Speedy Effort Sought in Suit Against A.C.C.
By VIV BERNSTEIN
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said yesterday that he would
seek a court hearing as early as today to expedite his lawsuit over expansion
plans by the Atlantic Coast Conference. He said the expansion would gut the Big
East Conference.
In a conference call with reporters, Blumenthal also threatened to seek an
injunction blocking any attempt by the A.C.C. to add Miami, Boston College,
Syracuse and perhaps Virginia Tech.
Blumenthal and five members of the Big East have sued the A.C.C., Miami and
Boston College over the A.C.C.'s efforts to lure away Big East universities.
Blumenthal said yesterday that motions filed by the defendants seek to delay the
lawsuit.
"These efforts to slow the case are entirely at odds with the A.C.C.'s
relentless, aggressive tactics and breakneck speed in raiding the Big East and
seeking to induce defections," he said in a letter sent to the defendants'
lawyers on Friday.
Blumenthal said he wanted an immediate hearing - as early as today - in Superior
Court in Rockville, Conn., to set the schedule for the defendants to produce
documents and give depositions.
He said that Miami had raised objections about a deposition scheduled for July 1
with the university's president, Donna Shalala.
Blumenthal also said that the A.C.C. was trying to have the site of Shalala's
deposition changed and that Boston College was seeking a delay in providing
evidence.
"We are seeking our day in court to pursue the evidence we need in further
support of the claims we have made that the A.C.C. is relentless as they seek to
destroy the Big East," Blumenthal said.
"We are ready, willing and able to seek immediate steps such as the court order
to halt the A.C.C.'s illegal action, to protect Big East interests."
A lawyer representing Miami, Shawn S. Sullivan, said he planned to file a motion
this week to have the case dismissed, saying the A.C.C. had not voted to expand
or invited any teams to join it at this point.
"We're filing a motion challenging the jurisdiction of the court," Sullivan
said. "Our position is that's the first matter the court has to address."
The A.C.C.'s presidents held a conference call on Saturday, but they have not
been able to reach a consensus on how many or which universities to invite.
The conference sent representatives to Miami, Syracuse and Boston College in
advance of any invitations. But when a vote needed to approve expansion fell one
vote short of the 7-2 minimum, the A.C.C. approached Virginia Tech, a plaintiff
in the suit against the conference, about being added to the list of potential
expansion members.
If Virginia Tech is invited to join the A.C.C., indications are that the
University of Virginia will vote for expansion to 12 or 13 universities from 9.
Looming is an unofficial June 30 deadline to complete expansion. Universities in
the Big East have until then to pay a $1 million exit fee; after that, the fee
is $2 million.
A news release issued by the A.C.C. on Saturday said that the process for
expansion could be completed this week.
But A.C.C. officials have had four conference calls in the past two weeks with
no final vote on an expansion plan. Clearly, the A.C.C. is divided.
Duke and North Carolina have opposed the expansion to 12 or 13 colleges.
The Greensboro News & Record reported last week that North Carolina's president,
James Moeser, was pushing for expansion with only Miami invited to join.
Pulling in the opposite direction, there is a possibility that Florida State,
Georgia Tech and Clemson could consider leaving the A.C.C. to join the
Southeastern Conference if the A.C.C. does not expand.
PHILADELPHIA - At its heart, the realignment tug of war between the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference is a high-stakes, hard-edged national political campaign. Governors are involved, along with high-priced New York attorneys and dueling public relations firms that are adept at politics.
Five Big East schools have initiated a lawsuit that accuses Miami and Boston College of being behind a "deliberate scheme to destroy the Big East and abscond with the collective value of all that has been invested and created in the Big East."
All over the college landscape, people are talking about a defining moment here, a sad chapter when the last thin veneer of amateurism was finally ripped off the whole enterprise, and the link between colleges and "collegiality" was severed.
"With all the things happening with corporate America, with the Catholic Church, the measure now is, can you get away with it and can you win a court battle?" said former Knight Commission member John A. DiBiaggio, who headed the University of Connecticut when it entered the Big East, and retired in 2001 as president of Tufts University. "You're supposed to trust your colleagues. It's just one more example of something gone amok."
Schools switching conferences, even conferences imploding as a result, "that's happened before," pointed out Paul H. Haagen, co-director of Duke's Center for Sports Law and Policy. "But is the level of political involvement by governors, senators and other politicians unprecedented? Without having carefully researched it, I think the answer is yes."
Haagen suggested the moves between conferences could establish new ground in another way.
"Articulating them as investments and economic interests, I think that's a big step," Haagen said. "None of the justifications have even the fig leaf of academic exchange or improved athletic environment. People aren't even talking that way."
"Just a growth of a professional enterprise," DiBiaggio said. "That's all you can call it."
The presidents of Atlantic Coast Conference schools held another in a series of conference calls last week, trying to prevent their expansion efforts from sinking into a permanent quagmire.
There was no vote on Wednesday to add Big East schools Miami, Boston College and Syracuse, apparently because there weren't enough yes votes.
But in that conference call, the president of the University of Virginia, John Casteen III, showed how much political pressure he was under to protect in-state rival Virginia Tech's interests. He had made it clear that he couldn't cast the deciding vote to add the three schools and keep Virginia Tech out. He suggested a compromise, that the ACC also bring in Virginia Tech as a fourth school.
