Lawsuit against BC, Miami open to debate
Opinions differ on conference wrangling

Roanoke lawyer Mike Urbanski is among those who say the plaintiffs may be successful in court.

By MARK BERMAN
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   Virginia Tech couldn't beat Miami in football or men's basketball this year, but a Roanoke lawyer says Tech could have better luck in court.

    Mike Urbanski, who dislikes the ACC's plan to take three teams from the Big East, sees merit to the argument that Miami and Boston College abandoned their contractual obligations to the Big East.

    "This is a lawsuit that cannot be sneezed at," he said.

    Big East football members Tech, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and West Virginia and future Big East football member Connecticut filed a lawsuit in Connecticut Superior Court on Friday against the ACC, Miami and Boston College.

    Represented by a New York law firm, the schools are not only seeking unspecified monetary damages but also an injunction to keep Miami and BC from leaving the Big East for the ACC. Syracuse is the third team that would move to the ACC but is not named as a defendant.

    "One of our goals is to stop the two schools from defecting," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. "There certainly is a realistic chance of success. The court could order the schools be stopped from defecting in violation of their contractual duty."

    Urbanski said that to get an injunction, the schools must prove the lawsuit's contention that they would suffer "irreparable harm" by the defections.

    "You've got to show that money damages aren't good enough. You've got to show you would be irreparably harmed," Urbanski said. "The court's got to weigh the irreparable harm from setting the thing aside and stopping the raiding vs. the harm the other way."

    Urbanski said the ACC could argue that the claim for an injunction is too speculative. If the Big East doesn't yet know it will lose its Bowl Championship Series bid, for example, where is the irreparable harm?

    Other damages will be easier to prove.

    "Our schools have spent substantial amounts on upgrading their facilities and other steps in anticipation the Big East would remain as it is, with the reassurances from Miami and BC," Blumenthal said. "These damages are not speculative."

    Florida sports attorney Rick Horrow told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel it will be difficult for Tech and the others to win.

    The suit "just says Miami and Boston College did not practice business fairly, which is not usually sustainable in court," he said.

    Horrow told the Miami Herald that it "would be very difficult to prove there was an absolute promise to stay in the Big East forever."

    The lawsuit was filed in Connecticut, said Blumenthal, because UConn is the only charter Big East member among the plaintiffs and because UConn may have suffered the worst damages of the schools, having spent $90 million on a new football stadium.

    Tech and the others could have a good chance of winning in front of a Superior Court judge who could be worried about pleasing voters whose tax dollars were used for that stadium.

    "In Hartford, Conn., ... I'll bet they get the injunction," Tulane professor Gary Roberts, co-author of "The Law in Sports," told the Greensboro News&Record.

    There was another reason the suit was filed in Connecticut.

    "Each state has different laws, and ... [the lawyers] concluded that Connecticut would be advantageous to us," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said.

    Urbanski said the claims related to Miami's assurances that it was staying put would not have had merit in state court in Virginia.

    "In Virginia you're stuck with fraud, which is much harder to prove, or interference with contract ... or an antitrust conspiracy," Urbanski said. "They tried to pick the state with the law that's the most favorable to them, and they tried to pick a forum ... as far away from the ACC as possible."

    Urbanski said the ACC will be looking to see if it can get the case transferred from state court, where judges are elected, to a Connecticut federal court, where judges are appointed. Roberts told the Greensboro News&Record that if the case remains in state court, "it could get drawn out a long time."

    Urbanski figures the ACC will attack the lawsuit's contention that costly "investments" such as UConn's stadium and Tech's expansion of Lane Stadium were based on Miami's assurances.

    "That's sort of the soft underbelly of this entire case, that these guys relied on these promises," Urbanski said.

    The lawsuit seeks compensation for the loss of "hundreds of millions" in future revenue, including TV revenue. The Big East reportedly reaps $15 million annually from its ABC and ESPN football contract. A network television executive who requested anonymity told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel a TV contract without Miami might be worth less than half of that sum.

    "Without those schools, you become a second-tier conference like Conference USA," the executive said. "Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech feed off Miami. I don't think anyone is going to throw money at them. Plus, they will have to play games on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays just to get the exposure on ESPN and ESPN2."

    The Sun-Sentinel reported that despite the suit, the ACC will extend invitations this week. Miami athletic director Paul Dee, though, said the lawsuit could slow down Miami's move.

