Virginia baseball has a chance to literally hit a home run when it
hires its next baseball coach.
Folks, this is a no-brainer. Hire Mike Cubbage.
The 52-year-old, home-grown hero is perhaps the most popular athlete ever
produced in Charlottesville. An all-state athlete in three sports at Lane High
School, Cubbage became UVa’s first scholarship baseball player, went on to
play eight years in the major leagues, won championships at every level of
minor league baseball as a manager working with young players, and has been a
coach in the majors for more than the last decade for the Mets, Astros and now
Boston Red Sox.
Cubbage could do for UVa baseball what Al Groh has done for Cavalier football.
If the power brokers who have kept Virginia baseball alive are serious about
taking the program to the next level in a very competitive ACC, then there’s
no question they have to go after Cubbage with everything they’ve got.
A distinguished career
I have followed this man’s career for the past 21 years. I’ve been to minor
league parks, watched him manage, observed how he works and relates with young
talent and earns their respect and trust. I’ve been to major league parks and
watched him work with the best baseball players in the world and observed how
they appreciate his wisdom.
I have talked to major league managing legends who have coached or worked with
Cubbage over the years and they all sing his praises. I have talked to general
managers of several clubs during this span and they all talk about what a
class guy Cubbage is.
Mike Port, general manager of the Boston Red Sox, told me last year about his
respect for Cubbage and discussed how Cubbage held the team together as
interim manager during spring training after the organization had fired its
manager only days into camp and credited Cubbage for helping the Sox get off
to a quick start early last season.
A baseball man
Former Red Sox star Dwight Evans, who worked with Cubbage, said this of the
UVa product: “Mike’s a baseball man. He has a quick mind and it’s easy to tell
that he’s managed for a number of years. He’s outstanding at analyzing talent
and recognizing what guys can and can’t do.”
Cubbage told me last year in Fort Myers, Fla., that he had learned a lot about
the psychology of handling players from managing great Gene Mauch and used
that knowledge particularly dealing with the young players he groomed while
never having a losing season on every level of minor league ball.
Like Groh, Cubbage would be eager to roll up his sleeves and do all the hard
work it takes to raise a program to its highest potential through recruiting,
teaching and communicating.
Also like Groh, Cubbage’s name recognition could do wonders not only for
recruiting and luring a top-notched coaching staff but in raising money.
If you’re a 17-year-old kid, aren’t you going to be a little
more impressed if the guy sitting in your living room has been to “The Show”
and wants you to be a part of his team. We’re not talking chopped liver here.
We’re talking a guy who is third base coach of the Boston Red Sox, one of the
key members of the coaching staff, a guy one step away from possibly being the
club’s manager.
How many other college programs in the country have a chance to hire a
baseball coach with a resume like Cubbage’s?
Talk about raising money. Don’t you think UVa’s biggest supporters are going
to be a little impressed if one of their own, Mike Cubbage, comes to their
corporate offices to talk a little baseball?
We’ve heard countless stories about the impact Barry Parkhill has when he goes
fundraising for UVa. Business leaders are blown away when “Mr. BP” walks
through the door.
Cubbage could have that impact on the baseball program. He could build
Virginia up there with the Florida States, Miamis, Clemsons and Georgia Techs
of the baseball world.
Guys, don’t make this one so complicated. This one is easy. Do what ever it
takes to get Cubbage on board. You’ll never regret it.
FATHER'S DAY 2003
Daughters' love a double feature
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 15, 2003
CHARLOTTESVILLE In the past month, work obligations have forced Dom Starsia to
miss his oldest daughter's graduation from Columbia University and a party for
his twin daughters on the night of their 18th birthday.
Some subject for a Father's Day story, huh?
"You may not want to continue this piece," Starsia said.
His family doesn't hold Starsia's absences against him. He coaches men's
lacrosse at the University of Virginia, the reigning NCAA champion, and his
wife, Krissy Lasagna, understands the demands of his job. So do Molly, the
Columbia alumna who's about to start graduate school at U.Va., and son Joey, a
rising sophomore and lacrosse player at Lynchburg College.
"I'm blessed to have a family that understands what I do for a living," Starsia
said, "and enjoys being a part of it and understands there are adjustments that
we need to make in order to make it all work."
The other two children, twins Maggie and Emma, may not grasp the finer points of
their father's work, but they understand something more important: that he loves
them fiercely. To see their radiant smiles when they're with Starsia is to know
they return that devotion.
"They just adore him," Lasagna said. "They love a lot of people, but they adore
him."
Maggie and Emma were born May 28, 1985, in Rhode Island, where Starsia was
lacrosse coach at Brown University, his alma mater. Lasagna carried them to full
term, which is unusual with twins, but the birth was uneventful, and "they
looked fine," Starsia recalled.
When the girls were about 6 months old, however, the pediatrician told their
parents she was concerned. Among other things, the twins weren't sitting up
properly.
