Miami-only plan gains support
BY AL FEATHERSTON : The Herald-Sun
afeatherston@heraldsun.com
Jun 23, 2003 : 11:13 pm ET

The ACC Council of Presidents prepared for a fifth expansion teleconference as a compromise proposal from North Carolina chancellor James Moeser gained support from a surprising quarter Monday.

Duke athletics director Joe Alleva said Monday that Moeser's plan to add just Miami to the league offered the best way for the ACC to settle its expansion impasse.

"I think that would accomplish what the ACC wants to accomplish, improving the football situation, while still allowing us to play a round-robin [in basketball]," he said. "The whole premise [of expansion] was to improve the football situation ? to give us a little better posture for TV contracts ... a little more strength at the NCAA table.

"Adding Miami accomplishes all of that."

Moeser welcomed support from his school's biggest athletic rival.

"I don't want to characterize how other people feel," he said. "[But] I'm relatively optimistic that this is a plan that will work."

The ACC has been trying to get to 12 schools by adding Miami, Boston College and Syracuse to its current nine members. But expansion requires support from seven current members. UNC and Duke have been consistent opponents of expansion to 12 teams.

Virginia president John Casteen originally supported expansion, but has been under intense political pressure to oppose any plan that doesn't include Virginia Tech.

The ACC presidents and league officials have had four teleconferences totaling more than 10 hours without being able to bring expansion to a vote. A fifth session will be held today, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Casteen offered a plan to break the ACC's stalemate during a teleconference Wednesday, proposing that the ACC pursue Virginia Tech as a 13th member. While that plan generated some early optimism on the part of expansion supporters, it appeared to die during Saturday's Council of Presidents' teleconference when the Hokies reportedly were opposed by N.C. State and possibly Maryland.

Officials at Virginia Tech confirm that the ACC has made no contact since an informal meeting Wednesday night between Georgia Tech president Wayne Clough and Virginia Tech president Charles Steger.

With Moeser willing to cast UNC's vote in favor of Miami -- and Duke now likely to do the same -- support for adding only the Hurricanes has grown.

However, Miami has long demanded that Boston College and Syracuse be included in expansion to protect its strong alumni base in the Northeast. It's not clear whether Miami would accept a bid from the ACC without Boston College and Syracuse also getting offers.

"That has not been something that has been discussed," Miami athletics director Paul Dee said in a statement released by the school. "If there is a formal proposal, we would talk about it at that time."

The Palm Beach Post quoted an unnamed "high ranking Miami" source as saying the Hurricanes wouldn't leave the Big East without its two partners.

"We're going in the ACC together or we're staying in the Big East together," the source told the Florida newspaper.

Moeser's proposal appeared to fit another compromise plan offered Monday by Rutgers athletics director Robert Mulcahy. His plan was that the ACC would take Miami, but leave Syracuse and Boston College to the Big East. The ACC also would promise not to raid the Big East in the future.

In return, the five Big East schools suing the ACC, Miami and Boston College would drop their lawsuit and would support the ACC in a petition to the NCAA to change the rules to allow a 10-team conference to stage a conference-championship game in football.

Currently, only leagues with at least 12 members can stage a championship game.

"I think it would receive a positive reaction and, at this point, it needs to be over," Mulcahy told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "I sat and thought about this thing. I'm sort of the senior guy left on the football side here. I talked to my president, Dick McCormick, he liked it and I put it out."

One ACC source was skeptical of Mulcahy's proposal. While he suggested that the league presidents might be forced to accept Miami-only at this point, the source said that he doubts expansion proponents will give up the pursuit of Boston College and Syracuse -- even if it means bringing them in a year later than the Hurricanes.

Dean Bonham, the head of the consulting firm hired by the ACC to study expansion, was asked whether adding Miami alone would work.

"I won't comment on that, except to say we have analyzed that scenario," he said. "It's been looked at and looked at carefully. It is a fact that my recommendation was to expand to 12 teams [specifically by adding Miami, BC and Syracuse]."

Moeser said that he's seen Bonham's report but doesn't agree with its conclusions.