By the end of the day, news of that suggestion was public knowledge. At 10:43 that night, an e-mail hit the in-boxes of sports reporters around the country, beginning with, "If these reports are accurate, the ACC apparently will stop at nothing to destroy the Big East as a football conference."
If that sounds like a response right out of the old Bill Clinton war room, it was. The statement was from Mark D. Fabiani, a former longtime Clinton aide who has been hired by the five Big East schools who are suing Miami, Boston College and the ACC.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, read Fabiani's statement in his paper Thursday morning.
"I could have sworn I heard him say the exact same thing about the right-wing conspiracy," Sabato said. "The same language."
Right now, Ground Zero for the whole political campaign has to be in Virginia, where the governor, Mark Warner, has successfully pressured Casteen, Virginia's president, to keep him from casting the deciding vote that would bring in Miami, Boston College and Syracuse.
The University of North Carolina and Duke had indicated they would vote against the expansion, and seven votes from the nine ACC schools are required to expand. Voting to add the three others would leave Virginia Tech in the wilderness, part of a league unlikely to have a place in the big-money football Bowl Championship Series.
"It took the governor a very short period of time before he was on the phone to the president of (the University of Virginia)," Sabato said. "That pressure was probably unwelcome. I don't know that for certain, but I can't imagine otherwise."
Sabato said Casteen is paid to look out solely for the interests of his own institution. Of Warner's insistence that Casteen lobby for Virginia Tech, Sabato called it, "just pure politics. Nothing to do with the merits of the case."
In Virginia, the office of governor is a one-term position. Sabato expects Warner, a Democrat, to make a run for the U.S. Senate after that.
"Football is virtually a religion in the western part of the state," Sabato said. "Warner, as a Democrat, wants to continue to do well" in the west, where Virginia Tech is the dominant football program.
It's also no coincidence, Sabato said, that state attorney general Jerry Kilgore had included his office in the lawsuit. Kilgore, a Republican, has his eyes on the governor's mansion, Sabato said. He needs votes in the western portion of the state, too.
"Whether it's good for the state or for the universities, it's wholly irrelevant," Sabato said of the politicians' maneuvers. "That's the problem."
The top elected officials aren't the only ones getting involved.
"Some really unwise and dangerous things have been said here," Sabato said. "For example, there are many legislators who have degrees from Virginia Tech. One said that if (the University of Virginia) dares to block (Virginia Tech's move to the ACC), they would go about killing any legislation that would benefit (the University of Virginia), including, I assume, appropriations."
All the maneuvering obviously has had some effect, since the ACC has now unofficially approached Virginia Tech, even though an additional team would reduce revenues for all the schools.
"They're using pretty blunt instruments," Sabato said of the politicians' maneuvering in the state.
But so far, it seems, those instruments have been pretty effective.
"Most blunt instruments are," Sabato said. "They usually meet at the mark and result in murder."
Some politicians also grabbed the high ground here. Nine U.S. senators, including both senators from Virginia and Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania, sent a letter to the presidents of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse.
"It was not too long ago that colleges and universities espoused loyalty, leadership and sportsmanship as the qualities that made intercollegiate athletics great. Now those very virtues find themselves under assault, not by the corrosive effects of scandal at the student-athlete level, but rather by the decisions of individuals in leadership positions. To us, that is the greatest shame of this entire affair," said the letter in part.
Since the cost of their buyout clause in the Big East contract doubles for each school at the end of the month, to $2 million, everyone expects some resolution by then. The latest maneuvering has a lot of people involved wondering if adding Virginia Tech to the other three from the Big East would work for the ACC logistically or financially.
The ACC could conceivably backtrack and choose not to invite Boston College or Syracuse. Or, the thinking goes, maybe this is all a political bluff, since Virginia Tech officials have been outspoken recently about sticking with the Big East. That's after they paid a visit to the ACC offices, where they reportedly said they'd love to be in that conference if the Big East didn't hold together.
Friday morning, the public relations firm representing the five Big East schools - including Virginia Tech, right now - e-mailed out a Newark Star-Ledger story that related how Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver had pounded his fist into his hand during a visit to the hotel room of Rutgers athletic director Bob Mulcahy at last month's Big East meetings, and with a reporter present said, "We are committed to the Big East, and we will continue to be committed to the Big East. Our commitment is unwavering."
Of course, if the ACC is bluffing, Virginia Tech can call it by ignoring its own past remarks, then ignoring the cries of hypocrisy.
"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," Fabiani said in his statement Wednesday night. "For our part, we will continue to do everything possible to keep the Big East intact, including pursuing all of our available legal options."
Kilgore, the attorney general in Virginia, whose office had joined the lawsuit against the bolting teams, told the Associated Press on Thursday that the goal all along was to protect Virginia Tech's standing in a viable conference. He didn't say which conference.
To some people, it doesn't even matter. Sabato proposes that however it plays out, the schools should change their names. One institution should officially be known as Virginia Tech Football Program. Its in-state rival would be Virginia Football Program.
"Let's not take away from what's important here," he said.
