Adding a 12th may be difficult for ACC

An expansion candidate may be reluctant to talk to the ACC after seeing Syracuse and BC jettisoned in the 11th hour.

By ROB DANIELS LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE

   GREENSBORO, N.C. - To paraphrase Spinal Tap, the mythical rock band immortalized in a 1984 cult film, "This one goes to 11."

    Where can the ACC go from there? Maybe nowhere. Maybe it won't be necessary.

    With Virginia Tech and Miami set to join the fold and take the league's membership to 11 schools, the ACC is one institution short of the 12 necessary to stage an annual championship football game. Its choices are to seek a 12th member - something three league sources suggested is unlikely in the near future - or petition the NCAA to lower the minimum.

    "I don't think there's anything necessarily immediate in terms of getting to the 12," ACC Commissioner John Swofford said. "Whether we get there eventually or not, we'll just have to wait and see where the future takes us."

    Getting to 12 could be difficult. For months, ACC members courted Syracuse and Boston College. Both schools hosted campus visits - for which they paid the bills, according to ACC bylaws - and conducted news conferences in which the parties expressed mutual admiration. Then, in the decisive vote, the two Big East members were dumped. Persuading someone else to step out on that same ledge won't be easy.

    As to a change of NCAA policy, an official at one ACC school with considerable knowledge of NCAA governance said that nobody should expect a repeal of the 12-team requirement until at least the 2005 football season.

    Generally speaking, however, Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, chairman of the NCAA's football issues committee, told USA Today this week that change is possible at some point.

    "My guess is that it would be supported," he said. "It allows people to do what they want to do. And it might be a settling thing."

    In other words, reducing the championship-game threshold from 12 schools to 10 might mitigate leagues' compulsion to court potential members from other leagues.

    A new bylaw would have to be passed through two or three stages of NCAA bureaucracy .

    The legislation requiring 12 members for a playoff came not from the big boys but from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, a Division II league with seven schools in each of two divisions. The league had conducted a championship game since 1960, but felt hamstrung because the NCAA wouldn't grant the title game an exemption from the limit of 11 contests per season. That meant that 12 of the PSAC's 14 schools wound up playing just 10 games; only the division champions got to max out.

    "We got the idea of going to the NCAA and just for us ... because no other conference was that big ... we decided to write a piece of legislation that said if you had a conference with two divisions and (at least) six in each, you could have a playoff game and have it exempted," said Tod Eberle, a former PSAC commissioner.

    The legislation didn't specify that the league had to be in Division II; it could be at any level. On Jan.7, 1987, PSAC Commissioner Don Kelly put the thing up for vote at the NCAA's convention in San Diego. It passed with little discussion. The NCAA News, the association's biweekly newspaper, never mentioned it.

    But shortly thereafter, commissioners of Division I conferences began calling the PSAC and seeking input. A championship game in a major league would be mighty attractive to television, wouldn't it?

    "We're waiting for our royalties," joked Steve Murray, the PSAC's current boss. "We'll only take one-tenth of 1 percent from the SEC, Big 12 and, hopefully, the ACC."

What a long,strange trip to expansion
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

At various points during the ACC's raid on the Big East, I've found myself wondering, "How can these people look each other in the eye?'"

That's easy. When you conduct all your business by teleconference, you don't have to look anybody in the eye.

In nearly 30 years of covering sports in Southwest Virginia, I can't remember a more all-consuming story than the ACC's courtship of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse, then, finally, Virginia Tech.

Although ACC presidents had expressed renewed interest in Tech last week in teleconference No.4, there was no indication going into Tuesday night's final teleconference that the Hokies were on the front burner.

Now, the Hokies are the one definite in the equation. Conceivably, when the University of Miami trustees meet today, they could recommend that school president Donna Shalala not accept the bid, leaving Tech as the only invitee.

How weird would that be? No weirder than Boston College being one of the defendants in a suit filed by the Big East, of which it will remain a member and Virginia Tech will not.

No problem. Just ask the Tech and BC lawyers to change sides of the table.

The whole saga is so ridiculous that it's funny, but it's also sad. Sad for the two jilted schools, Boston College and Syracuse, and sad for those who value integrity and just common decency.

