Trio may depart from Big East in 2004
Miami, Syracuse and BC might want to leave for the ACC early to reduce the animosity they could face as lame-duck members.
FROM WIRE, STAFF REPORTS
Miami, Syracuse and Boston College may want to join the Atlantic Coast Conference sooner than expected, a potential snag in the proposed expansion plans.
An ACC source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Thursday that the Big East schools expressed interest in joining the ACC after next season instead of in 2005. Two other ACC sources confirmed the development.
The three schools might want to leave the Big East early to reduce the animosity they could face by remaining in the conference after announcing a decision to leave. Big East spokesman John Paquette said he has not heard any talk within the league about punishing the three schools by banning them from conference tournaments while they are lame-duck members.
The expansion might result in legal action by the five remaining Big East football schools. A source in the Connecticut state government, speaking on condition of anonymity, said state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal may take legal action on behalf of UConn, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. Blumenthal will discuss the matter today at a meeting with Gov. John G. Rowland and UConn officials.
Blumenthal's office would not comment. Neither would officials from UConn, the governor's office or the Big East.
The ACC had been discussing adding the three schools in two years to coincide with the end of the football TV contract. The expansion, with the powerhouse Hurricanes, is expected to bring a better TV deal.
But if the Big East schools join the ACC under the old TV agreement, the revenue would have to be split among all 12 programs, meaning less money for the nine current ACC schools.
That one-year financial hit could sour the deal for the ACC presidents, who have the final vote on the matter. The ACC needs seven of nine votes to expand.
The conference has football TV contracts with ABC, ESPN and Jefferson-Pilot Sports.
Jimmy Rayburn, executive producer for Jefferson-Pilot, which broadcasts eight football games a season, said terms of his company's contract could be changed.
"Anything is negotiable. I don't see us standing on any contractual language and saying, 'That's the way it's going to be,' because then we ruin it for the future."
Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo declined comment. Messages left for officials at Miami and Syracuse were not immediately returned.
The ACC voted May 16 to pursue expansion and begin discussions with the Big East schools. Visits to each campus, mandatory under ACC bylaws, were completed Wednesday.
ACC commissioner John Swofford returned to Greensboro, the home of the conference, after his visit to Syracuse and was working Thursday on a package to present to the league presidents.
The ACC has expanded just twice in 50 years. Georgia Tech joined the league in 1978 and Florida State was added in 1991.
ACC might face suit
Schools' concern: Financial losses after spending on football stadiums
From staff, wire reports
Published June 6, 2003
University of Connecticut officials will meet with the state's governor and
attorney general today to discuss possible legal action against the three Big
East schools considering a move to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
If Miami, Boston College and Syracuse depart as expected, remaining Big East
football programs such as Connecticut and Virginia Tech could lose millions in
television rights fees and perhaps the conference's automatic bid to the Bowl
Championship Series, which carries a $13-million payout.
The meeting with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Gov. John
Rowland, UConn athletic director Lew Perkins and university president Philip
Austin is listed on Rowland's public schedule for 11 a.m. Rowland's spokeswoman,
Michele Sullivan, declined comment about any aspect of today's meeting or a
possible lawsuit.
"I've been actively consulting with counsel representing the other schools,"
Blumenthal told the Hartford Courant when reached at his home Thursday night.
"Certainly one of the options is some joint action."
UConn, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech and West Virginia - the remaining Big
East schools that play Division I-A football - will join together in the suit,
to be filed in Connecticut. UConn's enormous stake in the proceedings, as well
as Blumenthal's reputation as an aggressive and successful attorney general,
were the deciding factors in filing the suit in the state.
One possible action could focus on the commitment Miami president Donna Shalala
made to the conference at a presidential board meeting in November 2001. A
source told the Courant Shalala may have made similar commitments at more recent
meetings. Sources familiar with the legal process said that part of the suit
will be based on Shalala's fiduciary responsibility as a Big East board member
to accurately relate Miami's plans as it relates to leaving the conference.
Based on Shalala's commitment, UConn proceeded with construction of a $90
million football stadium in East Hartford. Rentschler Field opens in August, and
UConn is scheduled to become a full member of the Big East football conference
in 2005. Virginia Tech spent $37 million to renovate Lane Stadium and plans $48
million more in improvements. Other Big East schools also went ahead with plans
based on Miami's commitment.