"For me, to be honest, there was a sense of not believing it was true," Starsia
said. "Because they looked like regular kids, and I couldn't tell if they were
supposed to be sitting up at a certain age and stuff. But almost immediately,
people told us that there was an issue."
When they were young, the girls attended Meeting Street, a school in Providence
for children with disabilities and developmental delays. Their classmates there
included Richard Rotelli, whose older brother Chris was an All-America player as
a U.Va. senior this season.
The girls thrived at Meeting Street. As kindergarten approached, though, their
parents decided to send them to a conventional school. "We just felt like we
wanted them to be part of the community and try to have as normal a childhood as
possible," Starsia said.
Until that point, "I'm still probably thinking to myself, 'Hey, the girls are
going to be fine. They're going to grow out of this, whatever this is,'" Starsia
said. "There was no diagnosis. They were both developmentally delayed, behind
kids their own age.
"But it was when they actually had to go to school for the first time that they
needed to be labeled, and they were labeled as mildly to moderately retarded.
And that was a startling day when someone said that to me."
After the 1992 season, the U.Va. job came open, and Starsia pursued it. The
university flew Lasagna, then working as a nurse, down for Starsia's interview
as well. She spent the day talking with officials from area public schools.
"It became clear early that this school situation was going to be ahead of the
one" in Rhode Island, Starsia said.
Maggie and Emma have been in Albemarle County's special-education program since
moving to this area, first at Meriwether Lewis Elementary School, then at J.T.
Henley Middle School and now at Western Albemarle High School, where they're
rising seniors. They went to Western's prom last month.
"If you asked me the single best part of our move to Virginia, it's been the
school services and the school experience, for Maggie and Emma especially,"
Starsia said. "I'm sure that there have been bumps along the way . . . but I
would say in general it's just been a wonderful experience."
A constant in the twins' lives, of course, has been lacrosse. About twice a week
during the season, Lasagna takes Maggie and Emma to see their father at
practice, and they're fixtures at U.Va. home games. Their dad isn't the only
attraction.
"They don't grasp the game at all. All they grasp are 'game boys,'" Starsia said
with a smile. "Game boys are the guys on the team. They just love people, and
for them it's the game boys, and any opportunity to be around the team. They
have a nickname for everybody."
All-America defenseman Brett Hughes is Hat Boy, "probably just because he wore a
hat one day when they saw him," Starsia said. "Once you get a nickname, you
never shake it. Face Boy was Joe Thompson, because he busted up his face one
day."
After hearing former U.Va. assistant Chris Colbeck unfailingly refer to Starsia
as "Coach," the twins began to follow suit. "They don't call him Dad any more,"
Lasagna said. "They just call me Mom. That's very boring."
The twins' favorites on this year's team included Chris Rotelli, Hughes and
defenseman David Burman, whose brother Andy, a former Maryland standout, worked
at Starsia's summer camps.
"Maggie and Emma just fell in love with Andy Burman," Starsia said. "Andy was
just the most unbelievable guy around the girls, hugging them and doing
everything with them and taking them for walks and things. And then, as a
byproduct, because Andy wasn't around, they latched on to David."
David Burman, Starsia said, had been "very much the strong, a
little-bit-withdrawn type, and he was forced to deal with Maggie and Emma, and I
just think it brought him out of his shell a little bit. And for me, he just was
so much more of a pleasure to deal with this year, really blossomed as a player
and a person."
The twins have a positive effect on their father, too.
"We might be playing really badly in practice and he's all worked up," Rotelli
said, "and then the girls and Krissy come out, and you can just tell he's like,
'Life's not that bad.'"
Life's not bad at all for Starsia, 51. He has a loving family and oversees a
tremendously successful program. In 11 seasons under Starsia, the Cavaliers are
125-42 and have won two NCAA titles.
Not that his record matters to the twins.
"Maggie and Emma really don't care if he wins or loses," Lasagna said. "They're
going to run down on the field and need to hug him whether he wins or loses, and
I think he's gotten to the point where he needs it as much as they do."
Starsia said: "I almost feel like it's selfish of me. I couldn't ask for a more
wonderful situation. Yes, I'd love for the girls to be healthy and for me not to
have to worry about what their future might hold. But I've got two children that
are there at the door every day I come home.
"You talk about unconditional love in both directions. It couldn't be any better
for me."
MR. BASKETBALL J.R.
Reynolds
Move makes
Reynolds stronger
J.R. Reynolds may have been overshadowed at times at Oak Hill Academy, but his coach knows his value.
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES
When he decided to spend his senior year at Oak Hill Academy, J.R. Reynolds felt he would become stronger, improve his study habits, play against the best schedule available in high school, and prepare himself for a college career away from home.
He didn't leave Roanoke to have his name in lights, although some of that would have been nice.
When informed of his selection as The Roanoke Times' Mr.Basketball in Virginia and asked about other honors he had received this season, Reynolds didn't have to think for very long.
"This would be the first," he said.
