ACC chiefs collecting information

6-19-03

By TIM PEELER AND ROB DANIELS, Staff Writers
News & Record

GREENSBORO -- ACC chief executive officers discussed expansion for three more hours Wednesday without taking a vote on whether to add Miami, Boston College and Syracuse to their nine-member affiliation.

"I knew we had work left," N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler said, "but it has kind of dragged on a little longer we expected it to."

Conference officials said the schools are still gathering information about the ramifications of expansion and are not at an impasse. Expansion proponents need seven votes to make the formal invitations, and North Carolina, Duke and Virginia have expressed concerns -- some logistical, some political -- about the issue.

Commissioner John Swofford declined to discuss the nature or specific subject matter of Wednesday's conference call between the presidents and chancellors, the third such discussion since visitation committees returned from the campuses of the three prospective members earlier this month. League officials suggested, however, that taking all three schools at once remains the only viable expansion option under serious consideration.

Swofford has said he anticipates the process will be resolved by the end of the month, but that time is rapidly approaching. N.C. State chancellor Marye Anne Fox, for example, will be in Colorado the rest of this week and will leave for a week-long conference in Italy on Saturday.

"I think everybody is ready for this to be over," Fowler said. "I think it gets frustrating. But nobody is going to do anything until they have all the facts and everybody feels comfortable."

The process has apparently been encumbered since the end of the campus visits. On June 6, five of the prospective members' current brethren in the Big East sued the ACC, Miami and Boston College in hopes of halting the defections. Shortly thereafter, the governor and attorney general of Virginia stepped up public pressure on Virginia president John T. Casteen to reject any expansion plan that didn't include Virginia Tech.

Nothing of substance has happened on the legal front this week. Greensboro attorney Erik Albright, who represents the ACC locally, said the suit, filed in Connecticut state superior court in Hartford, has not been assigned to a judge. When it is -- and that could still happen this week -- the plaintiffs' motion for expedited discovery proceedings will likely be heard in short order. Plaintiffs Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Connecticut have repeatedly asked to meet with the ACC executives to discuss the situation, but the requests have been turned down.

Fowler said divisional alignment in the proposed 12-team ACC has not been finalized but is not expected to become a stumbling block. Conferences must have 12 schools in order to conduct a lucrative football championship game, but a purely geographical divisional configuration would split up the ACC's four North Carolina schools and disturb the heart of the league's traditional fan base.

"From my feelings, though, (the CEOs) are comfortable with the options that they have," Fowler said. "They have options with divisions, non-divisions, divisions for football, different divisions for basketball, no divisions in basketball. I would say there have been more than 35 different options at some point that we have discussed."

Tech back in ACC expansion picture
School being reconsidered as a 13th member
By David Teel
Daily Press
Published June 19, 2003

Attempting to salvage an expansion two years in the making, the ACC is on the verge of inviting Virginia Tech as a 13th member.

Inviting Tech first emerged as a viable option Wednesday morning during a teleconference of ACC presidents. By Wednesday night, Georgia Tech president Wayne Clough, a former Virginia Tech professor, was in Blacksburg meeting with Virginia Tech president Charles Steger, according to a source who requested anonymity.

Steger, the source said, would discuss the ACC today with the university's board of visitors. A formal invitation would put Virginia Tech in a curious spot.

On May 6, Steger and athletic director Jim Weaver traveled to the ACC's offices in Greensboro, N.C., to lobby for inclusion in the ACC's expansion to 12 members. On May 16, the ACC identified Big East members Miami, Boston College and Syracuse as its expansion targets, and on June 6 Virginia Tech joined four other Big East schools in a lawsuit against the ACC, Miami and Boston College, alleging a conspiracy to destroy the Big East.

After the suit, which seeks "hundreds of millions of dollars" in damages, was filed, Steger told reporters that Virginia Tech would not accept an ACC invitation. But if Tech's board says otherwise, Steger might have no choice.

Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for the plaintiffs, issued the following statement late Wednesday night: "If these reports are accurate, the ACC apparently will stop at nothing to destroy the Big East as a football conference. We have continued to receive assurances from Virginia Tech that it is committed to protecting the Big East and that it, in good conscience, could not accept an offer from the ACC. For our part, we will continue to do everything possible to keep the Big East intact, including pursuing all of our available legal options."

Any expansion requires the approval of seven of the nine ACC presidents, and on May 13, the group voted 7-2 to expand by three - with the unspoken understanding that Miami, Boston College and Syracuse were the targets. Virginia president John Casteen was among the majority.