There is no question that Tech President Charles Steger has been two-faced, witness his comments in a June 8 teleconference with USA Today, when he said the Hokies would not accept an ACC offer if asked.

Then, there was an incident, recounted by a Rutgers beat writer, in which Tech athletic director Jim Weaver was meeting with Rutgers AD Bob Mulcahy and pounded his fist on the table in a show of Big East solidarity.

ESPN talk-show host Tony Kornheiser called the Hokies "the biggest villains of all" in his radio program Wednesday.

"They're treacherous, lecherous slugs crawling out from under a muddy, slimy rock," Kornheiser said.

Steger, Weaver and the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors can expect continued venom and they will deserve it. A number of e-mails to The Roanoke Times suggest that there is an element among Tech fans who wanted the Hokies to turn down an invitation, but they're in the minority.

This is what the Hokies have wanted for 50 years. They had to jump.

As distasteful as anything is the way that politicians will be taking credit for pushing University of Virginia President John Casteen into the Hokies' corner. Gov. Mark Warner, Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. They're falling all over themselves.

An opinionated Tech fan with statewide political contacts told me, "When this is over, they ought to erect a statue to John Casteen in Blacksburg."

Gee. Wonder how the Virginia fans feel about that?

There is no question that most UVa fans would not have carried the banner for the Hokies; nor, if the shoe were on the other foot, would many Tech fans have taken up the UVa cause?

I read an Internet post that said the Hokies and Cavaliers would become "allies." I wouldn't go that far, but for the first time since UVa dropped out of the Southern Conference in 1936, they will appear in the same set of standings.

Frankly, I'm not sure how much ACC membership will help Hokies football. If Tech had remained in the Big East and the Big East had retained its Bowl Championship Series spot, the Hokies' path to a national championship would have been easier than it will be now.

The addition of Tech and Miami will do little for ACC men's basketball. The Big East didn't see a dramatic increase in NCAA tournament bids when it went to 14 teams; neither will the ACC with 11.

Or 12.

 

ACC brass gives Virginia Tech thumbs up
ACC officials eat lunch at the stadium club of Lane Stadium and tour the Virginia Tech campus.
By AARON McFARLING
THE ROANOKE TIMES

BLACKSBURG - The ACC spent two days this month visiting Syracuse's campus. It spent two more days scouting Boston College.
It spent less than four hours at Virginia Tech.

A delegation from the ACC made a hasty visit to Tech Wednesday and liked what it saw, clearing the way for the school to receive a formal invitation to join the conference.

After the group had lunch at Lane Stadium and a quick tour of the athletic facilities in Cassell Coliseum, ACC Associate Commissioner Fred Barakat emerged from the Merriman Athletic Center with a smile.

"It's great," he said. "Beautiful place. Great campus. Athletic facilities are phenomenal. We're very impressed with the locker rooms, the fields - everything that we've seen today has been extremely impressive.

"We're certainly going to bring back a good report."

About two and a half hours later, the conference formally invited Tech and Miami to join.

Conference bylaws require a campus visit before a formal invitation can be extended. The tour began about 13 hours after ACC presidents voted to discuss expansion with Tech and Miami, potentially becoming an 11-team league in 2004.

Syracuse and Boston College - two of the original targets of ACC expansion - both received lengthy site visits this month, and both got positive reviews from conference commissioner John Swofford. Neither received formal invitations, however, and both were left out of expansion under the ACC's final plan.

No time was wasted during Wednesday's visit. Tech athletic director Jim Weaver and Tech Executive Vice President Minnis Ridenour picked up a group of delegates - including Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips, ACC Associate Commissioner Bernadette McGlade and Barakat, among others - from the Tech airport shortly after noon.

The group had lunch at the stadium club in the south end zone of Lane Stadium, one of the jewels of the last year's $37 million expansion project. After lunch, the delegation snaked through the bowels of Cassell Coliseum as Weaver pointed out the highlights.

Despite the short visit, Barakat said the group saw all it needed to see.

"Part of the process is that we ask about academic statistics," he said. "And we try to do due diligence to the compliance area and the finances. What are the revenues in the different areas and the number of men's sports and women's sports? And how many scholarships are the maximum given to each sport?

"We got all our answers that we had questions for. It was just a terrific visit."