The possibility of litigation first arose at the Big East meetings last month.
Perkins is scheduled to join Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver and the
ADs from West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Rutgers this weekend to discuss Big East
alignment following the defections. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese also
may participate in the meetings.
Also Thursday, the AP, citing three anonymous ACC sources, reported that Miami,
Boston College and Syracuse may want to join the conference in 2004-05, a year
earlier than expected, to avoid two years of animosity within the Big East. That
possibility hinges, in part, on renegotiating the ACC's football television
contracts with ABC, ESPN and Jefferson-Pilot Sports.
Those contracts, worth approximately $23 million annually, expire after the 2005
season. With 12 members dividing the revenue, the ACC would need $31 million per
year to keep each school's share at the current $2.6 million.
"Anything is negotiable," Jefferson-Pilot executive producer Jimmy Rayburn told
the AP.
The overriding issue for the Big East is whether its champion will retain an
automatic bid to the BCS through the present contract, which runs through the
2005 season.
Despite hurdles, ACC expansion close to done deal
From staff and wire reports : The Herald-Sun
Jun 5, 2003 : 10:23 pm ET
ACC expansion seems to be one teleconference away from reality, though several
issues need to be worked out before the marriage is official.
The league, which recently finished the courtship process with official visits
to Miami, Boston College and Syracuse, may have legal, financial and logistical
hurdles to clear before it becomes a 12-team conference.
The Associated Press, citing an unidentified government source in Connecticut,
reported that state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal may take legal action on
behalf of UConn, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia, the five
Division I-A football schools that would be left in the Big East. Blumenthal,
the AP reported, will discuss the matter today at a meeting with Gov. John G.
Rowland and UConn officials. UConn recently spent $90 million to move into a new
stadium and move up to Division I-A in football.
Another issue is timing. ACC commissioner John Swofford has said repeatedly that
the ideal time for the three schools to join the ACC is 2005-06, the year after
the expiration of the ACC’s football TV contract and the Bowl Championship
Series contract.
Having Miami and two schools in the Northeast would give the ACC more leverage
in negotiating a TV deal.
But ACC sources said Miami, BC and Syracuse have brought up the possibility of
leaving the Big East a year early, possibly to reduce the animosity they could
face from other league members.
One official at another Big East school, though, didn’t think that would happen.
"That’s not how we operate," Virginia Tech athletics director Jim Weaver said.
It is possible the 12-team ACC could begin competition in all sports but
football in 2004-05. Football schedules, sometimes made 10 years in advance,
would be tougher to alter in time for the 2004 season. When the ACC last
expanded, adding Florida State in 1991-92, the Seminoles didn’t join the league
in football until the following season.
Despite these potential hurdles, the ACC appears ready to move. The Miami Herald
reported that sources said a decision could come by this weekend from Miami
president Donna Shalala, who met Wednesday in Washington with other Big East
presidents. Virginia Tech’s Weaver, speaking to the Roanoke Times, seemed
resigned to the departure of Miami, BC and Syracuse.
"I would think the ACC would not be out as far on a limb if they thought it was
going to snap off," Weaver said.
Virginia Tech had earned some support as an expansion candidate from officials
at Virginia and from legislators in the state. However, when the nine ACC
presidents voted to expand, Virginia Tech didn’t have enough votes and the
leaders chose to pursue the other three: football and baseball power Miami;
balanced and academically solid Boston College, with the appeal of a new market
for the league; and Syracuse, a highly regarded private school with a large
following and the last NCAA title in men’s basketball.
The conference has football TV contracts with ABC, ESPN and Jefferson-Pilot
Sports. Jimmy Rayburn, executive producer for Jefferson-Pilot, which broadcasts
eight football games a season, said terms of his company’s contract could be
changed before 2005.
"Anything is negotiable," he said. "I don’t see us standing on any contractual
language and saying, ‘That’s the way it’s going to be,’ because then we ruin it
for the future."
If the ACC’s TV contract cannot be changed and the Big East schools join under
the old TV deal, the revenue would have to be split among all 12 programs,
meaning less money for the nine current schools, which could be a sticking point
for ACC presidents. Seven of the nine must approve expansion.
Swofford has said a decision would come by the end of the month, but the vote
could happen any day now. Upon leaving the Syracuse visit Wednesday afternoon,
Swofford sounded like a man who liked what he saw from the three schools. He was
the only league official to make all three trips.