Reynolds did make some all-tournament teams, but perennial national power Oak Hill competes as an independent, which ruled out the all-conference teams he dominated at Roanoke Catholic.
"I think that I deserved to play in at least one all-star game," said Reynolds, second-leading scorer on an Oak Hill team that went 31-4 and finished No.4 in the country.
Players with lesser credentials than Reynolds have made all-star rosters.
"I coached in an all-star game [the Derby Classic] in Kentucky and I went to the McDonald's game. I felt he was as good as any of the guards I saw," Oak Hill coach Steve Smith said.
"A lot of it's politics. A lot of it's done by how you played in the summer."
On Oak Hill's team, most of the accolades went to Ivan Harris, a 6-foot-8 forward from Springfield, Ohio, who signed with Ohio State. Harris was named to the Parade All-American team and was rated among the top 25 prospects in the country by at least four services.
"He might have been our fifth-best player," Smith said. "Ivan got all of his awards because of his name and what he did last summer. I felt embarrassed for our other players."
Smith said Reynolds and fellow guard Marcus Williams were better players than Harris, and that several other Oak Hill players had better seasons. Some services had Williams rated ahead of Reynolds, but Smith thinks that Reynolds is more of a sure thing.
"He's a tough kid," Smith said. "There's no chance he'll flop."
Reynolds committed to Virginia in the fall of 2001, when he was a junior at Roanoke Catholic, where he started as an eighth-grader and was a two-time All-Timesland selection.
Reynolds, a 6-foot-3 guard, scored 2,237 points in his four seasons at Roanoke Catholic and finished his career with 2,812 points, the third-highest total in state history.
Dan Vander Woude, who scored 3,329 points for the Seton School in Manassas from 1984-88, is recognized as the leading scorer in state history. Caleb Williams of Dayspring Christian in Blacksburg finished his career this year with 2,841 points.
At the end of the 2002 season, Reynolds was rated 53rd among the nation's top juniors by SuperPrep. In Prep Stars' most recent report, he was 96th among seniors.
"I think he's a better player, obviously, than he was a year ago," Smith said. "He's much stronger. If you look at the team picture that we took before the season and look at him now, it hardly looks like the same person."
Smith coached another Roanoker, Curtis Staples, who went to Virginia and still holds the Division I record for career 3-point field goals. Reynolds doesn't have Staples' reputation as a shooter, but he made 108 3-pointers this season, with a high of 14 in one game.
"He's got a nice in-between game and, when he gets to the basket, he can finish," Smith said. "Offensively, he's better. And, defensively, he's a lot better."
Roanoke Catholic coach Dick Wall was disappointed that Reynolds elected not to complete his career at Catholic, but concedes that Reynolds has gotten stronger.
"He's still one of my guys," Wall said. "I'm not sure he had the type of year he wanted to have. I know he had visions of having a little higher profile than he ended up having. He certainly had one here, but the long-term benefits [of a high profile] are negligible."
In Wall's eyes, numbers don't begin to tell the story with Reynolds, although his numbers are virtually unmatched.
"The first time [ex-UVa assistant] Tommy Herrion talked to me when J.R. was a freshman, I told him, 'This guy makes other people better,'" Wall said. "He's the kind of guy, if you choose up sides, you're going to choose him."
Reynolds concedes that more postseason honors might have come his way at Roanoke Catholic. However, he doesn't second-guess his decision.
"I knew I probably would not make the McDonald's All-America team when I went to Oak Hill," Reynolds said. "It was my choice. Everybody knows these teams are political. If they don't want to pick me, fine. I'll use it to motivate me.
"When I get to college, I'll show people they made a mistake."
Big East given little chance to beat ACC
By
JOHN HOLLIS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
In courtroom vernacular, it's referred to as "detrimental reliance."
That's legal jargon for saying one can hold liable those who knowingly put out exaggerated or untrue information that affects the decisions of others.
That figures to be the heart of the case the Big East's five football-playing schools will make in their suit against the ACC, Miami and Boston College.
Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia are alleging they invested large sums of money in their football programs after receiving public and private assurances from the Hurricanes of their intent to remain in the Big East. The five schools allege they will suffer irreparable damages if Miami, BC and Syracuse accept invitations to join the ACC.
Syracuse was not named in the suit because the plaintiffs found no promises the Orangemen made to remain in the Big East.
Last week, days after the suit was filed, ACC presidents met twice by teleconference and were unable to reach a consensus on expansion. Seven of the league's nine presidents must vote yes for the league to invite a new member. ACC commissioner John Swofford said the presidents might meet again early this week.
It was unclear what role, if any, the suit played in delaying an expansion vote. But Friday, ACC lawyers issued a statement saying they consider the suit without merit.
The Journal-Constitution spoke with several lawyers not related to the case, all of whom agreed the suit would be extremely difficult to win. However, they all agreed a long legal battle could be coming.
"You can feel aggrieved all you like," said Atlanta-based David Ware, "but if you can't go into court and prove it, it doesn't really matter. I think a court would have a difficult time letting this go to a jury. [The Big East schools] have a very difficult case."
