could grow from 12 to 14 schools?
Nobody would dare suggest the ACC become a mid-major lookalike in basketball,
that’s for sure. But if you take FSU out of the ACC, what is ACC football? Add
Miami — and two other respected programs from the troubled Big East — to the
ACC, and ACC football stands as strong as any league in the nation.
Forget geography. Remember rivalries. If this thing were up to me, I’d put Duke,
UNC, N.C. State, Miami, Boston College and Syracuse in the North Division and
Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Virginia and Maryland in the
South Division.
As much as I can’t wait to see Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski coach against
each other next basketball season, I’d sure like to see Jim Boeheim, coach of
the 2003 NCAA champion Orangemen, strut into the Smith Center or Cameron Indoor
Stadium one January or February night.
Forget about Virginia Tech. The Hokies bring no television audience, and while
their football program is nationally respected, it’s not much better than BC and
Syracuse, two schools that would bring large television audiences to the ACC.
In the event the elevator isn’t getting to the top floor, let me spell it out
clearly here. Miami and Florida State can get placed in different divisions.
Assuming Larry Coker and Bobby Bowden maintain their level of success and show
up coaching somewhere on New Year’s Day, they would appear to be favorites to
win football divisions.
True, Miami and FSU could be playing twice a season in football. Is that all
bad? Heck no, it’s not. While there might be better rivalries in college
football than the Seminoles and Canes, there aren’t many of them.
The ACC certainly doesn’t have to expand. But without risk, there’s no reward.
And the greater risk for the ACC would be to do nothing. I say take Miami and
hold the door for the Orangemen and the Eagles. It’ll be more fun for everybody.