"We leave here with a very positive feeling about how the visit went and
certainly we haven’t seen or heard anything that would lead us to believe that
the possibility is not still there," he said. "The next step is to put it back
in the presidents’ hands and in the hands of the presidents at Syracuse, Boston
College and Miami and work from there.
"If there are some other issues we need to work on with [Syracuse, BC and Miami]
or internally within on our league, that’s what we’ll be going to work on in the
next few days."
A fun time for the ACC
By FRANK DASCENZO : The Herald-Sun
fdascenzo@heraldsun.com
Jun 5, 2003 : 4:59 pm ET
John Swofford made the most important statement on Wednesday since the ACC
expansion story became huge.
"Sometimes the risk of staying as you are is just as great as the change being
considered," the commissioner of the ACC said.
Amen to that.
Swofford’s grand tour of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse, which included some
athletics directors from ACC schools, wasn’t done for nothing. Anyone who might
still believe this isn’t close to being a done deal just isn’t paying attention.
The ball is in Miami’s court, and unless the Hurricanes, and their president
Donna Shalala, pull the surprise of the spring and keep the Big East together,
look for change in the ACC.
Twelve teams. Two divisions. A football championship game. May as well get used
to it.
Syracuse was the third stop after Miami and Boston College and was this done for
a reason or for some unknown factor? Was Swofford as convinced about Syracuse’s
desire to become an ACC member as he was about Miami’s? Was Syracuse as
enthusiastic about following the leader, in this case Miami, as Boston College
was?
The Orangemen are believed to have bled Big East blood since the league was
formed by Dave Gavitt. The buddy-buddy organization, which included basketball
coaches Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, P.J. Carlesimo of Seton Hall, Rick Pitino of
Providence and Lou Carnesecca of St. John’s, was once believed to be
unbreakable.
Jake Crouthamel, Syracuse’s athletics director, pulled the typical coachspeak
attitude when asked what the visit by the ACC was like.
"Encouraging. Fruitful," Crouthamel said.
Of the three stops on Swofford’s tour, the one in central New York was believed
to be the toughest. That is in terms of salesmanship. Syracuse, sometimes
mentioned as a possible 12th member for the Big Ten, has had "eastern" tattooed
on its legacy since it began playing intercollegiate sports.
Crouthamel was instrumental in Gavitt’s idea of an eastern basketball league,
and Boeheim, no doubt enjoying this spring better than any others after winning
his first NCAA title, was against the Orangemen moving into the ACC.
Just remember, things change. There were people at Duke and North Carolina who
weren’t warm to Swofford’s idea of expansion. Some of those individuals changed
their minds and began singing a different tune.
It’s hard to believe Swofford wouldn’t like what he saw at the three schools.
Miami, with arguably the strongest football program in the nation, would bring
the ACC the massive national football respect it has long sought. Boston College
has proven solid in both major sports and brings the New England television
market to the ACC. And Syracuse’s history of being strong in football and
basketball is common knowledge.
Swofford holds the power hand at this poker table. And it’s in good hands.
Invitations are likely forthcoming, and at this stage of the saga, it would be
highly difficult to believe the ACC would get anything but a yes from the three
schools.
This is not only a fun time for the ACC, it’s a time to think about a business
future that will include some new faces and possibly more national football
championships. Emotions are running high in the ACC and what might be left of
the Big East.
It would be absurd to believe anything could dampen basketball in the ACC, a
league that has produced two of the last three NCAA champions and includes
coaches Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, Gary Williams at Maryland and Roy Williams at
North Carolina.
Somehow you’ve got to figure the Swofford-led tour just might have been the
final act in a drama not many people would have expected as recent as a year
ago.
University of Miami president Donna Shalala has indicated to Atlantic Coast Conference officials that the Hurricanes will leave the Big East to join the ACC upon receiving a formal invitation, said a high-ranking official connected to an ACC school.
That formal invitation should come Monday morning, when the nine presidents of the ACC schools -- Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and Wake Forest -- meet by conference call to vote whether to extend the Hurricanes an invitation.
During Monday's conference call, separate votes will be taken regarding whether to extend invitations to Boston College and Syracuse.