"They're throwing up a big cloud of smoke," agreed Atlanta attorney Greg Godsey, the brother of former Georgia Tech quarterback George Godsey. "There's a lot of holes in this one."
The difficult task of proving harmful intent and conspiracy figures to be the biggest hurdle the Big East schools will have to clear, the lawyers say. Also, a clause in Big East bylaws allows each team to leave if it chooses after paying a $1 million penalty.
"If they're not liable for leaving the Big East, I don't see how they can be liable for conspiring to leave the Big East," said Philadelphia-based attorney Richard D. Gable, Jr. "You can't conspire to do something you're lawfully able to do."
Attorneys for the plaintiffs say they have a strong case. They concede that Miami had the right to leave but say it didn't have the right to recruit others to do so.
Of the five Big East schools that have sued, Connecticut and Virginia Tech stand to lose the most if the suit can't stop the ACC's proposed expansion. The Huskies, who moved up to Division I-A in 2000, spent $90 million on the new Rentschler Field that will open this fall as they prepare to join the Big East as a football member in 2005. Virginia Tech invested $37 million in upgrades to its Lane Stadium and had more work planned before it was postponed because of talk of ACC expansion.
The Big East schools say they made investments based on Miami's promises to stay and keep its strong football program as the league's crown jewel. But their claim that they "reasonably relied" on such public and private statements in making those decisions rings hollow, some attorneys say, given that Miami contractually could leave anytime it chose.
"It's no more 'reasonable' than for an athlete who was about to get a $50 million signing bonus to get married without a prenuptial," Ware said. "Then he gets divorced and says, 'I thought she was going to be fair.' At some point, you have to take responsibility for your own actions."
The Big East's past actions might also play into this current situation. With the idea of making more money and boosting its TV appeal, the conference booted Temple from its ranks. Some might argue that Miami and BC would similarly be looking out for their own best interests, although attorneys for the plaintiffs insist that situation was different because no promises had been made.
The Owls will play their final Big East season this fall.
With ACC chancellors bickering over the proposed addition of three Big East schools, the league soon may consider one question to rescue this expansion from extinction: If the money makes sense, why not become a 10-team league by adding only Miami?
N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler said it "definitely could happen" under the right financial circumstances.
Seven ACC schools must support expansion to move forward, but Duke, Virginia and North Carolina are in opposition, citing among other factors the need not to decimate the Big East.
The addition of only Miami could save the ACC from embarrassment and the Big East from oblivion, but Fowler says that, as far as he knows, it hasn't been raised among chancellors.
With the next chancellor-level conference call expected early this week, perhaps Monday, time is running out on ACC Commissioner John Swofford to seek a vote to extend invitations to Miami, Syracuse and Boston College.
Swofford, asked about becoming a 10-team league last month during the ACC meetings in Amelia Island, Fla., didn't endorse it -- but he didn't rule it out.
"I don't think so," he said. "I'd be very, very surprised if it'd be anything other than (adding) three teams -- or staying at nine."
Former Big Eight Commissioner Chuck Neinas, a consultant to several conferences, said he thinks the Big East would keep its $14 million spot in the Bowl Championship Series without Miami -- but not without Syracuse and Boston College, too.
The ACC has courted Boston College and Syracuse for three primary reasons:
• To add television markets in Boston and New York. If the ACC's next TV contract is worth $30 million with all three Big East teams, it would be worth roughly $15 million with only Miami, a television consultant said Saturday.
• To grow to 12 teams to keep pace with the "superconferences." But if the ACC stays at 10 schools, the Big Ten and Pac-10 might be more inclined to stay as is, leaving only the Big 12 and SEC as jumbo conferences.
• Meeting the NCAA minimum of 12 teams for staging a potentially $10 million conference football title game.
College football insiders believe that final hurdle to be a small one, that the BCS conferences could push through a change allowing title games for smaller conferences. Assuming the ACC could stage a title game with 10 members, and assuming the addition of Miami would make the ACC an annual favorite for a second BCS bid, growing to 10 becomes a financially viable proposition. That's because ACC teams could recoup lost television revenue by not having to share with Boston College and Syracuse.
"If those first two things come true," Fowler said, speaking of a 10-team playoff and second BCS bid, "it definitely could happen. There would be a huge argument, but I think (adding only Miami) is possible. But it hasn't been discussed to my knowledge."
Is it time?
MIAMI - Atlantic Coast Conference presidents have displayed no interest to meet with the presidents of the five Big East Conference football schools that filed a lawsuit against the ACC, the University of Miami and Boston College.
The five Big East schools requested the meeting Tuesday but have not received a response, according to a strategic litigation firm hired by the plaintiffs. One ACC source said by telephone Friday the ACC presidents are unlikely to agree to a meeting.
If the ACC presidents had been willing to meet, the Big East schools were prepared to propose an alliance between the leagues, a source involved with the lawsuit said last week.