"I've been one of the agnostics, if not downright skeptics, in terms of the 12-team conference," he said. "My view is that bringing Miami is a smart move, defensively, and doesn't close the door to future expansion."

Moeser said the money figures cited in the Bonham report were "conjectural" and said he's still not sold on them.

One ACC coach (of a major sport) said he liked Mulchay's plan but doubted that it would work.

"Their ships have already launched," he said. "They have to go somewhere [other than the Big East]. It's too far along. It would be devastating for those schools."

That coach was no optimistic about the expansion debate.

"It's getting worse," he said. "I can see nothing happening."

ACC commissioner John Swofford has predicted that the expansion issue would be settled by the end of the month.


 

ACC Presidents to Meet Again Today
By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 24, 2003; Page D03

When ACC university presidents held two votes in mid-May -- one to approve expanding from nine to 12 teams, and another to decide with which schools they wanted to enter formal discussions -- adding three teams seemed like a foregone conclusion.

Nearly six weeks and four conference calls later, though, the situation is considerably less clear as the presidents prepare to reconvene today.

With the University of Virginia under significant political pressure to oppose any expansion plan that does not protect Virginia Tech's interests, the two schools that oppose expansion -- Duke and North Carolina -- essentially have received a second chance to make an impact.

"You could say so," North Carolina Chancellor James Moeser said.

In order for expansion to occur, seven of nine members must vote for it.

Duke and North Carolina were the dissenting votes in a May 14 vote that passed 7-2 and approved expanding to 12 teams. By most accounts, that vote secured the expansion. Two days later, Duke and North Carolina voted for opening formal discussions with Miami, Boston College and Syracuse.

In a statement released after the May 16 vote, Duke President Nan Keohane said her school initially opposed expansion. Once the decision was made to expand, Keohane said, Duke then wanted to have a voice in the rest of the process.

Moeser issued a similar statement that day, but yesterday he said, "Our fundamental position has never changed."

Duke spokesman David Jarmul yesterday said, "I think Nan has been pretty consistent in her [stance]."

And with Virginia unable to support the original three-team proposed expansion, Moeser and Keohane were in position to block it, putting ACC Commissioner John Swofford in a somewhat precarious position. The public face of what has become a protracted public battle, Swofford has been criticized sharply along the Eastern Seaboard.

"He's taken a good hit from the media, but not from our schools," one league source said. "The people that employ him think he's done a pretty good job of it."

Several league sources said Swofford could not have anticipated the way events unfolded. They said he could not have known how Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and others would exert their influence and force University of Virginia President John Casteen to vote against any expansion that does not include Virginia Tech.

Swofford also could not predict, sources said, that Duke and North Carolina, after voting in favor of moving forward with Miami, Boston College and Syracuse, would later be poised to vote against extending invitations to those schools.

"They had a tacit understanding that if you don't find anything weird or out of the ordinary, shortly after the [campus visits to the three prospective members] there would be a formal vote," said another source. "What do you do if a school indicated that it will vote yes and changes its mind?"

Jarmul disputed the assertion that Duke had changed its mind.

Keohane "doesn't feel like there has been a reversal," he said. "We're not waffling."

Moeser and Keohane have voiced concerns about scheduling issues and student-athlete welfare. But ACC consultant Dean Bonham said last week that Swofford has carefully considered those details.

"In our report, we didn't focus on student-athlete welfare issues, but we encouraged the ACC to examine and explore those issues very carefully," Bonham said. "And I can tell you they did, in the long term and vigorously."

Moeser also is skeptical of financial projections for an expanded conference. "It's a matter of culture, geography and distance and the problems that accrue from there," he said.

If expansion is necessary, Moeser said, he prefers adding only Miami and then reassessing the situation after one year. Rutgers Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy has advocated this idea as a compromise.

As for the lawsuit filed by five Big East schools against the ACC, Miami and Boston College, Connecticut superior court Judge Samuel J. Sferrazza yesterday scheduled a meeting for Thursday to discuss the location where the case will be heard. Also yesterday, attorneys general Mike Fisher of Pennsylvania and Peter Harvey of New Jersey announced their support of the lawsuit.