The attorney general of Connecticut on Sunday accused the ACC of unreasonable stalling tactics in the parties' ongoing expansion-related litigation, and he hinted the five Big East plaintiffs could file a separate motion to stop expansion if the ACC announces new membership.
The ACC's legal counsel denied the charges and suggested the opposition's media teleconference was a pseudo-event designed to spin rather than inform.
And the parties' case doesn't even have a court date yet.
Attorney general Richard Blumenthal is involved in the case because the University of Connecticut alleges that its $90 million football stadium was built with taxpayer money and in part over the University of Miami's promises to stay in the Big East. He chided the ACC for allegedly stalling the litigation process.
"I have become profoundly disturbed with some of the clear efforts to delay progress in our case," Blumenthal said. "We are seeking our day in court so we can pursue the evidence that we need in further support of the claims we have made."
Blumenthal accused the league of opposing the assignment of the judge in the matter.
Erik Albright of Greensboro, the ACC's chief local attorney, said the deadline for responding to the Big East's motion for speedy discovery hasn't even arrived yet. He said the two sides agreed on the district in which the case would be heard but that an administrative judge then reassigned the matter to a different district. That, he said, is why he has raised questions about the topic.
"The well-choreographed pattern of press releases and press conferences, which are heavy on rhetoric and grandstanding and light on substantive developments, are part of an apparent pattern chosen by opposing counsel to attempt intimidation and influence," he said. "They have not worked and will not work."
Attorney general trying to slow down ACC raid
By Norm Wood
Daily Press
Published June 23, 2003
With the Atlantic Coast Conference scheduled to have its fifth teleconference
today or Tuesday to discuss expansion, Connecticut attorney general Richard
Blumenthal hopes to slow the ACC's efforts to raid the Big East and is prepared
to request a court order to do so.
Blumenthal sent a letter Sunday to the ACC, Boston College and Miami, berating
them for allegedly trying to delay a lawsuit by Big East representatives
Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, West Virginia and Virginia Tech. The lawsuit,
filed earlier this month in Connecticut, accuses the ACC, BC and Miami of
working together to destroy the Big East. The ACC is looking at BC, Miami,
Syracuse and Virginia Tech as candidates to expand the conference to 10, 12 or
13 members. In order to speed up the hearing, Blumenthal said he hopes to meet
with Samuel Sferrazza, the Connecticut Superior Court judge slated to preside,
as early as today to formulate a schedule. Blumenthal added he will ask for a
temporary injuction or court order to stop the ACC if necessary.
"There are so many scenarios," Blumenthal said in a teleconference. "The rumors
and speculation have become an echo chamber. I hesitate to speculate on specific
scenarios that may be very much removed from the realm of possibility. But I
will say this, that we are ready, willing and able to take action immediately in
court to stop any threat to the Big East's interests, and we will not hesitate
to ask for an immediate order that would halt expansion. We feel that we have
developed sufficient evidence to support a claim for immediate relief and we're
ready, willing and able to pull the trigger if we need to do so."
Though Virginia Tech looks to have emerged as one of the ACC's four Big East
targets, Blumenthal said Virginia Tech remains a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
However, if the ACC's presidents vote to open formal discussions with Virginia
Tech, the university would likely have to remove itself from the lawsuit and
could face legal repercussions.
"There is no indication that Virginia Tech is abandoning our legal cause,"
Blumenthal said. "On the contrary, as far as we know, Virginia Tech remains
firmly committed to our lawsuit. ... We're prepared to take action if Virginia
Tech does defect. We're keeping all our options open, but we have no reason to
think at this point that Virginia Tech has been swayed or altered in its
position."
In the letter, Blumenthal said the ACC has tried to get a different judge and
venue for the lawsuit. He also accused BC of delaying the legal process and said
Miami has balked at the plaintiffs' attempts to depose "high-ranking officials"
at the university in Coral Gables, Fla.
Referring to the ACC as "rudderless and leaderless" and having "no apparent
strategy," Blumenthal believes he has proof the ACC has had communication with
BC and Miami regarding expansion without the knowledge of the Big East.
In addition to presenting that evidence, Blumenthal said he hopes to depose the
Bonham Group, a Denver-based financial consulting firm that has done research
for the ACC into the fiscal ramifications of expansion. The Bonham Group's
findings have indicated that simply adding three or four teams to the ACC would
not bring in more revenue for the conference.
No site visit yet scheduled
for Tech
ACC may drop
BC or 'Cuse for Tech
After four teleconferences, the ACC still needs seven votes to expand to a 12-team conference.
By MARK BERMAN
THE ROANOKE TIMES
It looks like a 13-team ACC isn't the only way Virginia Tech could come aboard.
After Saturday's conference call among the nine ACC presidents, ACC Commissioner John Swofford said every expansion option is still on the table. One of those options is reportedly punting Boston College or, more likely, Syracuse in favor of Tech as part of a 12-team ACC.
"Financially, Syracuse wins hands down," one ACC president said in Sunday's South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "Politically, Virginia Tech might be the only way to go."
Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said Sunday that Tech has not received any feedback from the ACC regarding particular options. Syracuse athletic director Jake Crouthamel said he has no idea if Syracuse could be dropped.
