ACC group visits Miami, sits down with Shalala

Virginia Tech president Charles Steger and some of his Big East peers will meet with Donna Shalala on Wednesday.

FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

   CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Miami and the ACC traded questions and answers Friday during a visit by conference officials that perhaps moved the Hurricanes a step closer to leaving the Big East.

    ACC commissioner John Swofford refused to put a timetable on Miami's decision but said it could be made in two weeks.

    "That's possible, but it would inappropriate for me to give you a drop-dead date," Swofford said. "I don't know that there is one.

    "When you get to a point of visiting campuses, you know there's a very high level of interest on our part as well as their part."

    Swofford, Florida State athletic director Dave Hart and North Carolina State athletic director Lee Fowler headed the nine-person delegation of officials from the ACC. They toured the Orange Bowl, Miami's campus and Miami's athletic facilities. They met for an hour with Miami president Donna Shalala.

    "This was an enjoyable visit, one in which we had a lot of questions answered and believe that the University of Miami had a lot of their questions answered," Hart said. "We came away very impressed with where the University of Miami is academically, athletically and the potential they hold for the future."

    The Palm Beach Post reported that Shalala will meet Wednesday in Washington, D.C., with the presidents of five Big East football schools not wanted by the ACC. Virginia Tech president Charles Steger will take part in that meeting, Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said Friday.

    The ACC voted May 16 to begin formal discussions with Miami, Syracuse and Boston College. Site visits are mandatory based on ACC bylaws.

    "The process is moving forward," Swofford said. "There is serious interest on our part; there's serious interest on the part of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse."

    Swofford will be on the delegations that visit Boston College and Syracuse next week. He said he would report back to ACC presidents about the site visits. The presidents would then speak individually with Shalala, Boston College president William Leahy and Syracuse chancellor Kenneth Shaw. Formal invitations could be presented anytime after that.

    Swofford said the ACC does not expect an immediate financial boost with Miami as part of a 12-team conference. The point of expansion, Swofford said, is to strengthen the ACC for the long term.

    "The biggest thing is ... how you're positioned to maintain your position of strength, your position of influence for the future," Swofford said. "I don't think our schools expect that [expansion] would be a financial windfall. We've never gone into it that way. That's not what the financial analysis shows us.

    "What it does show us is that it would give us the ability to maintain and, hopefully, ultimately enhance our financial stability."

    The ACC paid its schools $9.7 million in revenue-sharing in 2001-02.

    Miami reportedly earned $9.3 million from Big East revenue-sharing, but $4 million of that came from its Bowl Championship Series appearance in the Rose Bowl. Had the Hurricanes not played in a BCS game, they would have made about $1.7 million less in revenue-sharing.

    The Big East has guaranteed Miami at least $9 million annually in revenue-sharing - which includes the bowl money Miami reaps - for the next five years if the Hurricanes remain in the conference.

    "I feel that it's a nice thing, a nice gesture that they've made," Miami AD Paul Dee said. "I don't know that we would accept that. That's a decision that we haven't had to make at this point."

    While Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has labeled financial projections for a 12-team ACC as unrealistic, Dee indicated he felt otherwise.

    "We've looked at the data," Dee said. "We've talked to the consultants. We've done our own homework. We're getting to feel more and more comfortable."

    Swofford admitted that the ACC's financial projections, including television rights fees and proceeds from a conference championship game, required "a certain leap of faith," but added that the estimates "are realistic."

    According to The Miami Herald, Dee's biggest reason for wanting to join the ACC is because of what it could do financially for UM's basketball program, which lost $1.17 million in the 2001-02 season.

    Notre Dame is reportedly considering what to do if the three schools leave. Notre Dame would first look to remain in the Big East and align with the remaining Big East football schools, a source inside the Notre Dame athletic department told the South Bend Tribune. The school is considering that option even though it may require an agreement to play a partial schedule of conference football games, the source said.

    Notre Dame also will consider becoming a member of the ACC, but only with the promise that it could play a limited number of conference football games, the source said.