 

Big East lawsuit heads to court

6-24-03

By JEFFREY GOLD, The Associated Press
News & Record

A Connecticut judge will hear preliminary arguments Thursday in the lawsuit filed by five Big East schools to stop three league members from defecting to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Lawyers on Monday said Connecticut Superior Court Judge Samuel Sferrazza, who sits in Vernon, will consider moving the lawsuit to the state's complex case division in Waterbury.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Monday wrote the judge, saying he does not see any need to move the case, but is more concerned with how soon it can be heard.

He has asked for a speedy trial schedule, regardless of whether the case gets moved, and permission to take depositions immediately.

ACC lawyer D. Erik Albright said Waterbury appears to be the proper venue but, "We're willing to appear wherever the court tells us to appear."

Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia of the Big East filed the lawsuit June 6. They charged that Boston College and Miami have abandoned their financial duty to the conference and its members so they could make more money with the ACC.

It also accused the ACC of attempting to destroy the Big East as a contender in football by also grabbing Syracuse and putting the Big East at risk of losing its guaranteed berth in one of the four Bowl Championship Series games.

Rutgers athletics director Robert E. Mulcahy III said he hoped the dispute could be solved by a deal in which the ACC would get only Miami, one of the nation's premier football programs.

"We'd love to have Miami come back," Mulcahy told The Associated Press on Monday. "If they have to go, stop it at that and let our conference survive.

"It's time that this whole thing came to an end. Reasonable people should be able to sit down and come to a compromise without destroying a league," Mulcahy said.

His proposal was reported Monday in The Star-Ledger of Newark.

Also Monday, the attorneys general of New Jersey and Pennsylvania endorsed the lawsuit by the five Big East football schools.

However, the states have not decided whether to join the lawsuit or just file "friend of the court" briefs.

Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, and Pittsburgh, which receives much of its funding from Pennsylvania, could lose millions of dollars in revenue if the ACC adds schools, the attorneys general said.

"If this type of attempted cannibalization continues, college athletics will be tremendously affected," Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher said.

New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey said taxpayers could be forced to compensate for lost revenue if some Big East schools break their contracts and withdraw.

New Jersey also is considering whether to file its own lawsuit, Harvey said.

Albright said he was not concerned about the possible entry of New Jersey and Pennsylvania into the case.

"They can have as many attorneys as they want, it doesn't change the merits of their case. As we have stated before, plaintiffs' claims have no merit," Albright said.

The Big East's bylaws permit schools to leave, and set procedures and fees for doing so, he said.

Last week, the ACC added Virginia Tech to its possible expansion plan, a move that could force the school to choose between remaining as a plaintiff in the lawsuit or bowing out and accepting an invitation from the conference.

Expansion needs approval from seven of nine ACC presidents. Duke and North Carolina are believed to be against the plan. Adding Virginia Tech is thought to be a strategy to guarantee Virginia's vote for expansion.

Proposal: Take just Hurricanes
Compromise could be solution

BY MIKE HARRIS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 24, 2003

SUIT UP: Judge to hear preliminary arguments on Big East-ACC suit Thursday.

A proposal to take only Miami from the Big East Conference into the Atlantic Coast Conference has one vocal proponent in each league. Whether the support spreads far enough to make it happen will be determined soon.

Call it the Moeser-Mulcahy plan, after the proponents: UNC Chancellor James Moeser and Rutgers Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy. Both are tired of what has become a drawn-out and increasingly contentious process to expand the ACC.

"I think this could be a very good solution that moves us forward, and I've made this case to my colleagues," Moeser told the Raleigh News and Observer. "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."

Mulcahy offered similar ideas to the Newark Star-Ledger yesterday and later shared some thoughts with The Times-Dispatch.

"By now all the ACC presidents will have seen it, one way or another," Mulcahy said. "Given some of the articles that have been written about the fact that it is time to get this over, I'm hoping they look at it and say this is a viable compromise and go with it.

"I think it would receive a positive reaction and, at this point, it needs to be over. It's not doing anybody any good. Why destroy one league?"

It has been more than a month since the nine-team ACC voted to explore expansion and look at bringing Miami and Big East cohorts Syracuse and Boston College into the league. Site visits were conducted and all seemed well.