"That's their decision," Crouthamel said.
BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo declined to comment to The Boston Globe on Saturday about the possibility of his school being dropped.
ACC presidents voted last month to hold formal talks with Miami, Syracuse and BC. The league has not been able to come up with the seven votes needed to invite the trio, however. Duke, North Carolina and Virginia are the holdouts to that scenario.
Virginia Tech was put back on the table as an expansion candidate last Wednesday, but the idea of a 13-team ACC hasn't picked up steam. The presidents did not vote Saturday to expand to 13 or to hold formal talks with Tech.
But by replacing BC or Syracuse with Tech, the ACC could get the votes it needs for a 12-team league. UVa would be able to vote for a 12-team league in that case because the expansion trio would include Tech.
"What has been made absolutely crystal clear over the last week or so is that the ACC has an almost obsessive zeal to expand no matter what the cost," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Sunday in a conference call with the media. "The ACC is willing to abandon anyone or add any team anytime, even to jettison BC or Syracuse and substitute another team."
Blumenthal is one of the key lawyers in the lawsuit filed by Tech, Connecticut and three other Big East schools against the ACC, Miami and BC. Blumenthal said if the ACC votes for expansion, he would file a motion for a preliminary or temporary injunction that would halt expansion and preserve the status quo.
Syracuse would be more likely to be dropped from an expansion trio instead of Boston College because BC brings one of the nation's top TV markets and, according to the lawsuit, was involved in the expansion talks earlier than Syracuse.
A 12-team ACC with Tech is hardly a slam dunk to get seven votes, however. TV contracts for an ACC with Tech instead of SU or BC might not be as lucrative. BC offers the Boston TV market, Syracuse is the defending NCAA men's basketball champ and both would bring new, Northeast TV markets to the ACC package.
There is also no guarantee Miami would want to join without SU and BC. Miami has a lot of students and alumni in the Northeast, and pushed for SU and BC as expansion candidates so it can continue to have exposure in that region. Miami President Donna Shalala also has close ties to Syracuse Chancellor Kenneth Shaw, dating back to their years together in the University of Wisconsin system.
ACC presidents, who already sent delegations to SU, BC and Miami for site visits, might also be reluctant to abandon one of the schools they have so publicly been involved with. No site visit has been scheduled for Tech, another indication the presidents have yet to embrace the Hokies.
Think of the toughest job you know. You call that tough? Tough is teaching ethics at Virginia Tech.
The school digs in, takes a position. Then the sun comes up and it takes another. The Hokies are more flexible than a yoga instructor.
They come to Greensboro to lobby the ACC to become a member.
The ACC ignores them and invites three other Big East schools.
So the Hokies join the four football-playing Big East schools left behind and file a lame lawsuit.
And now that the ACC needs one pro expansion vote, and Virginia is the likely candidate, and the only way to nudge the Cavaliers is to invite the Hokies, the ACC is likely to invite - love you, mean it - the Hokies.
And the Hokies are likely to muster whatever dignity remains and debate the ramifications for days before screaming, YES!
"We could look hypocritical," says Gary Ball, president of the Charlotte Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association.
You could.
"I've been flip-flopping on whether I'd rather stay or go," he said Saturday. "The Big East plays good football, and I'd hate to lose rivals like West Virginia. But if the Big East is breaking up, let's not be the last one off."
If the Hokies join the ACC, rivals will make fun of them for years. But long after the jokes fade, Florida State and N.C. State will be coming to Blacksburg, Va., to play football, and Duke and North Carolina will be coming to play basketball.
When a man and a woman get together under less-than-conventional circumstances, folks gossip. But the gossips quickly move on to somebody else. Folks forget how the couple came together, only that it is together.
Ball, 43, is a computer science major, class of '83, and like every other Virginia Tech graduate I know, he is true to his school.
You can tell by the Virginia Tech license plate on the front of his '95 Honda Accord, the Virginia Tech license plate holder on the back and the Virginia Tech sticker on the windshield. On game days, he sticks a Virginia Tech magnet on each side of the car and a Virginia Tech flag and a Virginia Tech windsock on top.
In his office is a picture of the Virginia Tech campus, a Virginia Tech diploma and, of course, a Virginia Tech clock. On the wall above his patio is a Virginia Tech brick, and on the driver in his golf bag is a Virginia Tech head cover.
The campus is only 2 1/2 hours from Charlotte and there are 3,000 alumni in Charlotte. They're passionate about their football, and if you don't think fans determine whether a school qualifies as a football school, you must watch games on TV.
The Charlotte chapter watched Hokie road games at Coach's Sports Bar & Grill last season, regularly drawing more than 100 fans. When the Hokies are at home, Ball is on the road by 7 a.m. and tailgating with thousands of others by 10.
The trip from the Big East to the ACC is much more difficult than the trip from Charlotte to Blacksburg. But sometimes it's not about the journey.
Commissioner, ACC shameless
With the ACC raid of the Big East perilously close to dissolving, ACC Commissioner John Swofford knew he was in danger of becoming the biggest chucklehead in modern college sports.Heck, you can only hold so many conference calls without taking a vote before you're forced to file for bankruptcy for unpaid phone bills. Desperate times call for shameless measures.