It would not involve a complete merger but would involve joint efforts, such as a potential football title game between the conference champions.
For now, the ACC's focus remains on getting the seven votes necessary to extend invitations to UM, BC and Syracuse. ACC presidents will convene, via conference call, early this week.
But commissioner John Swofford will not decide whether to hold a vote until he determines during the call whether there's enough support to invite the three schools.
Swofford continues to lobby North Carolina, Duke and Virginia to support expansion. One needs to say "yes" to give the ACC the necessary seven votes.
North Carolina and Duke prefer the ACC not split into two divisions for basketball, an ACC source said by telephone Saturday. That would allow the schools to play more games against natural rivals.
"Division alignment has not at all been resolved, let alone presented to the other presidents," North Carolina State chancellor Marye Anne Fox told Raleigh, N.C., reporters Friday.
Florida State president T.K. Wetherell told Tallahassee reporters Friday he is "pretty positive" the ACC will expand. But Fox said, "I don't know why he's so confident."
HONOR OR DISHONOR?
Not everyone is.
The Raleigh News & Observer obtained an e-mail sent by Maryland president Dan Mote to Duke president Nan Keohane and North Carolina president James Moeser. The e-mail, sent June 7 - the day after the lawsuit was filed - said:
"Honor or dishonor, so tightly wrapped together in this process that it will make a good novel when it's over, no matter what happens. The ACC will be a villain in this novel, too, independent of what we decide from this point on. One villainous role has us as the bully incarnate, arrogant, aggressive, self-interested, power-hungry... ."
LIFE GOES ON
In a telephone interview with The Miami Herald last week, Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver was asked whether life would be miserable for the Hurricanes if they remain in the Big East.
"I don't think so," he said. "UM athletic director Paul Dee had a very appropriate response the other day. Somebody asked him about that and he said, in this world today, people have lawsuits and go on working together and maintaining professional relationships. I would concur with that... .
"It doesn't have anything to do with the coaches, ... players ... or student athletes... . by the time the football game gets played in November and then when basketball season takes place, this will be history in one way or another."
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - It's time for compromise. It's time to end the courthouse mud wrestling, political posturing and PR spinning, the daily doses of which are less palatable than a raw egg breakfast. No more threats, no more hypocrisy and please, no more university presidents appearing on sports talk radio.
It's time to bring calm and grace to a process replete with panic and arrogance. It's time to end the ACC's expansion madness.
It's time for Miami, and only Miami, to leave the Big East for the ACC.
Everyone wins, everyone loses. And it beats the hell out of any alternative.
This madness shifted into overdrive May 13 when ACC presidents, following months of coercion from Commissioner John Swofford and several conference athletic directors, voted 7-2 to add three schools. The presidents identified four potential targets - Big East members Miami, Syracuse, Boston College and Virginia Tech, with the latter clearly the least preferred.
Only the formalities remained.
A month later, the ACC is deadlocked. Original dissenters North Carolina and Duke remain unconvinced, and Virginia president John Casteen finds himself in a vise - broadsided by political pressure to protect Virginia Tech, squeezed by influential boosters who favor expansion. Casteen's waffling infuriates expansion advocates within the ACC and could leave them one vote shy of the seven required for passage.
While ACC presidents fiddle in indecision, five Big East schools burn in anger, their anger clear in a lawsuit that asks for "hundred of millions of dollars" in damages.
It is, in short, an unholy mess, artfully described by Maryland president Dan Mote in a June 7 letter sent to the three expansion holdouts - Casteen, Duke president Nan Keohane and North Carolina chancellor James Moeser - and published in the Raleigh News & Observer.
"Honor and dishonor are so tightly wrapped together in this process," Mote wrote, "that it will make a good novel when it's over no matter what happens. The ACC will be a villain in this novel, too, independent of what we decide from this point on. One villainous role has us as the bully incarnate, arrogant, aggressive, self-interested, power-hungry and captured by the national mania for big-time athletics.
"The flip-side role has us as the bumbling, undecided amateurish giant who wanders without direction, stepping on and crushing people all around while it stumbles, until finally walking in ever decreasing concentric circles and disappearing into itself. Hmmm - I suppose we'll see."
Mote, who prefers bully incarnate to amateurish giant, unwittingly states the case for compromise.
If the ACC, as expected, strongarms another yes vote, it establishes a Northeast presence and secures its football future. Money and power, baby.
But ACC expansion, a vision hatched by Chicken Littles convinced that "mega-conferences" are the future, also reduces, if not ruins, Big East football. Prominent programs such as Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and West Virginia (each among the lawsuit's plaintiffs) would face scheduling hassles and diminished television exposure, not to mention possible exclusion from the Bowl Championship Series and future postseason structures.
The status quo is equally problematic. If the ACC balks at this 11th hour, Swofford and his fellow expansion zealots, athletic directors Dave Hart of Florida State and Dave Braine of Georgia Tech, lose all credibility, and perhaps their jobs.