But it's been far from well since. The league needs seven votes for expansion. North Carolina and Duke balked, forcing Virginia into doing the same under political pressure to protect Virginia Tech's interests. Also, Virginia Tech joined Rutgers, Connecticut, Pittsburgh and West Virginia in a lawsuit against the ACC, Miami and BC. The first court date is Thursday.

Exploring Virginia Tech as another addition was suggested last week, but the idea of going to 13 teams has little support.

"I'm on the record: I'm opposed to 12," Moeser told the Raleigh newspaper. "And if 12 is bad, 13 is worse. It's sheer madness. That would be absolutely the worst thing."

ACC presidents and chancellors are due to meet again today by conference call at 5:30 p.m. It will be their fifth such call since the site visits.

If going with the original expansion plan won't work and going to 13 won't work either, the league can either toss BC or Syracuse in favor of Virginia Tech, scrap the expansion idea altogether or just add Miami.

Miami and the other Big East schools face a Monday deadline to notify the league of their intention to leave after one more academic year. Otherwise, the withdrawal fee doubles to $2 million.

Mulcahy's preference is that Miami and the others stay, but he thinks losing only Miami is a palatable alternative.

"I thought, 'What can we do to solve this thing?' and that's what I came up with," Mulcahy said.

Losing its flagship football program would damage the Big East but it wouldn't be a fatal blow, as losing three teams potentially could be. The league could quickly add another school - most likely Louisville - and get on with business.

Miami would boost ACC football considerably. The league wouldn't get everything it wants, such as 12 teams and the ability to conduct a championship football game. But it would get started.

The lawsuit, meanwhile, would be dropped and everyone could move forward.

"I would support adding Miami only," Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva told the Durham (N.C.) Herald Sun. "I think that would accomplish what the ACC wants to accomplish, improving the football situation, while still allowing us to play a round-robin [in basketball]. The whole premise [of expansion] was to improve the football situation . . . to give us a little better posture for TV contracts, a little more strength at the NCAA table."

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger and Athletic Director Jim Weaver weren't available for comment yesterday. John Rocovich, the rector of the school's Board of Visitors, said the school's preference remains for the Big East to remain as it is now. But he applauded Mulcahy and Moeser for at least proposing something concrete.

"It's an interesting proposal but it's a long way off from our first choice," Rocovich said. "I would be reluctant to embrace a plan that involved peeling off members at all if I had an alternative.

"Virginia Tech has been very happy with the status quo and I think we'd be very happy if all these deliberations turned out to be much speculation and discussion and no invitation was issued to anybody."

 

ACC's consultant: Expansion about future, not money
BY AL FEATHERSTON : The Herald-Sun
afeatherston@heraldsun.com
Jun 23, 2003 : 11:14 pm ET

The ACC's proposed expansion is not about the money, but about the future.

At least that's the opinion of Dean Bonham, the Denver-based sports marketing consultant hired by ACC commissioner John Swofford to map the league's future.

"[ACC expansion] is decidedly not about money as a fundamental part of the process," the chairman on the Bonham Group said Monday. "Having said that, financial issues do play a part in the decision-making process."

So what are the fundamental issues?

"Many, many issues were discussed beyond finances," Bonham said. "What changes in the landscape of college athletics are coming? What will the sports world look like in 15 years? How can the ACC be in the best position for what is coming?

"We looked at issues such as potential restructuring of the NCAA, issues involving student-athletes and how they would be effected by the changes coming. How can the ACC best position itself to be a voice for positive change ? be one of the major influences for the future?

"In our opinion [after 18 months of study], the best answer was expanding to 12 teams."

Bonham made it clear that expansion was the result -- not the goal -- of his 18-month study.

"We weren't hired to help the ACC expand," he said. "We were hired to help the ACC understand if expansion was in its best interest."

The Bonham Group investigated the impact of the ACC staying at nine teams or adding one, two, three of more members.

"Over an 18-month period, we analyzed virtually every combination," Bonham said. "We analyzed what is best, not only financially, but culturally. Every configuration you could think of, we looked at it. Ultimately, it was 12 ? 12 specific teams."