    "Derail's not the term, maybe tapping on the brakes," Dee said Saturday, according to The Associated Press. "The train's not off the track, but it's slowing down."

ACC NOTES
Jun 07, 2003

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH: When spring football practices ended, ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel released his top 25 for 2003. It includes four teams from the ACC: University of Virginia at No.8, Maryland at No.12, Florida State at No.15 and N.C. State at No.16. Miami, which is weighing a move to the ACC, is ranked No.2.

GOING, GOING, GONE? Since the 2002-03 men's basketball season ended, Georgia Tech has lost its top two post players, Chris Bosh and Ed Nelson, both with eligibility remaining. This may be an offseason to forget for N.C. State, too.

The Wolfpack's Josh Powell, who averaged 12.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in 2002-03, put his name in the NBA draft pool this spring. Powell, 6-9, is a long shot to be drafted in the first round, and most observers expect him to pull out and return to State for his junior year.

That no longer appears likely to happen. The Sporting News, citing an unidentified source "close to the program," reported last week that Powell had told the Wolfpack coaching staff he planned to remain in the draft. Then, at the NBA's predraft camp in Chicago this week, Powell told a reporter, "I still wanna get more feedback about what's going on, but I pretty much wanna go through this whole process."

Powell also said he was "in the process of" signing with an agent, which would make him ineligible for NCAA competition.

HOOP IT UP: It's customary to see FSU's recruiting classes ranked among the nation's best in football, but not in men's basketball. That makes second-year coach Leonard Hamilton's haul for 2003-04 all the more impressive.

The Seminoles' incoming class is widely rated among the top five nationally, and some recruiting analysts rank it No.1. FSU's marquee recruits are 6-9 Alexander Johnson and 6-6 Von Wafer, a McDonald's All-American. - Jeff White

 

An Expanded Look at ACC-Big East Battle
One Conference Wants to Enlarge, The Other Doesn't Want to Shrink
By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 8, 2003; Page E04

The courtship that led to Friday's unprecedented lawsuit by five Big East Conference schools trying to keep their league intact started with an easy 21/2-block walk one January morning in Coral Gables, Fla.

Unbeknownst at that time to many, the ACC had been studying the possibility of expansion for more than a year, creating a strategic planning group, hiring a consultant and doing nearly all of its homework.

The next step was to approach potential new members, and there was little question which school would be the key to any expansion.

With one of the nation's best college football teams, the University of Miami would attract fan interest and television dollars. So Florida State Athletic Director Dave Hart, one of expansion's key proponents, went to a member of his university's Board of Trustees, Andy Haggard, a Florida State alum who lives in Coral Gables. Hart wanted to know if Haggard sensed that Miami would be interested in joining the ACC.

Haggard approached his friend Dean Colson, a personal injury lawyer in Coral Gables and a vice chair of Miami's Board of Trustees. Most of Haggard's visits to Colson concerned fundraising for various interest groups, but on this occasion, Haggard got right to the point, apparently catching Colson by surprise.

"We wanted to feel them out," Haggard said. "I wanted to gauge where they were, where they would be."

Haggard told Colson the ACC had strong interest from a Big East member, though Haggard did not name names. According to those familiar with Miami's situation, that was a key detail because Miami did not want to be seen as the driving force behind what could lead to the breakup of the Big East. The role of follower was much more acceptable.

"If two other schools were leaving the Big East, that changes the equation and [Miami] has to study it all," said a source familiar with Miami's interests.

Haggard also told Colson that the ACC had decided to pursue expansion if the conference could lure the teams it wanted. Naturally, Miami topped this list. Haggard and Colson met for 30 minutes before Haggard returned to his office and reported back to Hart.

Soon after, according to knowledgeable sources, Colson visited Miami's campus to meet with university president Donna Shalala and other high-level officials, informing them of Haggard's inquiry.

The wheels in the expansion process then began to turn much faster.

A Lot of Thought

While expansion rarely appears as an official agenda topic at ACC meetings, it has been discussed regularly for more than a decade. "Most of the time it's not in the center of the table, but it has always been there," one ACC source said.

The conference discussed adding Miami in 1991 but postponed the discussion, and the Hurricanes subsequently joined the Big East. Expanding became serious again in 1999, serious enough that Miami did its research in case an invitation arrived, according to a source familiar with Miami's side of events.