If at least seven of the nine ACC presidents vote yes, Shalala or her UM representative -- possibly athletic director Paul Dee -- will be informed of the invitation. After Miami tells the ACC its decision, which is expected to be yes barring a major complication, the ACC would call a news conference, probably the next day, in its home of Greensboro, N.C.
Shalala declined comment through a UM spokesperson.
The nine ACC presidents conferred Thursday by telephone to discuss issues related to the switch, the source said. The three presidents of the targeted Big East schools were not on the call.
The three issues Shalala was negotiating, and for the most part has resolved with ACC commissioner John Swofford, according to two sources, are as follows:
• UM wants its first ACC season to be 2004-05.
• UM will cut a deal with the ACC to make its $3 million entry fee in installments -- $600,000 a year for five years -- to ease its financial burden. Miami also must pay the Big East an exit fee of about $1 million.
• UM does not want, and probably will not get, Florida State as part of its six-team division.
The ACC start-up date of 2004 is a concern to some league presidents, a source said, because the ACC television contract extends through the 2005 season.
If the three Big East teams join in 2004, the existing contract's revenue would have to be divided 12 ways instead of nine, giving each of the current ACC teams between $1.5 million and $2 million less than they otherwise would have earned.
But during Thursday's conference call, the presidents agreed the issue wouldn't prevent them from inviting the three teams, a source said, especially since they believe the financial benefits of an ACC football title game would outweigh any short-term losses. It is still unknown, however, if and how they will deal with that issue during their final conference call before the vote.
The Hurricanes, who will be a Big East lame duck in the 2003-04 season, do not want to endure two seasons of road games at some already hostile venues, not to mention what is sure to be an uncomfortable working relationship with their current Big East counterparts.
UM's switch to the ACC would forever alter the landscape of college sports. Miami would leave behind five football-playing teams, that, with Shalala's decision, will go from major Division I players to unstable victims caught in the middle of a crisis they didn't create.
Those teams: Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.
The Hurricanes also will leave behind 11 basketball-playing Big East schools -- the five previously named, plus Georgetown, Notre Dame, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova.
Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, this year's Bowl Championship Series coordinator, is faced with the prospect of losing an automatic berth into a major bowl game, unless he can find three replacements that satisfy the other major conferences. Time constraints are not known, or have not been made public if they are known.
The Big East might try to get independent Notre Dame to play several of its football games against Big East teams, helping the conference financially when a new television contract is negotiated for the 2007-08 season. The Fighting Irish play almost all their other sports in the Big East.
The aftershocks of conference realignment will be far reaching, as other conferences already are trying to squeeze themselves into the BCS picture.
The eight-member Mountain West Conference voted Tuesday to explore expansion, for instance, and Linda Bruno -- commissioner of the Atlantic Ten Conference -- said last month her conference would aggressively pursue Big East schools if Miami, Boston College and Syracuse defected.
The Big East, criticized in the past for its weak football play -- despite UM's national dominance and the recent success of Virginia Tech -- began in 1979 as a seven-school alliance and introduced football in 1991, the year UM joined.
The ACC, known for its basketball excellence, began in 1953.
Football power? BC
By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist, 6/6/2003
I didn't think so.
Does Boston College have anything in common with any school in the ACC, be it social, cultural, or historic?
The answer is, quite obviously, no.
Does Boston College, in any logical way, ''fit'' in the ACC?
No, no, a trillion times no.
None of this matters. Boston College is going to the ACC. Every sport the school currently offers will be affected. Some might even be eliminated. King Football will determine the fate of all its hapless subjects. Decades of rivalries and relationships will be cast aside as BC pursues what it assumes will be a great financial payoff. (Note the word ''assumes.'' The truth is that no one really knows for sure.) The only conclusion is that money and football do not merely talk at The Heights; they bellow. Common sense and honor? Irrelevant.
We shouldn't be shocked, not really. Boston College has fancied itself a football school for more than 80 years. The 1940 Sugar Bowl team is to BC what the defeat of the Spanish Armada is to the British. Doug Flutie personally built Conte Forum and kept teams of admission department employees busy into the wee small hours. BC has been the flagship college football school, north of the Mason-Dixon Line, and east of Syracuse, for a long time. This is a real accomplishment because being a major football school isn't easy for a Catholic school. It's no accident there are only two such institutions in America. (The other one is in Indiana someplace.)