Arena may bring new motto to UVa
Virginia's new John Paul Jones Arena will bear the name of benefactor Paul Tudor Jones' father.
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

CHARLOTTESVILLE - At a prominent place in Virginia's new John Paul Jones Arena, benefactor Paul Tudor Jones hopes to see the inscription, "I have not yet begun to fight."
While the building is being named for his father and not the Revolutionary War hero with which those words are synonymous, Jones hopes that saying becomes a rallying cry for future UVa basketball teams.

Jones, a Connecticut money manager, has given $30 million to the construction of UVa's new 15,000-seat arena scheduled for completion in the summer of 2006 but was reluctant to have it named in his honor.

"Naming it after my father was a completely different situation because he had done so much for me over my 48 years," Jones said at groundbreaking ceremonies Friday. "Even then, I was somewhat reluctant until I broached the subject without letting my father know what I had in mind.

"I asked him what he thought about naming something the John Paul Jones, uh, monument. He said, 'Well, of course. That's a fantastic name.' I had mentioned that I might be doing something at the university."

John Paul Jones, an 83-year-old lawyer and publisher from Memphis, Tenn., said the name was particularly appropriate because of the connections between his namesake, father of the U.S. Navy, and Thomas Jefferson, founder of the University of Virginia.

"My father told me that John Paul Jones actually was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson," Paul Tudor Jones said. "Jefferson actually had a bust of John Paul Jones at Monticello.

"John Paul Jones was exemplary and typical of so many of our American founding fathers in the sense that he had indomitable will. He would never, ever, ever think of quitting or surrendering."

This John Paul Jones is a 1948 UVa law graduate and confirmed basketball fanatic who has season tickets for the Memphis Grizzlies and the University of Memphis. He could remember seeing only one game at 38-year-old University Hall, "about 10 years ago, I think," he said.

"I presently go to about 62 games a season and can't go to many more, but I will change that schedule this season. I will be at University Hall. I don't think John Paul Jones Arena is the only place you can have great basketball."

 

U.Va. names its new arena
Father of biggest donor honored
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER May 31, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE - At the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday for the University of Virginia's new arena, Paul Tudor Jones II concluded his remarks by telling his 83-year-old father, seated in front of him, "I love you."

As a sign of that love, the 15,000-seat special-events center will be called John Paul Jones Arena, U.Va. announced yesterday. The building is scheduled to open in the summer of 2006.

The project, which includes a parking garage and a connector road, has a price tag of $129.8 million. Paul Tudor Jones, founder of a money-management group in Greenwich, Conn., has pledged $35 million, by far the most of any donor. That gave him naming rights, and the 1976 graduate of U.Va. decided to honor the man who has "done so much for me over my 48 years."

John Paul Jones, a retired attorney and publisher in Memphis, Tenn., is a 1948 graduate of U.Va.'s law school, as well as "a basketball fanatic," according to his son. The elder Jones, who goes by Jack, is not related to his namesake, the father of the American navy, but he's long been a student of that John Paul Jones.

Until his father told him, in fact, Paul Tudor Jones didn't realize that the legendary John Paul Jones, who uttered the famous statement, "I have not yet begun to fight," had been close friends with Thomas Jefferson.

Once he learned of the connection between the naval hero and U.Va.'s founder, Paul Tudor Jones said, naming the arena for his father became an option he couldn't pass up.

"I can pay homage to two great Americans connected to the University of Virginia," said the younger Jones, who has given millions to his alma mater's academic side as well.

In his hometown, Jack Jones religiously attends Memphis Grizzlies and University of Memphis basketball games. He became a fan of U.Va. hoops, he said, during the Ralph Sampson era. He's only been to one game at Virginia, Jack Jones said, "but I will change that schedule this season. I will be in University Hall. I don't think this John Paul Jones Arena is the only place you can have great basketball."

After weeks of rain, the sun re-emerged yesterday in this city, and the crowd at the ceremony was in high spirits. For decades, U.Va. officials have discussed the need to replace aging U-Hall, and yesterday's ceremony signaled another step forward.