If the ACC balks, life in the Big East becomes equally untenable, with Commissioner Mike Tranghese and administrators throughout the conference unwilling to trust Miami president Donna Shalala and athletic director Paul Dee, the defection ringleaders.
So let's compromise.
Send Miami packing, post-haste by the way, to the ACC. It's a natural geographic fit and clearly the school's preference.
No, this 10-team ACC would not penetrate the Northeast market or meet the 12-team minimum required to stage a conference championship football game. But it would upgrade ACC football and generate additional television revenue. Most important, it would allow Swofford and Co., to save face and ACC basketball to save the round-robin schedule that dates to Everett Case and Frank McGuire.
The Big East, meanwhile, would lose Miami, a five-time national football champion but also a chronic malcontent. Charter Big East members Boston College and Syracuse would stay where they belong, and by replacing Miami with Louisville, the conference would upgrade basketball and, most likely, retain its postseason football status.
Everyone wins, everyone loses.
It's not perfect, but it's time.
Big East planning response to ACC, deal or no deal
If the expansion talks fall through, contingency plans call for overhaul of
league.
June 15, 2003
By Mike Waters
Staff writer
Over the past couple of weeks, Big East Conference officials have designed plans
in anticipation of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse accepting invitations from
the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Now, after the ACC presidents twice delayed voting on expansion despite
conference calls on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Big East must contemplate the
prospect of Miami, BC and Syracuse returning to the fold.
And then what?
"There would still be a lot of issues for us," said one Big East source,
speaking on the condition of anonymity. "We won't be the same. We haven't solved
anything yet."
ACC presidents were expected to formally invite the three Big East schools on
Tuesday. One day and no votes later, ACC commissioner John Swofford said the
presidents would wait until next week before conducting another conference call.
Reportedly, Duke president Nan Keohane and North Carolina chancellor James
Moeser have expressed concerns about expansion. That's placed the University of
Virginia in the difficult spot of casting a deciding vote because the expansion
issue needs seven votes in favor to pass. Virginia president John Casteen is
under political pressure in his state to cast a "no" vote unless Virginia Tech
is included in the ACC's expansion.
Should the ACC's expansion plans dissolve, the Big East would remain an unwieldy
14-team league with eight schools fielding Division I-A football programs, five
Catholic "basketball" schools and Notre Dame, which remains an independent in
football but is a member of the Big East in basketball and most other sports.
The feeling among Big East officials and conference athletic directors is the
Big East would be foolish to return to its former state.
Said a second conference
source, "We can't sit back and say 'Whew! Dodged another bullet.' "
Sources said the Big East would consider several options, but only two are
considered viable. And only one can come from the league office and Big East
commissioner Mike Tranghese.
Tranghese is restricted in what he can suggest because he must act with the best
interests of all 14 Big East schools in mind.
The Tranghese plan would consist of a Big East confederation with an eight-team
football league and an eight-team basketball league. That idea would necessitate
the addition of two basketball schools, the source said.
The most likely candidates are DePaul and/or Marquette, either of which would
provide Notre Dame with a natural rival and a travel partner. Dayton and Xavier
might also be considered, the source said.
A second option would be for the Big East's football-playing members to break
away and form their own league. The football-basketball mix has become more
difficult in recent years and this would seem to be a good occasion to solve
some lingering problems without hurting feelings.
The five basketball schools would try to convince Notre Dame to join them and
then go about finding two to three others schools - again the targets would be
DePaul, Marquette, Dayton and Xavier - to come on board, the source said.
The football schools might look to expand to 12, giving the new league the
ability to split into divisions and start a championship game. That's the same
carrot that's got the ACC chasing its expansion dreams.
Louisville and Cincinnati could receive invitations. So could Central Florida.
One Big East source said no one in the league thinks Penn State could be lured
away from the Big Ten or that Notre Dame can be persuaded to put its football
program in a conference.
Could a Big East football league go after Florida State, the ACC school that
pushed expansion the hardest?
"I've heard no indication of that at all," said the same source.
Whatever route the Big East schools take, they will have to stop and mend some
fences first. Any plan will mean Miami, Boston College and Syracuse combining
with at least the five football-playing members of the Big East.
"If it falls through, if we have to make it work, we'll all make it work,"
Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo told the Boston Herald. "It's
not personal. It's a business."
West Virginia AD doubts expansion:West Virginia Athletic Director Ed Pastilong
said he does not believe the Atlantic Coast Conference presidents will approve
the annexation of three Big East schools.
"I've said that my personal feeling was that we had a 50-50 chance" of
preserving the Big East, Pastilong said Thursday. "But I'm now thinking of
moving that to 60-40."
West Virginia and four other Big East schools filed a lawsuit June 6 against the
ACC, Miami and Boston College in Connecticut Superior Court.
It seeks millions of dollars and an injunction to stop the two schools from
moving to the ACC. Syracuse is also a candidate to jump to the ACC.
West Virginia University President David Hardesty said he hopes to resolve the
situation without going to court, and said he would support a merger of the two
leagues.