However, needing seven of nine votes to receive an invitation, Miami came up short, the source said, and the ACC simply announced it would remain at nine teams.

And that's the way it stood until fall 2001, when Georgia Tech athletics faculty representative George Nemhauser -- who that school year served as ACC president -- revived the issue.

"There always has been the sense that various schools in the Big East might decide to do something," the ACC source said. "And the Big Ten is sitting at 11, and that's kind of an unnatural number. . . . There has just been a sense that none of this has yet reached equilibrium. I think that due diligence requires you to be alert to that environment."

Nemhauser "asked me to bring to our [university] presidents his desire to take a very serious look at expansion for our league during his year as president," ACC Commissioner John Swofford said at a recent news conference. "Our presidents received it well and asked us to go about it in a strategic planning way."

A strategic planning committee was formed with one member -- either the faculty athletics representative or the athletic director -- from each school. The committee then hired the Bonham Group, a Denver-based consulting firm that specializes in athletic and entertainment marketing.

The committee began meeting in February, according to an e-mail sent by Duke athletics faculty representative Kathleen K. Smith to North Carolina faculty chairman Sue Estroff. Over the next year, meetings were held periodically, sometimes in conjunction with events -- such as the conference basketball tournament -- when it was easy for everyone to assemble. ACC associate commissioner for finance and administration Jeff Elliott was the conference's project leader.

Bonham's research focused on the future landscape of collegiate athletics. Would other conferences be expanding? If so, how would this affect the ACC? If the ACC expanded, what would be an ideal scenario? Would the financial details make sense?

"You look at everything from travel issues to projected revenues schools might bring in," one source said.

Gauging Interest

By the end of 2002, expansion was gaining momentum. University chancellors and presidents discussed the issue in detail at their fall meeting, Smith's e-mail said, and soon Hart approached Haggard and trustees chairman John Thrasher to quietly see if Miami was interested. Thrasher, a former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, worked as a lobbyist in Tallahassee and counted the University of Miami among his clients. "So I do know the president fairly well," Thrasher said.

A source familiar with Miami's interests said the school received the following message: "We really are seriously considering this. Are you interested in this like you were three years ago?"

The question required some thought. Shalala had replaced Edward Foote as Miami president. And while there was an initial excitement among some parties, Shalala remained calm. It was less than a year since she had reiterated Miami's commitment to the Big East, and according to one person familiar with Shalala's viewpoint, she was initially cool to the idea.

Shalala's biggest concern, another source said, was not knowing what a move to the ACC would mean. Would it bring more money? More exposure? Would a move mean losing contact with the school's many alumni who live in the Northeast?

If there was any question about the ACC's interest, it was answered in late January, when the conference took the unusual step of allowing Miami officials to inspect its internal financial documents and Bonham's initial projections. Among the documents was a series of charts and hypothetical details showing mileage between schools and comparing average airfares. Was it more expensive to fly from Miami to Pittsburgh or to Clemson for a January basketball game?

"The ACC had done all of its homework," one source said. "Miami knew then [the ACC] wouldn't have gone through all this if the ACC wasn't serious about it."

Familiar with the ACC's numbers, Miami Athletic Director Paul Dee and chief financial officer Wayne Roberts soon met with other top administrators to go over what they had learned, the source said. Unlike the Big East, whose revenue distribution is based partly on incentives, the ACC splits its money evenly among its members. It was somewhat of a guess as to what the ACC's next football television contract would be worth, because the projection was based on adding Miami, Syracuse and Boston College.

Still, Miami's brain trust decided the issue merited further exploration. Dee also was intrigued with the possibility of playing basketball in the tradition-laden ACC, the source said. Home games against Duke, North Carolina and Maryland might translate into more ticket revenue in the Hurricanes' new 7,000-seat on-campus basketball arena, which could improve the value of a naming rights deal for a building presently known as the Convocation Center.

A Nor'easter

With Miami interested, the ACC continued to go about the business of luring the three schools it had identified as the prime candidates for expansion.

By getting Boston College and Syracuse, the ACC could gain entry to the Northeast and would have a conference that could dominate the Eastern seaboard much as the Pacific-10 controls the West Coast.