Bonham has been frustrated by what he perceives as a misunderstanding of the motives behind the ACC's action. He also is angry about what he calls "unfortunate criticism" of the ACC's Swofford.

"I recognize that I am biased, but everybody who has been criticizing John Swofford has been quoted, so let me say one thing," Bonham said. "I have been involved in deals worth not millions of dollars, not hundreds of millions, but literally billions of dollars in the sports entertainment business. And in my experience, I have not seen a leader manage the process with more integrity, more expertise or more diplomacy than what John Swofford has displayed."


 

Family ties benefit U.Va.
Another Pearman to join in'04
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 24, 2003

In 2004, the University of Virginia football team's stable of tailbacks will include Pearman, Peerman and Pearman.

Alvin Pearman is a rising junior at U.Va., where he has started nine games. Cedric Peerman, a rising 12th-grader at William Campbell High near Lynchburg, committed to the Cavaliers last month. Andrew Pearman, Alvin's kid brother, followed suit Sunday in Charlottesville, where he attended a gathering for many of Virginia's targets in the Class of 2004.

"When you have a son who's had such a positive experience at a place, it's always an advantage for them," father Al Pearman said yesterday. "We had an inside source at that place."

Andrew Pearman, a 5-9, 170-pound rising senior at Providence High in Charlotte, N.C., also had scholarship offers from Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Clemson and Duke. As a junior, he rushed for 1,608 yards and scored 23 touchdowns. Providence finished 11-3 after losing in the state Class 4A quarterfinals.

The younger Pearman also is a track star. He's been clocked at 4.25 seconds in the 40-yard dash, his father said, has run a hand-timed 10.28 seconds in the 100 meters, and anchored the Providence 400 relay team, which recently won the outdoor Class 4A title. A hamstring injury prevented Pearman from qualifying in the 100 or 200.

Alvin Pearman has gained 714 yards rushing, 476 receiving, 266 on kickoff returns and 248 on punt returns in his two seasons at U.Va. He tore his right ACL against Penn State on Nov. 9, had surgery and missed spring practice. Al Pearman said his older son is ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation and should be cleared when practice begins in August.

 

Mulcahy tells ACC: Take only Miami
June 23, 2003
BY TOM LUICCI
Star-Ledger Staff

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 yesterday 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.

"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 Syracuse, an idea that doesn't seem to have support throughout the ACC. 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.

"If only Miami goes to the ACC and it becomes a 10-team conference they can try to advance legislation through the NCAA so you can have a championship game with just 10 teams, if that's what they want," Mulcahy said. "That allows the Big East to survive and is better overall for college athletics."

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," he said.

But the Big East would have to make adjustments. Regardless of whether the ACC is successful in its raid, the Big East is preparing to split into separate divisions, one consisting of basketball-only schools, the other of football-only schools. Losing Miami would mean the football schools would have to add one or two schools, with Louisville and Central Florida the most likely candidates. The basketball schools would be at six if Notre Dame stays, meaning they would have to add three or four more. The 16- or 18-team league would be under the Big East umbrella.

The Big East schools are facing a June 30 deadline for notifying the league of their plans. If they announce they are leaving after that, their exit fee doubles to $2 million.
 

ACC takes its time
Miami AD Paul Dee says his school can be patient as it awaits expansion decision
By BARRY SVRLUGA, Staff Writer

The next conference call of the ACC's Council of Presidents is likely to come Tuesday or Wednesday and will be the fifth such discussion in two weeks.
But even with a process that has been longer than any of the participants had anticipated, Miami athletics director Paul Dee said Sunday night that his school still supports the original expansion plan, with Syracuse and Boston College joining the Hurricanes in defecting from the Big East.

"We're very patient," Dee said in a telephone interview. "Nature's taking its course. We'll see what comes of the most recent discussions."

Whether the league can come to a consensus -- and actually take a vote -- might have more to do with how Miami and the ACC presidents and chancellors feel about Virginia Tech, which is at the center of the latest, most creative potential solution.

On May 16, the ACC voted to pursue Miami, BC and Syracuse in an effort to expand to 12 members. But Duke, North Carolina and Virginia oppose that plan, each for different reasons.