"It is certainly viable to talk about an East Coast league," Hardesty said.
"There are lots of options out there. That is not a frivolous one."
What price expansion?
ACC profs fear wild spending in 12-team 'superconference'
By JANE STANCILL J. ANDREW CURLISS, Staff Writers
The summer budget-slashing season at UNC-Chapel Hill has brought a flurry of
layoff notices and the end of HEELS for Health, a popular staff fitness program.
University employees, most of whom didn't see a raise last year, are outraged.
Over at Carolina's athletics department, though, no one is talking about budget
cuts.
A new $2 million video scoreboard, paid for by a media company from Missouri, is
ready to broadcast football highlights at Kenan Stadium this fall. Tar Heel
football coach John Bunting got a $100,000 raise last year -- bringing his
compensation to at least $650,000, including an expense account, money from his
radio and TV shows and from Nike, the corporation that provides free shoes and
sports gear to the university's 28 athletic teams.
Such simultaneous starving and feasting is not unusual. University athletics
departments in the Atlantic Coast Conference -- and in many major sports
programs in the NCAA -- are akin to spinoff companies that operate unfettered by
the financial conditions of the universities they represent. Athletics
departments rake in millions of dollars each year from television contracts,
booster clubs, ticket revenues and apparel deals, with a relatively small share
coming from student fees and the use of public facilities. They also spend big
on players' scholarships, coaches' salaries and luxurious sports facilities.
In the past 15 years, athletics spending has outpaced overall university budget
increases at two of the three Triangle universities that compete in the ACC.
At N.C. State, athletics spending rose 157 percent, compared with 108 percent
for the university budget; at Duke, sports spending increased 221 percent,
compared with 150 percent overall. At UNC, the two figures are almost identical.
If the ACC expands to include Miami, Syracuse and Boston College, it would
become a 12-member superconference vying for football's high-stakes Bowl
Championship Series in the coming years. The expansion will almost certainly
drive up the spending as the universities try to keep up with the competition.
"That's the rules of the game," said NCSU Athletics Director Lee Fowler. "And
that's the way it is. It just is."
Athletics directors such as Fowler report to the chancellors, but the university
leaders have become active in the deal-making that comes with TV contracts and
conference expansion talks. This past week, presidents and chancellors of the
schools huddled in two long conference calls before delaying a decision about
expanding the conference.
The ACC's attempted corporate-style raid of the Big East comes at a time of
movement toward reform in college sports nationwide.
A group of college presidents has organized. Two months ago, national trustee
and faculty groups met with NCAA President Myles Brand to discuss changes,
including uniform financial reporting standards for athletics programs,
enforcement of practice time limits for athletes and the development of "best
practices" to keep athletics programs aligned with academics.
After the gathering, Brand said, "We are beginning to see momentum for reform
that promises to be compelling and effective."
The NCAA has declined to get involved in the ACC-Big East battle. But the
Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, with faculty representatives from 60
universities, has opposed the ACC's move, saying it would lead to further
professionalization and commercialization in college sports.
If the league expands, faculty members worry, sports budgets will ratchet up,
along with the pressure to win. They say the sports enterprise could slip
further from the control of academic leaders.
"It's just another step in that escalation," said Dr. Garland Hershey, a UNC-CH
dental school professor and former vice chancellor. "The danger is athletics
programs having a greater influence on the future of higher education."
Detrimental effects
There are signs that the ACC's recent emphasis on football has had a negative
impact on academics.
At N.C. State and UNC-CH, fewer than half the football players who started as
freshmen in 1996 graduated within six years, according to a February report. UNC-CH
faculty leaders complained about Thursday night football games and late-night
basketball games, only to be told that the TV contracts were already signed.
Florida State canceled classes for two days in early October -- it was called an
early fall break -- to coincide with a marquee football matchup with Clemson,
dubbed the "Bowden Bowl" after the father-and-son coaches.
At Duke, where a new plan to revive football admits more players at the low end
of the academic scale, a 2002 report expressed worries about the trade-offs.
The report on the future of Duke athletics posed this question:
"At what point do we decide that Duke can no longer afford the costs of adapting
to alterations in intercollegiate athletics without sacrificing something that
is vital to the university's core values and mission?"
A high-profile gambling scandal involving a former football player prompted
Florida State President T.K. Wetherell to order a reorganization of the
university's athletics department Friday. One key change is that the athletics
department will have less freedom to make its own decisions on spending, and the
university will provide closer oversight.
Florida State, a perennial football powerhouse, joined the ACC in 1991,
prompting a $500 million building spree all across the league. Everyone felt
pressure to compete with the Seminoles, who are keeping up with the giants in
football -- Ohio State, Texas and others.
Duke, NCSU and UNC-CH christened elaborate football centers and stadium
renovations in an effort to lure recruits and fans. The facilities feature
expansive weight rooms, memorabilia museums and cushy locker rooms. The
additions at UNC-CH and NCSU include posh skyboxes to entertain university
donors.