"The time spent getting to this point will be well worth the wait," Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said.

Littlepage said each of U.Va.'s eight counterparts in the ACC "between 1985 and this point have done something major to support their basketball programs."

With 8,392 seats, U-Hall is the ACC's smallest arena, and it's the second-oldest.

The focus yesterday was on the Joneses, but U.Va. President John Casteen also singled out other major donors, most notably Charlottesville's Philip G. Wendel and Richmond's William H. Goodwin Jr. U.Va. has pledges for about $80 million.

Casteen stressed, too, that the arena would be used for more than basketball, mentioning concerts, speeches, graduations, trade shows and home shows.

Preliminary site work began April 14. Construction on the project will begin in earnest this summer.

 

ACC Officials, Miami Draw Closer Toward Joining Forces
By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 31, 2003; Page D01

A delegation from the ACC, led by Commissioner John Swofford, met yesterday with top officials from the University of Miami, paving the way for the school to change conferences and help the conference expand to 12 teams.

"This is part of bringing us to the end result," Swofford said at a news conference following the meetings. "I think we have a lot to build on from today, a lot of positive things to think about.

"I look at this as an opportunity for our league. This is our 50th anniversary. This may be the point [in] time where our tradition and history meet a wonderful opportunity for our league and potentially three institutions that are interested in joining our league."

ACC representatives will visit Boston College on Sunday and Monday, and Syracuse on Tuesday and Wednesday; the trips are considered formalities and things could move quickly after that. A final announcement could be made at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., where the ACC was founded. The expansion would occur before the 2005-06 school year.

While the ACC's formal process of on-campus visits continues, even Swofford noted that Miami is the key to any expansion. And after a one-hour meeting with Miami President Donna E. Shalala, who ultimately controls her school's fate, everyone seemed pleased that things are in place for a shakeup certain to dramatically affect the landscape of college athletics.

"We've had a very interesting and open two days of conversations with the ACC," Miami Athletic Director Paul Dee said. "We had a good visit. We talked about a lot of pertinent and relevant topics regarding the university."

Big East officials have been trying frantically to keep Miami from leaving. This week, Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese sent a letter -- signed by representatives of the eight other Division I-A football-playing members -- pledging that Miami would receive a minimum of $9 million annually from the conference for the next five years. That would be in the same ballpark as the ACC, which allocated $9.7 million to each of its members for the 2001-02 school year.

However, Miami likely will leave anyway, unless Shalala is affected by a significant amount of outside pressure. Earlier this week, nine U.S. senators sent letters to Shalala and her counterparts at Syracuse and Boston College, urging them not to change affiliation and effectively crush the Big East. The University of North Carolina faculty council voted unanimously to oppose expansion. A handful of South Carolina state senators also have spoken out in opposition.

Still, the mood was upbeat at yesterday's news conference. Swofford, Dee and Florida State Athletic Director Dave Hart -- a key expansion proponent -- made statements before Swofford took 20 minutes of questions.

"We felt it was a very, very productive use of everyone's time," Hart said. "We had a good exchange of information. "I think I can speak for everyone without hesitation: This was an enjoyable visit. We had a lot of questions answered and believe the University of Miami was able to have a lot of [its] questions answered."

Swofford and Hart said no decisions have been made as how to divide the 12 teams into two six-team conferences and that the three new teams would have input. A source familiar with the discussions said that a most likely scenario has emerged, one that would place Maryland, Duke, North Carolina and Georgia Tech along with newcomers Miami and Boston College in one division. That would leave Virginia, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Clemson, Florida State and Syracuse in the other division.

In such a scenario, football and basketball scheduling would break down rather easily and allow teams to keep many of the home-and-home basketball matchups that have become quite popular.

For football, each team would play its division opponents and a "natural rival" from the other division every season and would play two of the other five teams from the other division each season on a rotating basis for a total of eight games, the same number that ACC teams currently play.

For basketball, each team would play its division opponents and natural rival twice each season and the remaining five teams from the other division once each season for a total of 17 games, one more than ACC teams currently play.