Last week, Virginia Tech entered the picture as a possible way to appease Virginia, which is feeling political pressure to favor expansion only if it includes the Hokies. If Virginia should vote yes, and the other six schools that currently favor expansion continue to do so, the league would have the required seven votes to approve expansion.

So one possible solution is to swap Virginia Tech for Syracuse, keeping the expansion to 12 schools rather than adding all four candidates and going to 13.

"In my experience, 13 is a very, very difficult number," Dee said. "It's either a difficult number, or you go to 14, and I don't think we're ready for that."

Syracuse athletics director Jake Crouthamel said he wasn't aware of the potential for Tech to replace Syracuse.

"I haven't heard anything," Crouthamel said by phone Sunday night. "I don't know that."

Crouthamel would not elaborate on Syracuse's position.

Miami originally pushed for the inclusion of BC and Syracuse over Virginia Tech. Dee, who says he talks to ACC commissioner John Swofford "two or three times a week," said he hadn't considered swapping the Hokies for the Orangemen.

"We're not going to discuss anything that's speculative," he said. "Nobody's made any changes."

Virginia Tech officials said they couldn't be sure if such a plan would go through.

"We don't have a seat at the table," John G. Rocovich, the rector of Tech's Board of Visitors, said Sunday. "If something came up, I'd call a meeting to discuss it. But I can't call a meeting on speculation. I've got to have something substantial."

Rocovich said he spoke with Tech president Charles Steger Saturday, but that neither had any indication as to whether the ACC would officially pursue Tech.

In e-mails to faculty members last week and in Saturday's conference call with his colleagues, North Carolina chancellor James Moeser pushed a plan that would add only Miami, forming a 10-school conference.

"That has not been something that's been much discussed," Dee said. "If that were to be a proposal that came from the conference, we'd think through that and have a reaction to it.

"But it's mostly been focused on what the conference set out to do, and that's 12."

With the process seemingly at a standstill Sunday, Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal launched into a diatribe against the ACC, Miami and Boston College -- all of which are being sued by the five remaining football-playing Big East schools.

Blumenthal wrote a letter Friday to the attorneys for the ACC and the two schools, accusing the defendants of slowing down the legal process and attacking the league's motives, conduct and leadership.

"So far the ACC has not taken a vote," Blumenthal said Sunday. "They seem to be stymied, in disarray and leaderless. They are seeking at any cost to expand with no apparent strategy."

Blumenthal argued that the suit has merit because, even though the Big East bylaws clearly outline a procedure should schools want to leave, Miami and BC misled the other schools by reassuring them "that they were firmly committed to this conference knowing at the time that they were secretly negotiating with the ACC."

"It isn't illegal for them to withdraw," Blumenthal said. "What is illegal is to lie and leave."

Blumenthal said his office is "prepared" to request an injunction preventing schools from leaving the Big East from Judge Samuel F. Sferrazza as early as today should the ACC take action.

Erik Albright, the ACC's attorney, would not discuss the specifics of the case brought by remaining Big East members Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. But Albright indicated that neither Blumenthal's remarks nor his request that the ACC move quickly in providing documents and other information would have any impact on the ACC's actions.

"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 tactical plan chosen by opposing counsel for attempted intimidation and influence," Albright said by phone Sunday. "They have not and will not work."

Blumenthal said Virginia Tech, despite the potential that it will be wooed by the ACC, is still a participant in the lawsuit, and Rocovich reiterated that stance.

"Certainly, we're a party to the lawsuit," Rocovich said. "Nothing has changed. Virginia Tech stands behind the allegations in the lawsuit."

Blumenthal is seeking depositions from key figures in the case -- such as Miami president Donna Shalala and Swofford -- in early July.

Meanwhile, Miami and the other schools wait for a decision. Earlier this month, when ACC officials visited the campuses of Miami, BC and Syracuse, expansion seemed all but certain.

Now, Dee said he can't be sure.

"At the beginning, we thought we'd be there a little sooner," Dee said. "But an item would come forward, and we'd have to deal with it the best we can.

"We understand it's a major decision, and we're hopeful. But we have to respect the process."