The universities must then fill the extra seats to pay off debt and to sustain
non-revenue sports in departments that are adding women's sports to comply with
Title IX. At UNC-CH in 2002, for example, men's basketball and football
accounted for 23 percent of the $41.9 million in spending, but were responsible
for raising a far larger percentage of the revenue.
When UNC football coach Carl Torbush was fired after a 6-5 season in 2000,
Athletics Director Dick Baddour said: "I walk into Kenan Stadium and I see empty
seats, and it concerns me, because I want enthusiasm for the program. I do have
a financial burden to carry."
UNC-CH's $50 million expansion of Kenan Stadium opened in 1997, with cherry
trophy cases, Ram-logo carpet and elevators that play the fight song.
NCSU's new $26 million Wendell H. Murphy Football Center opened last month with
a 42-foot wolf sculpture, $400,000 of weightlifting equipment, a racquetball
court and red-felt pool tables. The center has a small theater for visitors to
watch highlight films; in front, a fake movie poster featuring a picture of
football coach Chuck Amato screams "Domination."
It's the message NCSU wants to send to star recruits as the university pursues a
national championship. Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, who fired former coach Mike
O'Cain in 1999, declared that goal when she came to NCSU from the University of
Texas.
Fowler acknowledged the significant spending increases in recent years, but he
stressed that NCSU isn't alone. "In our case, we're not trying to get ahead of
anybody," he said. "We're just trying to play catch-up."
Wendell Murphy, who has not been inside the center that bears his name, said,
"Those are the things you do to help us get to winning ways."
He is a major contributor to both the university and the Wolfpack Club, the
booster organization that woos donors in exchange for choice tickets, parking
spaces and access to coaches.
Booster donations pay for the athletic scholarships. The booster clubs raise
millions every year, then funnel it through the university to athletes' tuition
and on-campus housing bills. A year ago, NCSU boosters paid $5 million to cover
the maximum number of scholarships allowed.
The booster organizations have also moved to endow positions on each team. At
N.C. State, all the basketball positions are taken, but someone willing to pay
$250,000 can still have his or her name attached to an offensive lineman's
position. Booster Ed Woolard, for example, has already pledged $500,000 to
sponsor perpetual scholarships for the football tailback and basketball shooting
guard.
The marketing end
The athletics departments are also selling their image to sports apparel
companies.
In 2001, UNC-CH signed an eight-year, $28 million contract with Nike, which
provides $2 million a year in sportswear and equipment, plus payments to coaches
and $800,000 to an academic fund. It is one of the largest apparel deals in
college sports. Anson Dorrance, the women's soccer coach, gets $150,000
annually; former basketball coach Matt Doherty was paid $500,000 a year by Nike.
As part of the deal, he was required to wear a Nike lapel pin when he appeared
in a business suit.
Nike recently required Amato to give up the lucky Oakley sunglasses he wore
during his winning streak last year. The shoe company contacted Amato twice and
sent him several dozen pairs of Nike glasses to choose from.
"It was: 'Congratulations, this is Nike, those aren't our glasses and they have
to go,' " Amato said.
Perhaps the biggest influence on university sports programs is the money from TV
contracts. The ACC schools now share $24 million a year for football broadcasts
and $33 million a year for basketball broadcasts. A driving force behind the
expansion talks is the projection that adding ACC schools in Massachusetts, New
York and Florida would attract new, lucrative TV markets.
Last year, UNC-CH's athletics department signed a nine-year multimedia contract
with Learfield Communications of Jefferson City, Mo. -- a deal that will bring
the athletics department $2.5 million a year plus a cut of Learfield's profits
from radio broadcasts and coaches' television and radio shows.
The Learfield contract gives the company the right to sell commercials,
promotions and ads on game tickets, plastic drinking cups, even agreements for
stadium concessions and an official sideline sports beverage.
But UNC-CH is one of the few universities that won't allow permanent signs in
arenas and stadiums. Still, advertising creeps in, in the form of promotional
contests and "soft signage" -- corporate banners often carried into games by
cheerleaders.
Faculty recently complained about the barrage of corporate-sponsored contests.
"It gets worse and worse all the time," said Lissa Broome, UNC law professor and
member of the Faculty Athletics Committee. "On the one hand, we like the fact
that we've had this policy of no signs. The pressure for revenue has apparently
gotten so intense that we have disrupted athletics even worse with these
antics."
Bob Eno, an Indiana University professor who leads the national faculty
coalition, said when he hears the word "superconference" he hears the language
of marketing consultants, not higher education leaders. He believes the runaway
spending in sports makes athletics reform difficult but not impossible.
Murphy, the NCSU booster, calls the athletics program "the glue that binds us
all together." He admits that league expansion is all about money but said it
might be necessary to help ensure the Wolfpack's future.
"For a program to be successful, that takes money and it takes more and more and
more every year," he said. "If it's not going to generate more money every year,
there's no reason to do it."