All 12 teams would play each other at least once and all would advance to the season-ending conference tournament.

The natural rivals also would be easy to decide: Maryland-Virginia, North Carolina-N.C. State, Duke-Wake Forest, Georgia Tech-Clemson, Florida State-Miami and Syracuse-Boston College.

Other details, such as sites for a football championship game and whether future basketball tournaments need to be held in dome venues, have yet to be discussed in earnest, another source said.

ACC, Big East finances

A comparison of the athletic department revenues and expenses for the 2001-02 school year (For comparison purposes, only Big East schools that play Division I-A football are included):

Virginia's Brooks Faces Marijuana Charge
By Preston Williams and Josh White
Saturday, May 31, 2003; Page D03

University of Virginia freshman linebacker Ahmad Brooks, the 2001 All-Met defensive player of the year, has been charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana after police found what they believed was a small bag of the drug in a car in which Brooks was riding earlier this month.

What effect, if any, the incident will have on Brooks's standing with the Cavaliers is unclear. A university spokesman declined to comment and said Coach Al Groh also would not comment on Brooks's status. The story was first reported Thursday by Roanoke TV station WDBJ.

Brooks, 19, a graduate of Hylton High in Woodbridge, is a cornerstone of the Cavaliers' touted 2002 recruiting class. He spent last fall at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., to raise his standardized test scores and enrolled at Virginia in January.

The 6-foot-2, 249-pound inside linebacker, the 2001 USA Today defensive player of the year and the son of former Redskin Perry Brooks, was in the back seat of a car stopped for speeding through a residential area of Dumfries at about 11:20 p.m. on May 17, police said.

The officer noticed "a strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle," a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass, said Dennis Mangan, a police spokesman. The officer then noticed the bag of suspected marijuana at Brooks's feet on the floorboard of the car and saw three people in the car -- all of whom were younger than 21 -- with open bottles of alcohol, Mangan said.

Marcus D. Hamer, 19, of Manassas, the owner and driver of the car, and Dale Barfield, 20, of Dumfries, also were charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Mangan said the officer released all three men on a summons to appear in Prince William General District Court on July 29, allowing them to leave with a third party who came to pick them up.

Brooks's mother, Vergie, said yesterday that her son was unavailable and that the family would have no comment.
 

Carlisle fired after two seasons with Pistons
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN.com news services

Fifty victories. A spot in the Eastern Conference finals. It just was not enough to earn a third season in Detroit.

Rick Carlisle has been fired as head coach of the Pistons after two seasons, he told ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher late Friday.

Carlisle's Pistons went 50-32 this season, the best record in the East. Detroit advanced to the conference finals before getting swept by the Nets.

Early Saturday morning, a Pistons' official denied to ESPN Radio that Carlisle has been fired.

Carlisle's agent said Carlisle intends to meet with the media on Saturday. Carlisle said he doesn't know if he wants to pursue another coaching position or return to television.

Carlisle's impressive resume with the Pistons also includes an NBA Coach of the Year award for the 2001-2002 season, his first season in Detroit.

Carlisle, 42, had one year remaining on his contract for $2 million. The Pistons decided they did not want to give him an extension.

The Pistons are reportedly interested in former 76ers coach Larry Brown.


 

SEC clean? Fat chance
Published May 31, 2003

Mike Slive, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, is nothing if not ambitious.

He recently told the SEC's athletic directors and coaches that he wants every team in the league off probation within five years.

Vegas is probably already making odds on that one. Chances of it happening: 100-to-1. Over/under for number of teams in NCAA jail five years from now: three.

The Associated Press, which keeps up with such things, reports that of late:

Alabama has served an NCAA sentence, with a penalty stretching into the future.

NCAA is investigating Auburn basketball recruiting.

Arkansas' football program is under probation because a booster bought, er, overpaid players for work at his trucking firm.

Kentucky is on probation for football recruiting.

Georgia declared itself ineligible for the NCAA and SEC basketball tournaments and isn't out of the woods yet because of the Jim Harrick business.