To get Virginia's decisive seventh vote and to mollify the governor of Virginia, the ACC turned around and invited Virginia Tech, too.
Tech had been begging to join and the ACC had treated the Hokies like mongrel dogs. Outraged, Tech joined the other Big East football schools in the lawsuit that essentially accuses the ACC, Miami and Boston College of covertly plotting this unseemly stuff for years.
Hey, one day a plaintiff, the next day, a turncoat. Nothing is sacred in this war.
Jeff Jacobs
Hartford (Conn.) Courant
Panic mistaken for vision
This couldn't be a worse decision. The ACC portrays expansion ... as visionary and essential. Arrogant and selfish are more like it. ...It makes as much sense as adding Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and Smokey Robinson to the Backstreet Boys. ...
This isn't vision. This is panic. Yes, the ACC's football television contracts expire after the 2005 season. And yes, if Florida State continues to slide, the league will have little leverage in negotiations. But last year the ACC distributed $9.7 million to each of its members, more than any conference. Isn't that enough?
David Teel
Newport News (Va.) Daily Press:
Hokies value greed, disloyalty
The news in the ongoing saga of the Big East's attempt to fight off a raid by the ACC is coming so rapidly that it's hard to keep up with all of it. In fact, this just in from Blacksburg, Va.:"The Board of Visitors of Virginia Tech has unanimously voted to change the name of the institution to Benedict Arnold University.
"If betrayal is to be our game," said a university spokesman, "we want our name to properly reflect it. We believe using the name of Benedict Arnold, the most infamous American traitor, best serves our purposes."
Don't get steamed, Hokies-lovers. We only kid you because we love you. How could anyone be angry with an institution of higher learning that so values those American-as-apple-pie virtues of greed and disloyalty?
Bob Smizik
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
ACC latest model for expansion
The ACC expansion plan was supposed to help bring about a brave new world in college football - an era when 12-team superconferences became standardized, like suburban homes. Remember?
Everyone from the Pac-10 to the Big Ten would go to 12 members, as the SEC and Big 12 have. Each would have a title game. If there still were not a real national playoff, at least the Bowl Championship Series would be improved by having, in effect, a first round of playoff games decided on the field.
"You have to look at where the world is going," Miami athletics director Paul Dee said.
But the plan is mutating. The ACC is growing new teams out of its forehead every day, while the rest of the world tries to figure out if it wants to imitate.
Charles Elmore
Palm Beach Post
Growth will wreck other conferences
The ACC is so determined to get bigger that it seems not to care what the cost to the collegiate landscape. Its ravening expansion plan would mean the virtual destruction of the Big East and trigger similar destruction of other conferences, a domino effect.The bigs would get bigger and all other schools in search of athletic revenue would starve and shrink. But who cares?
Not most ACC members, or the traitorous Big East presidents thinking of joining them, or Virginia Tech, which is apparently for sale. You could probably buy the Blacksburg campus from an Internet e-tailer.
The ACC holdouts are Duke and North Carolina, whose presidents are genuine educators and rightly unconvinced that expansion is either wise or enriching, and Virginia President John Casteen III, who, though he favors expansion, is under political pressure from Gov. Mark Warner to oppose it unless Virginia Tech is invited in, too.
The solution was obvious and was promptly proposed by Casteen: Buy Virginia's vote by inviting Tech. ...
As Duke and North Carolina have pointed out, the TV financial projections may be wildly optimistic, given sports ratings lately. A bigger league means splitting the money more ways. Also, there are additional travel costs of divisional play.
What's more, Duke and North Carolina are the only schools who seem to be troubled as to how the financial motive fits with the mission of the university
Sally Jenkins
Washington Post
ACC thumbs nose at honor, tradition
One of the last bastions of honor, tradition and integrity in big-time college athletics waved its white flag in surrender when the ACC decided to expand.
For 50 years the ACC has stood somewhat above its brethren, long believing that athletics was merely a supplement to education while remaining -- for the most part -- free of the money-grubbing, scandal-laden fray of the college athletic landscape.
Throughout, the ACC remained a quaint family of seven, eight or nine members working toward attaining quality programs and unwilling to succumb to the widespread belief that bigger means better.
No more.
Ron Morris
The (Columbia) State
Conn. attorney general seeks to speed up lawsuit
By BARRY JACKSON
Miami Herald
MIAMI - Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal said Sunday he will take
steps to accelerate the lawsuit by five Big East football schools against the
University of Miami, Boston College and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Meanwhile, North Carolina chancellor James Moeser confirmed he is pushing his
colleagues to invite only Miami in the ACC's plan to expand. At this point, it
would be surprising if the ACC could get the seven yes votes needed to invite
Miami, BC and Syracuse.
That leaves three options: not expanding at all; inviting only Miami; or
inviting Virginia Tech (likely in place of Syracuse) with BC and Miami.
As for the lawsuit to prevent the exodus from the Big East, Blumenthal told
reporters on a conference call that he will ask for a meeting Monday with
Rockville, Conn.-based Superior Court Judge Samuel J. Sferrazza so a schedule
can be established to expedite the process.