At some point, word leaked to Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, who was livid. The Big East had taken Miami when the ACC and Southeastern Conference turned away the Hurricanes. Now, if Miami led a three-team defection, Big East football would be severely crippled. Tranghese went on the offensive, perhaps thinking that making the ACC's courtship public could put an end to it.

Swofford countered, saying that expansion was a two-way street, insinuating that if Miami and company were not interested, they were not forced to listen.

Its once-secret work now public, the ACC pushed ahead. About one week after Dee's late-April, 30-minute presentation to Miami's Board of Trustees, a well-placed source said the ACC's presidents, athletic directors and chief financial officers held a conference call with Bonham Group chairman Dean Bonham and his staff, who had just issued their final report. Detailed analysis had been circulated to each school, and the call was to debate the issue and reach a final consensus of whether to pursue expansion.

According to one source who was on the call, Bonham issued his opinion that the ACC should expand not for financial reasons but to ensure its place as a significant player in the future of college athletics. Bonham's analysis, the source said, did not indicate a financial windfall that would be large enough to prompt the change.

"That's what this whole process is about," Swofford said. "Looking at the landscape of college athletics for the future and where we're best suited as a conference and where the institutions are best suited."

 

Miami AD: Lawsuit could slow move to ACC
By JEFF PRICE : Associated Press Writer
Jun 7, 2003 : 5:25 pm ET

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Miami's possible move to the Atlantic Coast Conference could be delayed by a lawsuit filed by five Big East schools.

Miami athletic director Paul Dee said the school's plans haven't changed, despite the lawsuit filed Friday accusing Miami, Boston College and the ACC of concocting a scheme to destroy the Big East through the departure of the two schools.

"Derail's not the term, maybe tapping on the brakes," Dee said Saturday. "The train's not off the track but it's slowing down.

"We're not going to force anything. It could take a long time to happen."

Dee, who spoke before Miami's game against North Carolina State in the super regionals of the NCAA baseball tournament, would not comment on whether a vote by the ACC to formally invite Miami, Boston College and Syracuse is expected soon.

"I do see it slowing down until everybody gets together," he said. "We've had lots of conversations, but it's not for me to make a commitment. That's for the board of trustees and the president to decide."

Miami president Donna Shalala declined comment. Dee said Friday that Miami was preparing to defend itself against the lawsuit filed in Hartford, Conn.

ACC spokesman Brian Morrison said Saturday that the league would have no comment on the expansion timetable. ACC commissioner John Swofford said Friday that conference lawyers were reviewing the lawsuit.

In the complaint Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Rutgers and Connecticut portray the ACC's expansion plans as a secret conspiracy that would ruin their programs. They are seeking financial damages and want an injunction to keep Miami and Boston College in the Big East.

By stripping away three of the Big East's eight football teams, the remaining schools would lose millions of dollars in revenue from the lucrative Bowl Championship Series and from TV deals, the lawsuit claims.

Syracuse is part of the potential ACC expansion, but was not included in the lawsuit because the plaintiffs said they found no evidence the school made promises to stay in the Big East.

The nine-team ACC has promised football power Miami increased revenue from a more lucrative TV deal it believes it could negotiate as a 12-team conference.

Despite the legal developments, Dee said ties between Miami and the Big East might not be permanently cut.

"I'm sure there have been lawsuits among friends before over issues, and one way or another they get resolved and people get on with it afterward," he said.

 

Littlest general to decide Big East fate
Miami's Donna Shalala, a former SU grad student, has made tough calls before.

June 08, 2003

By Donnie Webb
Staff writer

Bob McClure calls them generals. They are the deans and professors that command the operation at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

McClure is stepping down this summer after 34 years of duty. The senior associate dean at Maxwell remembers only one instance when someone upstaged a general.

It was the littlest general in training - a 5-foot powerhouse of a teaching assistant named Donna Shalala.

"You were immediately struck, as a beginning faculty member, that this Shalala lady was no ordinary graduate student," McClure said. "She helped run the Maxwell School."

Shalala earned a master's and Ph.D. in social science from SU's Maxwell School in 1970. 0

She received an honorary doctorate of laws degree from SU in 1987. Shalala was a teaching assistant for former Maxwell dean Alan K. "Scotty" Campbell, a man she said was her greatest mentor. When Campbell died in 1998, Shalala said she "was privileged to learn from Scotty." She spoke at his funeral.