Tennessee imposed scholarship cuts on itself to try to bribe the NCAA into leaving it alone.

Mississippi State just got an NCAA letter of inquiry.

Arkansas said it's being investigated.

LSU has been dealing with charges of academic fraud.

Ole Miss and the NCAA are working together on a phone card/football players matchup.

South Carolina, Florida, stay tuned.

Vanderbilt. Clean, and conference football and basketball records show it.

Says Slive: "I really believe we can get there."

Lots of swampland for sale in the SEC.
 

Flushed with success, group wants more
Lax4Baltimore will lobby to add '05, '06 final fours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Paul McMullen
Sun Staff
Originally published May 31, 2003

Joe Boylan is the athletic director at Loyola College, one of the four local Division I programs that brought the conclusion of the NCAA men's tournament to M&T Bank Stadium. He was discussing how there would be some kinks in the first full-scale championship weekend in Baltimore.
"A friend of mine worked for the Ford Motor Co. when it engineered the Mustang," Boylan said. "He said you don't want the first model of anything. Year two is always better."

Boylan spoke before four familiar faces and the novelty of the first championship weekend at an off-campus venue helped the Division I semifinals overcome horrible weather and draw 37,944, the highest attendance ever at an outdoor NCAA championships.

The NCAA's 16 largest crowds have come at final fours, where the men's basketball tournament finishes at a domed stadium.

More than 75,000 watched an Olympic lacrosse exhibition between Johns Hopkins and Canada in 1932, but historian Donald M. Fisher pointed out that most at the Los Angeles Coliseum were there for a track and field program that included the conclusion of the marathon.

The race goes on for Lax4Baltimore, the local organizing committee that wants to make Baltimore the tournament's permanent home.

When the NCAA men's lacrosse committee meets in August to recommend a site for the 2005 and 2006 final fours - the 2004 games are already set here - Rutgers will make a bid to hold them at Giants Stadium, but Lax4Baltimore will point out record-breaking attendance and the potential for more.

"Our financial guarantee to the NCAA will be considerably higher," tournament director Marty Schwartz said. "Fan opportunities at Rash Field and fireworks after the Friday night banquet were late additions that weren't even in the proposal we made to the NCAA two years ago.

"Those will be included this time, along with other points that will try to make the NCAAs even more convenient for fans."

Schwartz said that Lax4Baltimore will look to basketball's Final Four, where fans from one school are seated together despite five days' notice. He said that the Ravens will open more ticket booths to handle the walk-up crowd, and that complaints about parking lots closing early will be addressed.
 

ACC may be option for Notre Dame
The Herald-Sun
May 30, 2003 : 11:37 pm ET

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame is considering three options of what to do if three schools leave the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference, including possibly joining the ACC as a partial member.

If Miami, Syracuse and Boston College accept an offer to join the ACC, Notre Dame will first look to remain a member of the Big East and align with the remaining schools that play football and basketball, a source inside the athletics department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the South Bend Tribune for a story published Friday.

The school is considering staying in the Big East with Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia, even though it may require an agreement to play a partial schedule of conference football games, the source said.

The league would then add three schools through expansion.

Notre Dame also will consider becoming a member of the ACC, but only with the promise that it could play a limited number of conference football games, the source said.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford said Friday in Florida that the ACC has had several talks with Notre Dame in the past about joining the conference, none of those discussions were recent.

"And all of our talks have been about them joining the conference as a full-time member. That’s a basic premise we have built our league around -- being in all the way or not at all," he said. "So for them to be a member and play only a limited number of football games, I don’t think that would even be feasible."

The last option is a last resort — join the Big Ten, the source said. Notre Dame considered joining the Big Ten in 1999 before an official invitation was rejected.

"Some tough decisions may have to be made," the source said. "Whatever happens, it’s going to happen fast."

There are no plans to consider sacrificing football independence, the source told the paper.

John Heisler, sports information director for Notre Dame, said athletics director Kevin White is not talking publicly about what the school might do.