But during the last five weeks, Casteen has been bombarded by pressure to protect Virginia Tech. Gov. Mark Warner, attorney general Jerry Kilgore and senators George Allen and John Warner weighed in with letters and/or statements.

With original dissenters Duke and North Carolina still unconvinced, and Casteen wavering, expansion advocates such as Commissioner John Swofford have been unable to muster the required seven votes during recent three presidential conference calls.

Casteen, according to the Associated Press, recommended Wednesday that Virginia Tech be added as a 13th. Per ACC bylaws that require a campus visit before a formal invitation, Clough was dispatched to Blacksburg.

It was unclear Wednesday night whether the ACC's overture toward Virginia Tech was sincere, or a tactical ploy designed to force the Hokies to decline the invitation, a refusal that would allow Casteen, an expansion advocate for more than a decade, to vote yes on adding Miami, Boston College and Syracuse.

Neither Weaver nor Steger could be reached Wednesday night. Tech's athletic department, sources said, was stunned by the development.

ACC spokesman Brian Morrison confirmed to the AP that Steger met Wednesday with an ACC representative "to understand better what political options might be available." No invitations, he said, have been extended.

A 13-team alignment would complicate the ACC's divisional split and force each conference member to accept a decreased share of the league's television rights fees and postseason revenue. It also might preclude adding a 14th member at a later date to create divisions of equal size.
 

Is Tech back in play for ACC? Latest plan said to include Hokies
BY MIKE HARRIS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 19, 2003

A published report that Virginia Tech was back in the Atlantic Coast Conference expansion picture seemed to catch people at Tech by surprise.

But no one was issuing any denials, either.

The Washington Post reported on its Web site last night that the ACC, trying to jump-start its stalled expansion efforts, was considering bringing in Virginia Tech along with fellow Big East members Miami, Syracuse and Boston College. The Associated Press later reported the same thing.


An ACC source told the Winston-Salem Journal last night that "the topic was discussed."

The Post reported that Georgia Tech President G. Wayne Clough met with Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger yesterday in Blacksburg. Steger, the newspaper said, planned to talk to his school's Board of Visitors today.

Clough later confirmed the meeting to The Associated Press.

"It was a friend to a friend, and I said any information I got from the meeting I would take back to my colleagues," Clough said.

A former dean of Virginia Tech's college of engineering, Clough still has a home in Blacksburg.

Virginia Tech Athletic Director Jim Weaver said the meeting was news to him.

"I have no idea," Weaver said last night. "I can't confirm or deny it because I don't know. I have not talked to the president today, and he usually keeps me informed."

Craig Littlepage, U.Va.'s athletic director, said he was also unaware of the Steger-Clough meeting.

Steger was not available for comment. School spokesman Larry Hincker said last night he was "just not in a position where I can comment about it.

"I have to go and do some digging and find out what's true and what isn't. I abhor being in a position where I can't talk. I'll be working tonight and tomorrow to find out where the truth is in any of this."

This latest development is quite a twist in a saga that's become a soap opera.

When the expansion news started to leak several months ago, Virginia Tech's position was that it wanted to see the Big East stay together. Barring that, it wanted to be included in the ACC's plan to expand from nine to 12 teams.

But the ACC opted to go with Miami, Boston College and Syracuse. The league conducted site visits to all three schools. Tech and the other four Big East football schools, meanwhile, filed suit against the ACC, Miami and Boston College.

On June 8, Hincker was quoted as saying that Virginia Tech wouldn't accept an invitation to join the ACC at this point.

"That's what our president had said to USA Today the day before," Hincker said.

The ACC, though, has hit unexpected bumps in its plans. The league needs seven votes to expand. Duke and North Carolina have come out against expansion. The University of Virginia, bowing to pressure applied by Gov. Mark R. Warner among others, has also said it would vote against an expansion plan that does not include Virginia Tech.

Any comment about Virginia Tech's desire to join or not join the ACC is "out of my hands," Weaver said. "All that's come from central administration."

The Post said Virginia Tech would have to agree to drop its name from the suit if discussions are to be continued. Presumably, the league would have to conduct a site visit to Virginia Tech as it did with the other schools.

As word of the Steger-Clough meeting spread, one source at Virginia Tech told The Times-Dispatch last night that there was some concern at the school that this might be a ploy to "divide and conquer" the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. But another said some considered the possible addition of the Hokies to the expansion plan to be legitimate and that the ACC would then look to add yet another school so it could have two seven-team divisions.

Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, issued a statement last night that said, "We have continued to receive assurances from Virginia Tech that it is committed to protect the Big East and that it in good conscience could not accept an offer from the ACC. If these reports are accurate, the ACC will apparently stop at nothing to destroy the Big East as a football conference."

Another thing ACC officials are considering is changing the conference bylaws to require six votes for expansion instead of seven.

All conference issues other than expansion can be decided by six votes.

The bylaw requiring seven votes could be changed in a 6-3 vote. Clough told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution yesterday that the idea is present but he would not say how seriously it is being examined.

ACC officials talked for three hours yesterday. The conference's nine presidents and chancellors began the day by meeting with Commissioner John Swofford by conference call at 7 a.m. No vote on expansion was taken. The presidents and chancellors have now met three times for about eight hours to discuss issues.
 

Expansion: More talk, no vote
BY AL FEATHERSTON : The Herald-Sun
afeatherston@heraldsun.com
Jun 18, 2003 : 11:54 pm ET

The ACC Council of Presidents met via teleconference for three hours Wednesday morning without voting on expansion.

But with the league's self-imposed deadline approaching and the plan to add three teams reportedly stuck one vote short of approval, the presidents began exploring some radical ways to break the deadlock -- one with Virginia Tech and one without.

Georgia Tech president Wayne Clough told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the teleconference that a plan to change the league's by-laws had been discussed. Under the ACC's current rules, it requires seven of nine ACC members to vote for expansion, but just six of nine schools to approve a change in the league's by-laws.

Hence, the six expansion proponents could change the rules to make their six votes sufficient to approve expansion.

"That is not something that we would prefer to do," Clough told the Atlanta newspaper. "Even in a difficult process like this, you want your fellow schools to feel comfortable about what's coming next. But at the same time, I can't rule it out."

Another possible solution to the deadlock was reported by the Associated Press on Wednesday night.

Two anonymous sources told the news organization that the ACC has asked Virginia Tech to consider joining Miami, Boston College and Syracuse in jumping from the Big East to the ACC.

That could swing the vote of Virginia president John Casteen III. Casteen originally voted to pursue expansion, but he has been under intense political pressure to oppose any plan that did not include Virginia Tech.

However, another highly placed league source disputed the AP's account and said that while the idea of inviting Virginia Tech was discussed by the ACC presidents, it had not yet been approved and was merely another possible path the ACC may pursue in an attempt to break the deadlock.

ACC spokesman Brian Morrison told The AP that there was "informal contact" between Steger and a CEO from one of the ACC schools for the latter "to understand better what political options might be available."

"No individual member institution has the authority to act on behalf of the ACC," Morrison said. "No invitations have been extended at this time."

Another source close to the negotiations confirmed that North Carolina, Duke and Virginia have blocked the addition of the three schools. President Nan Keohane of Duke and UNC chancellor James Moeser have gone public with their opposition to expansion.

ACC commissioner John Swofford has promised to resolve expansion debate before the end of this month. That's important because the schools hoping to join the ACC face a $1 million buyout if they leave the Big East by June 30, but would have to pay $2 million each if they leave after that date.

Sources indicate that the President's Council's next teleconference is tentatively scheduled for this weekend.


 

Athletic director calls
decision `surprising'
Source: ACC opts to consider Va. Tech

Virginia Tech President Steger was expected to speak with members of the school's Board of Visitors today to gauge their feelings on whether to talk with the ACC.

By MARK BERMAN THE ROANOKE TIMES

In a move that Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver characterized as "very surprising," Atlantic Coast Conference presidents decided Wednesday to consider Virginia Tech as an expansion candidate.

A state government source said Wednesday night that ACC presidents are interested in Tech leaving the Big East Conference to join their league.

"It's back on the table," the source said. "They have reopened it."

No formal invitation has been extended to Tech, the source said. Adding Tech to the previous expansion candidates - fellow Big East members Miami, Syracuse and Boston College - would mean the ACC could grow to 13 members.

Weaver said he had heard the news from reporters Wednesday night.

"It's very surprising," Weaver said. "I don't even know what transpired today. If it's transpired the way it's been told to me it has, it's very surprising."

Virginia Tech officials publicly lobbied the ACC in April and May to be one of the expansion candidates along with Miami, but Tech was snubbed. The decision to add Virginia Tech to the mix was made during a three-hour teleconference of the nine ACC presidents Wednesday, the source said.