Blumenthal - one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit by Pittsburgh, West Virginia,
Rutgers, Connecticut and Virginia Tech - also sent a letter to the defendants'
lawyers asking them to join him in requesting a status conference with the judge
as early as possible.
The letter accuses the defendants of delay tactics, although Blumenthal
acknowledged later "there is nothing illegal" with that strategy.
Blumenthal expressed frustration in the letter with the ACC's "attempt to change
the assignment of the judge, ... Miami's objection to the plaintiffs' attempted
depositions of the highest-ranking officials at major universities and Boston
College's attempt to delay any discovery."
In a statement earlier this month, the ACC said the lawsuit has no merit.
University of Miami attorney Chuck Kline declined to comment on all matters
relating to the case Sunday.
Blumenthal reiterated he will seek an injunction to stop expansion if it
proceeds. He said he's seeking "millions" of dollars in damages and that
wouldn't change even if the ACC adds only one school.
"The University of Miami and Boston College repeatedly ... reassured our schools
they were firmly committed to this conference, knowing at the time they were
secretly negotiating with the ACC and we were relying on their false promises.
"It's not illegal for them to withdraw. What it is illegal is to lie and
leave... They knew we were taking action based on their false promises - such as
renovating football stadiums... All of the illegal negotiations that are going
on right now will be added as evidence."
Blumenthal said promises were made not only by University of Miami president
Donna Shalala, but also former University of Miami president Edward Foote.
The plaintiffs are seeking to depose Shalala, Foote and University of Miami
athletic director Paul Dee, plus officials from BC and the ACC.
Within the ACC, advocates of three-team expansion might support Moeser's
Miami-only plan if that proves to be the only realistic expansion option.
Shalala has expressed reservations about entering the ACC alone, but ACC
officials hope she can be persuaded with assurances that two teams would be
added in a year or so, sources said.
"I think adding only Miami could be a very good solution that moves us forward
and have made this case to my colleagues," Moeser told The Raleigh News &
Observer in Sunday's editions. "Miami is the addition that arguably lies in the
geographic footprint of the ACC.
"It certainly brings great football strength to the conference without all the
baggage of having 12 teams - divisions, the lack of round-robin schedules, the
concerns we have for student-athletes regarding travel time and the cost of
travel.
"I started thinking through what the arguments were that if we stayed pat, Miami
might be lured into the SEC and Florida State could follow."
But adding just Miami would leave the ACC two schools short of the number
required for a lucrative football conference championship game.
Adding four Big East teams seems unlikely. "I'm opposed to 12 and if 12 is bad,
13 is worse," Moeser said. "It's sheer madness. That would be absolutely the
worst thing."
Rutgers AD's proposal: Just take Miami
Such a compromise would allow the ACC to prosper and Big East to survive.
June 23, 2003
By Tom Luicci
The (Newark) Star-Ledger
Bob Mulcahy doesn't like the idea of Big East football without Miami as its
marquee team. But he prefers that scenario over a crippled Big East Football
Conference - which is what would happen if the Atlantic Coast Conference is
successful in raiding three (or more) of the league's schools.
That's why the Rutgers athletic director said Sunday he is proposing a
compromise to the ACC regarding its stalled expansion plans: The league can take
Miami - but Miami only.
The idea is believed to have the support of the rest of the Big East, although
Mulcahy would not confirm that.
Kevin Morrow, spokesperson for SU, could not be reached for comment.
"I would hope Miami would understand that our first option is for them to stay
with our league. That would take care of the whole issue," Mulcahy said. "But if
they're uncomfortable and the ACC feels it has to do something, this is a
reasonable way for all sides to come out of this.
"It's time for reasonable people to effectuate a compromise so both conferences
can survive and prosper. This has gone on long enough."
Asked if he had spoken to Miami officials about going public with his compromise
plan, Mulcahy, who has taken on a leadership role within the Big East since the
ACC's plans were announced, said he would not comment on whether he had. Miami
athletic director Paul Dee has said his school did not want to head to the ACC
alone - which is why Syracuse and Boston College were part of the ACC's original
expansion plans.
But that was before the situation became bogged down in legal and political
entanglements. ACC presidents have met three times via conference call in the
past two weeks intending to take a vote on expansion but have failed to do so.
With North Carolina and Duke balking at expanding from nine to 12 schools, and
Virginia fence sitting because of political pressure over the impact the ACC's
raid would have on Virginia Tech, the votes haven't been there to extend
invitations to Miami, Boston College and Syracuse to join.
Recent reports have the ACC scrambling for alternate plans to drum up support,
from taking four Big East schools (Virginia Tech would be added) to considering
a change in the league bylaws so that just six votes are required for expansion,
not the current seven.
The latest speculation has Virginia Tech being substituted for SU, an idea that
doesn't seem to have much ACC support. Nor does any expansion plan beyond adding
three schools.
According to a published report, North Carolina officials would be in favor of
adding Miami only. That would leave the ACC at 10 teams - two shy of the number
needed to split into divisions and stage a championship game in football.
Mulcahy said he would also ask that the ACC hold off considering adding Big East
teams in the foreseeable future in exchange for dropping a lawsuit against the
ACC, Miami and Boston College.
"That would make sense, since the Big East would not be destroyed then," Mulcahy
said.