So what would Scotty Campbell think of Donna now?

Shalala, 62, is the president of the University of Miami. She sits with her finger on the hottest button in intercollegiate athletics, a button she's expected to push to end her own alma mater's association with the Big East Conference and change the landscape of sports.

Miami, Syracuse and Boston College are awaiting a conference call to accept invitations to join the Atlantic Coast Conference. Those invitations are expected this week, possibly Monday. A lawsuit filed Friday by the five Big East schools being left behind might delay things, though the change seems inevitable.

Could anyone have imagined a Syracuse grad leading Syracuse out of the Big East?

McClure said his loyalties are with Syracuse University, and it's a question he chooses not to answer.

Shalala's picture hangs on the wall in the dean's office at Maxwell. She remains a frequent guest lecturer at SU and was on campus during the spring semester. McClure said there are skeptics and cynics when Shalala comes to speak because of her time as secretary of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration.

Shalala's quickdefense of Clinton after he denied having sexual relations with a White House intern made her a target of criticism. Reports say she later admonished the president for his conduct. At the end of her cabinet tenure, The Washington Post called Shalala "one of the most successful government managers of modern times." It's a sentiment that skeptical students at Syracuse soon learn, McClure said.

"They quickly figure out, wow! This lady knows how to lead," McClure said of classes that come to hear Shalala. "From the very beginning, she had enormous energy, a quick intelligence, a real charismatic presence about her. She's great with the generals. She's great with the students. She's great with every audience I've ever seen her in front of."

Syracuse chancellor Kenneth "Buzz" Shaw counts Shalala as a close friend. The two worked together at the University of Wisconsin. She was the president of the Wisconsin campus in Madison and the first female president in the Big Ten Conference. Shaw was chancellor of the Wisconsin system.

With Shaw scheduled to retire next year, McClure said it would not surprise him if Shalala's name was placed in nomination to become Syracuse chancellor.

Shalala grew up in Cleveland where George Steinbrenner once coached her in softball. She worked in the Peace Corps for two years in Iran, has climbed mountains, has a twin sister and a 92-year-old mother who is an attorney. Shalala's nickname is "Boom Boom."

She becamethe fifth president at the University of Miami on June 1, 2001, and has just moved into a 9,000-square-foot, three-story colonial that is the official university residence in Coral Gables, Fla. She had the front door painted a dusty tomato-soup red and used the official school color of orange throughout the house.

According to a report in The Orlando Sentinel, Shalala used local decorators who managed to integrate her Lebanese roots and her urban and academic experiences into an eclectic mix of comfort, whimsy and style.

"I've never had a client who would so positively point out what was working and what wasn't working," said one of the decorators quoted in the report. "This is a decision-maker. She makes a decision, she sticks with it."

Shalala is known to read the sports section first in her daily newspaper. She watches the Hurricanes when they're out of town on a big-screen television while listening to opera. When Miami plays at the Orange Bowl, Shalala hosts tailgate parties and is known to join her students in the stands.

Shalala playsgolf and tennis and has a personal trainer. Her collection of toys includes a 29-foot Tiara boat and a silver Volkswagen Beetle. When Shalala took over at Miami, she announced that she was there "to shake things up." She has stated that her mission is to make the university a world-class research institution.

In an interview with The Palm Beach Post last year, she hinted at some of the problems that have led Miami to the edge of leaving the Big East.

"I sit at a home game in the Orange Bowl and it's not a sellout," Shalala told the Post, "thinking about getting those stands full for the No. 1 team, or else getting smaller stands. We have a big place to fill, given the size of the university, but you know I had the same situation at Wisconsin. The game before I fired the coach, before we got Barry Alvarez, there were 20,000 people in the stands. I had to pull the trigger on the football coach and an athletic director. I've done my firings in my lifetime."

So now she'sprepared to fire the Big East.

It's a painful decision at Syracuse. It may be painful for Shalala. It's a decision she's making based on many experiences, including her formative years at Syracuse.

"First of all, Donna is very well-prepared for this role," McClure said. "She's been in lots and lots of pivotal, pressure situations before. You couldn't have anyone more well-equipped to deal sensibly with cross currents and pressures that she encounters in her role here and in this situation. And secondly, I have great confidence in Donna making a thoughtful, well-informed, good decision . . . for the University of Miami, which is her job."