The source said Virginia Tech President Charles Steger learned of "Tech's re-inclusion in ACC expansion" in a meeting with Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough, a former Virginia Tech official, in Blacksburg on Wednesday night. The source said Steger's office contacted members of the Board of the Visitors to alert them that he wants to speak with them today about whether to talk with the ACC.

"He's probably going to leave the decision on whether or not to pursue this to the Board of Visitors," the source said.

ACC spokesman Brian Morrison told the Greensboro News & Record that one of the ACC presidents "made an informal contact" with Steger.

"They spoke because they are friends and have a past professional relationship," Morrison said. "Given the current political circumstances in the state of Virginia relating to the ACC's consideration of possible expansion, that CEO wanted to speak with his colleague to understand better what political options might be available."

The ACC's conference call Wednesday was the third in nine days without a vote being taken to invite Miami, Syracuse and BC. Seven votes are needed for invitations. Virginia Tech was added to the mix Wednesday after it appeared that the original trio would not get seven votes, according to The Associated Press.

The suggestion Wednesday to add Virginia Tech was made by University of Virginia President John Casteen, according to the government source. Casteen has been under political pressure to vote against expansion because of the harm it would cause Virginia Tech. Duke and North Carolina have also been considered holdouts.

Two weeks ago, Virginia Tech and four other Big East schools sued the ACC, Miami and BC, seeking damages and an injunction to stop the defections. The source said Steger will write a letter to the other four schools informing them of Wednesday night's meeting.

On June 8, Steger told USA Today that "if an offer [to join the ACC] came today, we would not accept it." That same day, Tech spokesman Larry Hincker told The Roanoke Times that "if we were asked to join today, we wouldn't go."

Will Tech go back on its word and accept the ACC offer?

Or did the ACC make the offer figuring Tech would not go back on its word, thereby getting Virginia off the hook and freeing it to vote for expansion?

"Who knows?" Weaver said. "I can't even begin to comment because I don't know. It's surprising."

ACC presidents voted 8-1 on May 16 to hold formal talks with Miami, BC and Syracuse.

Big East spokesman Mark Fabiani told the Greensboro News & Record “if these reports are accurate, the ACC apparently will stop at nothing to destroy the Big East as a football conference.”

Clough told The Associated Press he met with Steger to discuss what Virginia Tech’s options were.

‘‘It was a friend to a friend and I said any information I got from the meeting I would take back to my colleagues,’’ Clough told the AP.

ACC tradition may be lost cause
By expanding to 12 teams, league basketball schedule would undergo changes
By A Sun Staff Writer
Originally published June 19, 2003

Former University of Maryland shooting guard Drew Nicholas envisions the Atlantic Coast Conference taking on a different look, and he doesn't like it.

Nicholas, fresh off a collegiate career that included a national title and back-to-back trips to the NCAA tournament's Final Four, counts among his greatest treasures as a Terrapin the chance to play each year in every ACC arena, where hostile crowds and unique atmospheres added spice to a storied league.

There was, among others, the annual pilgrimage to Duke's deafening, legendary Cameron Indoor Stadium. The yearly trip to the Clemson bandbox known as Littlejohn Coliseum. The two-hour bus ride to Virginia's tiny, raucous University Hall. The chance to play all conference opponents at Maryland, another unkind place for visitors.

With the ACC determined to expand from nine teams to 12 by plucking Miami, Syracuse and Boston College from the Big East Conference, Nicholas sees a tradition -- a double round-robin schedule consisting of eight home-and-home confrontations -- in danger of dissolving.

"Obviously, there's money reasons for [expansion], and it might turn out better in the long run, but it really changes things a lot," said Nicholas.

"Wouldn't it be unfortunate if Maryland and Duke only played each other once a year? You might only get to play at Duke two years out of four. Same thing with Georgia Tech or N.C. State or Clemson. I was always excited to play in all of the different arenas during my four years. Every game is pretty much a rivalry in the ACC. This could change everything."

Football is the driving force behind the ACC's expansion efforts. By bulking up to 12 schools, the league could split into two, six-team divisions, cap off its regular season with a lucrative championship game and solidify its place in the Bowl Championship Series picture, especially with perennial national power Miami leading the way.

And in an NCAA world that now features the super conference -- see the Big 12 and the 12-team Southeast Conference -- the ACC is seeking to shore up its flanks, lest its teams get picked off down the road by other hungry leagues.