Big East Set To Ask for A Meeting
By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 23, 2003; Page D03
With ACC university presidents tentatively scheduled to reconvene via conference
call Tuesday, the next step in the league's prolonged expansion process will
take place in court.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, representing the five Big East
schools that have sued the ACC, Miami and Boston College, has sent letters to
the defendants asking for a scheduling meeting to be held, as soon as today, in
state Superior Court in Rockville, Conn.
Meantime, an ACC source said the league is unlikely to follow through on a
four-school expansion proposal because it will be difficult to make a 13-member
conference financially viable.
"It just doesn't make sense financially, and you never would go to 13 without
going to 14," the source said. "I think there would be loads of people that
would look at that and say, 'Wait a minute, let's see the numbers first.' "
That would appear to leave the ACC with two expansion possibilities: adding only
Miami or adding Miami, Virginia Tech and either Boston College or Syracuse.
The league's first alternative, adding Miami, Boston College and Syracuse,
appears unlikely because Duke and North Carolina are opposed to it and Virginia
has indicated it cannot support an expansion that does not protect Virginia Tech
because of political pressure.
It is believed that ACC leaders, its university presidents and athletic
directors are huddling to chart a course of action.
"They seem to be rudderless and leaderless because they seem to be seeking to
expand at any cost without any strategy," Blumenthal said.
While the ACC determines its plan, Blumenthal is seeking to expedite the court
process. Blumenthal said the ACC has asked to change the judge, Miami has asked
to move to a different Connecticut superior court and that Miami and Boston
College are seeking to delay depositions of their top officials.
Concerned that the defendants are, in his view, filing motions to delay the
case, Blumenthal wants to meet as soon as possible with the case judge, Samuel
J. Sferrazza.
If the defendants do not respond to his letter, Blumenthal said he is prepared
to ask the court for a scheduling meeting.
"We're asking for [the defendants] to agree that we all go before the judge and
resolve when the documents will be produced and when the witnesses will be
deposed," Blumenthal said.
Clemson Nellie Mills, a Clemson graduate working in hostile territory in Apex, N.C., doesn't conceal her feelings for two of the schools that are holding up expansion proceedings in the ACC.
"They're just holier than thou," Mills said bitterly. "You would think that (North) Carolina and Duke would be archrivals. But I think they're kind of both in on this simply because it's more a basketball thing. ‘.‘.‘. They're worried about their basketball dynasty."
North Carolina and Duke have said their opposition to expansion is based on concerns about travel and missed class time and preserving rivalries. But some Clemson fans say North Carolina and Duke are despots struggling to keep their stranglehold on a kingdom growing beyond their grasp.
Call it the Bluebelly Conspiracy theory. Many Clemson fans believe North Carolina schools unfairly dominate ACC policy through sheer force of numbers.
Some blame all of the "Big Four" -- Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest. Others can stomach N.C. State and Wake Forest but are disgusted with Duke in basketball and disdain Tar Heel blue in all sports.
"I think it's North Carolina," Clemson alumnus Al Adams of Forest City, N.C., said, "and I think we've all felt that's been the crown jewel, so to speak, of the affection of the league."
The Bluebelly Conspiracy is as real to Clemson fans as the Chicken Curse is to the Gamecocks. Clemson fans know that their beliefs cause them to be perceived as paranoid, jealous or both on Tobacco Road.
"Of course the North Carolina schools will tell you it's jealousy and envy," Clemson alumnus Brady Williams of Apex, N.C., said. "But I don't think it's anything more than frustration and lack of being able to communicate with them because their noses are so far up in the air."
Former Clemson basketball player Bill Harder admitted that his belief in the conspiracy is partly borne from bias because he was born and raised in Clemson. Nonetheless, Harder said he considers allegations of the ACC's pro-North Carolina stance to be fact, not fiction.
Harder's biggest point of contention is basketball officiating.
"It's widely viewed that in basketball North Carolina is going to get the calls and Duke is going to get the calls," Harder said. "There definitely is the perception that North Carolina schools want to run the ACC and I'm sure this is why Duke and North Carolina are grandstanding (on expansion), because they don't want to lose some of their power."
Criticism of officiating is a two-way street. Clemson fans remember a three-second call against Tree Rollins with the ball still in the backcourt in 1975 at North Carolina.
And in 1998 at Chapel Hill, 41 fouls called on Clemson left the Tigers with six players fouled out and four players on the court.
But North Carolina fans need to look back no further than Feb. 15 to dispute referees' failure to call fouls on two Raymond Felton 3-point attempts in a 80-77 loss at Clemson.
The only indisputable evidence of North Carolina's influence in the ACC is as follows:
- Four of the ACC's nine schools are in North Carolina; no other state is home to more than one.
- The ACC's offices are located in Greensboro, N.C.
- North Carolina cities have played host to the ACC Tournament in basketball in 45 of 50 seasons.
When John Swofford, a former North Carolina athletics director and North Carolina graduate, was named ACC commissioner in 1997, Clemson fans were prepared to cry foul again.
But Clemson fans have softened on Swofford's position as expansion talks have moved forward. Swofford has lobbied aggressively for expansion even as his alma mater has opposed adding Miami, Boston College and Syracuse.