"He is not interested in getting into the details or specifics of this at this point," Heisler said Friday. "It’s just not appropriate because the Big East is an institution of which we are a member, and at this point nothing has happened. He doesn’t think it’s appropriate for anybody here to be speculating on future events."

White released a statement last week that said: "The intercollegiate athletic landscape is fluid, to say the least. Consequently, we are monitoring this environment carefully."

As for talk about joining the ACC, all Heisler would say is that several conferences have approached Notre Dame about the school’s interest in discussing a move to another conference.


 

ACC not ready for bidding war

5-31-03

By ROB DANIELS, Staff Writer
News & Record

ACC Commissioner John Swofford said Friday that he won't feel compelled to match the Big East's guarantee of $9 million a year to the University of Miami, and Hurricanes athletics director Paul Dee said the Big East's offer may not be vital to his school's choice of future affiliation anyway.

The two spoke during an ACC delegation's visit to the Coral Gables, Fla., campus -- the next step in a process conference officials hope will bring Miami, Boston College and Syracuse from their current Big East home into the league. The addition of the three schools would give the ACC 12 members, perhaps destroy the Big East and trigger a chain reaction throughout major-college athletics.

In an 11th-hour decision, Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese has put together a financial incentive package that would probably extricate Miami, which lost $1.4 million on athletics in 2001-02 according to the U.S. Department of Education, from red ink. The guarantee would fall short of the national-best average of $9.7 million that ACC schools each received from the league, according to federal tax returns. Dee didn't sound overwhelmed by it, however.

"I feel that it's a nice thing, a nice gesture that they've made," Dee said of the Big East's offer. "I don't know that we would accept that. That's a decision that we haven't had to make at this point."

Asked if he'll take an ACC offer if it comes, Dee declined to comment.

Swofford said he won't get into a bidding war over the matter, preferring to adhere to the ACC's egalitarian financial policies, which were essentially agreed to May 8, 1953, the day the league was founded at Sedgefield Country Club.

"We haven't spent any time countering that," he said of the Big East offer. "The three institutions we've been talking to know what our league is. They know what our (financial) projections are. A lot of the stability of our league has been built on a principle of equal sharing of revenue. That is fundamental to what our league is about. I don't think that's anything we would be changing, nor would I expect any of the three institutions to expect us to do that."

Swofford also sought to downplay speculation that a football television package with Miami, BC and Syracuse aboard would double the $24 million the ACC received in the 2001-02 fiscal year. He said money isn't necessarily the most important issue, even though the league has hired a consultant to offer educated guesses.

"There's a certain leap of faith in this because projections are projections," Swofford said. "We happen to think ours are realistic and that's the only way we go into this. The way our league looks at this is what's best for the long term, because particularly in the short term, there are some unknowns out there. We know that. The biggest factor in (expansion) is who you're associated with as a conference and you position yourself to maintain a position of strength in the future."

Swofford, Dee and Florida State athletics director Dave Hart, one of the principal proponents of Miami's inclusion in the ACC, addressed the media. Miami President Donna Shalala did not, but she is known to be enamored of the ACC's academic reputation. She also has ties to Syracuse Chancellor Kenneth Shaw, who headed up the University of Wisconsin system while Shalala was president of the flagship Wisconsin campus in Madison.

Both sides said they were impressed with one another, which is no surprise. Swofford revealed for the first time Friday the timetable of the events leading to the courtship process. He said that in the fall of 2001, George Nemhauser, faculty athletics representative at Georgia Tech and the president of the ACC that academic year, wanted to pursue expansion during his term in the generally ceremonial office.

"He asked me to bring two of our (institutions') presidents to take a very serious look at expansion," Swofford said. "Our presidents received that well. We put together a committee of one member from each of our nine institutions. We brought in a consultant who would give us an objective look at a number of things -- financial and otherwise. Would expansion be a good thing? If so, with whom?"

Only recently did the discussions specifically endorse expansion and identify the three targets. Swofford said three weeks ago that expansion almost certainly would be to 12 and only 12 schools.