All of which rings a bit hollow to basketball fans, former players and coaches, who understand the need for change but are skeptical about its effect on the ACC fabric.

"If it turns into a 12-team conference, the whole structure of ACC basketball goes by the wayside," said Michael Richman, 39, a Terps basketball season-ticket holder from Pikesville. "I think it will take away from the integrity of the ACC experience."

If it expands to 12 teams, the ACC could follow the basketball model used in the SEC, which employs six-team divisions and plays 16 league games. Teams play each other twice within their respective divisions each year, and cross over to play one game each against non-divisional opponents, with three home and three away. The non-divisional sites alternate each season.

Jay Bilas, who played on the 1986 Duke team that lost to Louisville in the NCAA title game and is a college basketball analyst for ESPN, compared an ACC expansion to 12 basketball teams to major league baseball adopting the designated hitter rule in the American League.

"Take away the home-and-homes, and there's no true gauge for calling yourself the regular-season champion anymore," Bilas said. "By corrupting the regular season, you're also corrupting the ACC tournament."

Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt sees merit in expansion, although he wonders how much of the league's intensity will inevitably be lost.

On the plus side, Hewitt sees the ACC getting six or seven teams into the NCAAs annually. Hewitt sees the league's recruiting base taking over the entire eastern seaboard, and is intrigued by the notion of the power base shifting from North Carolina, which houses nearly half of the conference teams and plays host to the league tournament most years.

Then again, the added travel, the potential need to fly to places like Syracuse and Boston College, gives Hewitt pause.

Chris Corchiani, the former N.C. State point guard (1988-91), is resigned to the change that appears at hand.

"I'm disappointed from a tradition standpoint, but I also understand that if the ACC doesn't [expand], it will be left behind," Corchiani said.



 

Hokies back on ACC list

By TONY BARNHART
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

New ACC twist: Invite Va. Tech
By Alan Schmadtke and Craig Barnes | Sentinel Staff Writers

Just when it appeared the Atlantic Coast Conference's effort to expand had waned, the ACC simply took another step forward -- a political one.

Already considering whether to add three schools from the Big East, the ACC added a fourth for consideration Wednesday by opening discussions with stunned Virginia Tech, multiple sources told The Associated Press.

ACC spokesman Brian Morrison said the league has offered no formal invitations but confirmed "informal contact" was made with the Hokies.

Big East members Miami, Syracuse and Boston College have been under consideration for two weeks, and invitations to them were seen as a formality at one point.

Then Virginia started receiving pressure from Gov. Mark Warner about Virginia Tech's exclusion, and that state's attorney general later signed onto a lawsuit against the ACC, Miami and Boston College by five Big East members, including Virginia Tech.

Just before the lawsuit was filed, the Hokies and four other Big East members agreed to stick together and not to accept any future membership invitation from the ACC.

For a little less than a week it looked as if it wouldn't matter. Two conference calls last week among ACC presidents did not produce invites when it was expected they would. North Carolina and Duke were not yet comfortable with growing from nine members to 12, and Virginia was opposed because Virginia Tech was not involved.

The ACC needs seven votes from nine members to expand.

But another presidential call Wednesday morning -- three-and-a-half-hours long -- perhaps wrecked a roadblock that had hindered the process.

Virginia President John Casteen suggested rival Virginia Tech be reconsidered, an anonymous source told AP.

A second source told AP that Georgia Tech President T. Wayne Clough called Casteen on Wednesday night. Clough did not issue an invitation but a question: How would Virginia Tech feel about coming to the ACC?

William C. Latham, a member of Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors, said Steger's secretary called about scheduling a phone conversation for today.

Virginia Tech joined Connecticut, West Virginia, Rutgers and Pittsburgh in a federal lawsuit designed to prevent the exit of three other Big East members. At that point, the Hokies pledged to join the rest of the Big East in doing whatever was necesssary to keep the conference together.

An ACC with the Hokies would be a 13-team league -- one that would be able to conduct a football championship game but without balanced divisions. That is, unless a 14th school were invited.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford was not available for comment.

As it is, a 13-team conference would make the ACC the largest among the Bowl Championship Series leagues, tying the Mid-American Conference for the largest all-sports membership conference.

There remains a deadline of sorts to get expansion done. Big East schools must pay a $1 million exit fee to leave. That grows to $2 million after June 30.