It is almost a given that the athletic director at BC is a true football guy. John Curley was. The great Bill Flynn was a standout BC football player and later an assistant coach. He oozed football. Chet Gladchuk played at BC and his father was an All-American and a member of the aforementioned Sugar Bowl champs. And now we have Gene DeFilippo, who has an extensive playing and coaching background in King Football.
DeFilippo is a truly nice man. BC is very lucky to have him. But in this matter, he is so personally protective of the BC football program that he has pretty much dismissed all objections to this proposed move to the ACC as irritating matters that will be attended to, somehow, some way, someday, whenever, etc.
Football, football, football. Does anything else matter? BC does not need the ACC for basketball. The Eagles already play in a league that has produced two of the last five NCAA men's champions. The women hoopsters have quite enough competition with that school down there in Storrs. (Fortunately for the other major winter sport, this whole move will be of no import. Jerry York will be staying right where he is. No trips to Clemson, S.C., for him.)
The impact on non-revenue sports will be enormous. Costs will spiral. Classes will be missed. For them there is no upside. It doesn't matter. Only football matters.
This is the Real World intruding on the Toy Department. For better or worse, mergers and acquisitions are the lifeblood of modern corporate America. Everyone is affected, not just the Mom and Pop businesses that have been gobbled up by the thousands. You can hardly name a business that has not seen major consolidation. (That bank of yours. It's on its, what, sixth? seventh? name since you first started using it?) Forces outside the control of even the largest businesses force them into mergers.
In this case, the force outside BC's control is the mutual infatuation between Miami and the ACC. And why not? Miami never really belonged in the Big East. Its next closest geographic rival is Virginia Tech. Anyone can understand why Miami would feel more comfortable in the ACC. The problem for BC is that Miami is viewed as the only reason the Big East has any football credibility. Take Miami away, the theory holds, and the Big East is no longer a BCS-caliber league. And if you're not a BCS league, you don't really matter in any sense and you cannot get your hands on the big money.
DeFilippo said it right from the outset: ''Miami is the lead dog.'' Of course, he was talking about football, because in his mind football not only is the lead dog at BC, but, more importantly, deserves to be. And if the first casualty of the need to follow the lead dog is the Big East, where BC was a charter member, and where such traditional rivals as Providence, Connecticut, Villanova, and Georgetown have far more in common with BC than Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest ever will, then, hey, that's a shame.
His thoughts are on football only. He believes that consolidation has always been inevitable, and that if BC does not join this sprawling ACC ''in five years we could be playing before 10,000 people at Alumni Stadium.'' Rightly or wrongly, that's what he believes. He could not live with that. You or I could, perhaps, but DeFilippo is a football man.
The Big East was founded as a basketball conference. Basketball. There are more than 320 Division 1 schools playing men's basketball. The NCAA Tournament is a pretty big slice of Americana. The NCAA Tournament brings in a lot of money. Basketball does all right for itself.
There are nearly two-thirds fewer schools playing Division 1-A football. There are clear delineations of power, ego, and arrogance, however, resulting in a huge split between the 60 or so schools who can compete to be in the top 25 annually and the Others Who Do Not Really Matter. When this ACC acquisition takes place, there will be three 12-team megaconferences (SEC, Big 12) playing their championship games. Before long, the Pac-10 will be the Pac-12. Very quickly someone else will join forces and the resultant Elite 60 (including that other Catholic school in Indiana) will be making all the money. That, of course, is the object of the game. DeFilippo does not want BC to be one of the Others Who Do Not Really Matter.
No merger or acquisition is without human cost. DeFilippo admits he has no idea what will happen to the non-revenue sports at BC. Charter flights will attempt to address the missed class time, but they will never solve the problem completely. ''Has anyone heard from the student-athletes?'' wonders Rob Duboff, executive-in-residence at Boston College's Carroll School. ''Last year, I had a football starter and a basketball starter in my class. They were both great kids who really wanted to learn. But I felt sorry for them because they both had to miss class all the time. That will get worse now.''
Duboff already knows where football stands at BC. ''Did you know that when BC had that Thursday night game at Virginia Tech last year all classes were canceled that day?'' he inquires.
Just end the charade. When BC turns its back on the Big East in favor of the ACC, please call the governing body of Boston College athletics by its rightful name: the BCFA. Yup, the Boston College Football Association.