On Thursday, N.C. State faculty leaders took no position on expanding the conference but did call on the league to strengthen and codify its academic principles.

The decision at N.C. State came one week after faculty leaders at North Carolina voted to oppose expansion. At Duke, President Nan Keohane plans to meet next week with members of Duke's faculty council who have raised concerns about league expansion.

The ACC will take today off from the visitation process. Swofford and another committee will visit Boston College on Sunday and Monday. A third group, led again by the conference commissioner, will check out Syracuse on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Big East officials anticipate a meeting with Miami to discuss the offer of a $9 million-a-year guarantee late next week.

Miami set to jump to ACC
By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff, 5/31/2003

In what will be a final curtain call to her Big East brethren, University of Miami president Donna E. Shalala will meet with five Big East counterparts in Washington Wednesday to explain why her school is expected to jump to the Atlantic Coast Conference along with Boston College and Syracuse.

Although there has been speculation Shalala is waffling, one source in the Big East said yesterday the decision already had been made and Shalala was simply covering her political bases by talking to the presidents of the five other Big East football schools -- Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Rutgers, and West Virginia. Only a dramatic change of heart -- which is not expected -- would alter the course of action.

''There is no way the ACC would go through the public display of making site visits if it didn't have the answers from the three schools involved,'' said the source. ''There's no way they would open themselves up to the embarrassment of something going wrong.''

The presidents of the remaining Big East schools had been spending their time trying to convince Shalala, Syracuse president Kenneth Shaw, and BC's Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., to reconsider their decision to leave the Big East.

Connecticut president Phillip Austin, West Virginia president David Hardesty Jr., and Pittsburgh president Mark Nordenberg met with Leahy Thursday and were told by Leahy this was not an athletic or financial issue as much as it was an academic issue of BC wanting to expand its influence into a new area of the country.

Considering that BC is a Doug Flutie pass away from Tufts, Harvard, and MIT, it seems that BC has enough academic partners in the area.

Shalala and Miami officials met with ACC officials yesterday, the second and final day of a site visit by the ACC, which is required before any official invitation can be extended. The ACC's next stops will be BC tomorrow and Monday and Syracuse Tuesday and Wednesday.

ACC commissioner John Swofford refused to put a timetable on a possible decision but said it could be done in two weeks.

''That's possible, but it would inappropriate for me to give you a drop-dead date,'' Swofford said, after touring the Miami campus. ''I don't know that there is one. When you get to a point of visiting campuses, you know there's a very high level of interest on our part as well as their part. If that's not the case, we're not going to be here and they're not going to be welcoming us here.''

All of these meetings are regarded as mere formalities, with only the details of the new 12-team configuration to be worked out. There is some debate about whether Miami and Florida State will be in the same division.

While the Big East has responded with financial guarantees, including $45 million over the next five seasons for Miami, the consensus remains that nothing the Big East does can stop the defection.

''I feel that it's a nice thing, a nice gesture that they've made,'' Miami athletic director Paul Dee said, after the ACC visit. ''I don't know that we would accept that. That's a decision that we haven't had to make at this point.''

Meanwhile, Miami has reviewed the ACC's projected television revenue package, and Dee said school officials were ''getting to feel more and more comfortable'' with the numbers.

''Anywhere you go, anywhere you look, you want to have the best future you can, the most stable future you can,'' Dee said. ''This is an opportunity that's presented itself, and we owe it to ourselves to take a careful look at it.''

The only question that remains is when this will become official, with speculation the announcement could come as early as Thursday or Friday, with a target date to begin play the 2005-06 season. Most people believe a two-year lame duck period for the Big East will not benefit anyone, which could precipitate speeding up the timetable by a year.

Once that happens, the Big East will act quickly to regroup with a 16- or 18-team alliance of eight or nine football schools and eight or nine basketball schools conducting business under one umbrella.

The ACC voted May 16 to extend invitations to Miami, BC, and Syracuse to begin formal discussions on joining the nine-team league and creating a 12-team superconference that would add a lucrative title football game.