"He's for the league, as opposed to being for North Carolina," said Jim Phillips, who has been Clemson's radio play-by-play broadcaster for 35 years. "I don't think I would ever would accuse him of being for North Carolina."
Swofford is reflecting an ACC policy that officially is as egalitarian as can be. Unlike some conferences, the ACC splits its revenue evenly, and each member has an equal vote in the expansion process.
Clemson faculty athletics chair Cecil Huey recently said he disagrees with fans who believe North Carolina schools dominate the ACC's agenda.
"You can't deny the fact that the North Carolina schools, being as closely located as they are, there is a lot of commonality in interest there," Huey said. "But I think we have a very harmonious relationship throughout the conference, in fact, far more than in other conferences."
But the stalling of the expansion process has the North Carolina naysayers howling again.
Virginia, too, has failed to vote in favor of expansion, but Clemson fans seem to understand that Virginia's vote has been swayed by political pressure to include Virginia Tech in expansion.
Instead, Clemson fans blame Duke and North Carolina. It's always been that way and maybe it always will, whether expansion occurs or not.
"They're looking at a conference that they've had in their back pocket pretty much, the past couple of decades," Williams said, "and they're afraid of losing that."
The Big East Conference will ask a judge, probably as early as today, for help in its efforts to keep three of its schools from leaving for the ACC, and it is prepared to take further legal action to stop the ACC from expanding.
Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, will ask Judge Samuel Sferrazza of state Superior Court in Hartford, Conn., to end what he considers delaying tactics by the ACC, Miami and Boston College in response to a lawsuit filed June 6.
Blumenthal said yesterday in a 40-minute teleconference with media that the ACC, Miami and Boston College are not providing information critical to the Big East's case. He charged also that they are seeking to change the judge and want to move the case elsewhere in Connecticut without cause.
The ACC is moving slowly in this vital matter, Blumenthal said, as it forges ahead relentlessly and at breakneck speed in trying to add schools to its membership and destroy the Big East. He called the ACC's negotiations with Miami, Syracuse, Boston College and now Virginia Tech a conspiracy that is designed to take all the Big East has built as a conference.
'Their failure to tell the truth and play by the rules is what is at the core of our complaint,' Blumenthal said. 'And the more that they do as each day goes by, the more evidence they add to this illegal conduct.
'All of the backroom dealings and secret negotiations that are ongoing right now will be added as evidence. We are seeking essentially our day in court so that we can pursue evidence we need in further support of the claims we have made.'
Blumenthal notified the ACC, Miami and Boston College and their legal counsels Friday of his intentions in a letter. The ACC and Smith Moore LLP, a Greensboro law firm that is the ACC's legal counsel, had no comment yesterday.
The Big East will ask for a temporary injunction to stop the ACC from adding any of its schools if invitations are extended. Although the lawsuit, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, was filed 17 days ago, an injunction has not been sought because the ACC has not invited any of the schools to join.
'So far, the ACC has taken no action, to put it bluntly,' Blumenthal said. 'They have not taken a vote. They seem to be completely stymied and in disarray, rudderless and leaderless, in part because they are seeking at any cost to expand. They have no apparent strategy.'
Blumenthal wants to see the report of the Bonham Group, a consulting company in Denver that studied expansion for the ACC. Dean Bonham, the consultant, has declined media requests to release his report but has said that he told ACC officials the justification of expansion was strengthening the conference and that expansion would not produce millions of dollars in extra revenue.
Blumenthal believes that the report's contents would firmly back the Big East's case that the ACC is out to destroy it because expansion would prove no financial gain.
Also being sought are documents, e-mails and phone logs at the ACC, Miami and Boston College that would show when they began talking about changing conferences and when subsequent negotiations took place. The Big East contends that the negotiations were going on when Miami and Boston College were promising that they would not leave the conference.
The lawsuit contends that the promises led many Big East schools, Connecticut included, to spend millions of dollars to upgrade their football facilities. Connecticut's commitment was a $90 million football stadium.
Depositions from high-ranking ACC officials and school officials at Miami and Boston College are being sought also, but none have been taken.
Colleges change athletics conferences frequently, and the Big East has expanded four times since 1990. Blumenthal said switching conferences is not illegal, but that the actions by Miami, Boston College and the ACC are in this case.
'It isn't illegal for them to withdraw,' Blumenthal said. 'There are rules under the constitution of the Big East that provide a procedure for withdrawing. What is illegal is to lie and leave -- not just to leave, but to lie and leave.
'And we say that they failed to play by the rules. And one of the rules is to tell the truth. And they knew we were taking action (building stadiums) in reliance on their false promises.'
Virginia Tech has been under consideration for possible ACC membership since last Wednesday. Blumenthal said that Virginia Tech's possible inclusion to produce a vote on expansion showed the ACC would stop at nothing to build its membership and destroy the Big East.
'There is no indication that Virginia Tech is abandoning our legal cause,' Blumenthal said. 'On the contrary, so far as we know, Virginia Tech remains firmly committed to our lawsuit. All I can say is we're prepared to take action if Virginia Tech does defect.'
Blumenthal declined to say what action would be taken if Virginia Tech receives an ACC invitation but said that all options would kept open.