 

Cavs finish 19th, Hokies 112th in Sears Cup

By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

    The three schools that raised the biggest opposition to ACC expansion were also the schools with the best all-around athletic programs this year.

    North Carolina, Virginia and Duke finished eighth, 19th and 20th in competition for the Sears Directors' Cup.

    It was the best finish in three years for the Cavaliers, who scored 320 of their 690 points in the spring. Virginia won the national championship in men's lacrosse, lost in the women's lacrosse final, and was sixth in women's rowing.

    Maryland was 22nd and no current ACC team finished lower than 53rd (Georgia Tech). Prospective members Miami and Virginia Tech finished 47th and 112th, respectively.

    That was the lowest finish for the Hokies since they were 129th in 1994-95, the second year that the Sears Cup was awarded. Tech's best finish was 63rd in back-to-back seasons, 1999-2000 and 2000-2001.

    Washington and Lee has never viewed a strong finish in the Division III Sears Cup as a high priority but the Generals' 37th-place finish this year was their highest since the competition began in 1995-96 (in Division I, the cup was awarded for the first time in 1993-94).

    HOKIES IN JEOPARDY: The careers of Virginia Tech football players Antoine Rutherford and D.J. Walton are in jeopardy after their arrests this spring, Rutherford for brandishing a firearm and three counts of felonious assault.

    Rutherford, arrested May 3, faces a hearing in the Montgomery County General District Court on July 31. Walton was sentenced to 90 days in jail, 85 days of which were suspended, following a second arrest March 28 for driving while intoxicated.

    Tech also is expected to be without two other players this fall, freshman lineman Chris Burnett and recruit Joey Razzano, younger son of Virginia Tech sports hall of famer Rick Razzano. Joey Razzano was lacking a math class that Tech requires.

    KEY MATCHUP: A Sporting News annual devoted strictly to the Southeastern Conference has listed a Sept.8 home game with Virginia as the game of the year on South Carolina's schedule.

    "The Cavs are a trendy pick to win the ACC and potentially compete for a lot more," the magazine explains. "And here's South Carolina, in the second game of the season, trying to find itself amid Virginia's fanfare."

ACC move gets generally good reaction

Virginia Tech's fans and alumni approved the decision, but some disliked the process.

By KEVIN MILLER
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   BLACKSBURG - As a 1976 Virginia Tech graduate, Phil McCroskey was around when his Hokies weren't so big. He remembers the losing seasons, the lackluster fan support. And he remembers how Tech's inclusion in the Big East's fledgling football conference in 1991 - and the ensuing television contracts - helped introduce Blacksburg to the rest of the football-watching world.

    The results of Tech's newfound football success are plain to see, according to McCroskey: new highways capable of accommodating thousands of game-goers; new buildings on campus; a dramatic increase in applications from out-of-state students.

    As a Hokie football season-ticket holder and father of a current Tech student, McCroskey was admittedly conflicted Wednesday about Tech abandoning the Big East for potentially greener pastures in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

    "There's no clear-cut answer," said McCroskey, a high school horiticulture teacher from Bristol, Va. McCroskey was on campus chaperoning his horticulture class to a Future Farmers of America competition. "Does Tech owe the Big East? Sure they do. But should that hold Tech back because they owe the Big East? No."

    For weeks, when it looked as if Tech would get left out of the expansion, fans relentlessly bashed ACC Commissioner John Swofford, Miami President Donna Shalala and anyone else involved in the negotiations. Radio shows, Internet e-mail groups and letters to the editor accused the ACC and potential defectors of backstabbing, corporate greed and unforgiveable selfishness.

    Tech officials took their own swipes, such as the lawsuit accusing the ACC, Miami and Boston College of "conspiracy" and holding "secret negotiations" to the detriment of the Big East schools.

    Oh, how things have changed.

    On one of the more popular Internet message boards, www.techsideline.com, bitterness had turned to elation Wednesday as Hokie fans congratulated one another and predicted an ACC championship win. Some Hokies even thanked University of Virginia officials for supporting Tech's inclusion throughout the process.

    On campus, most students and Hokie fans said Tech would have to accept if offered a spot.

    "We have to keep in mind the best interests of the school," said Logan McPherson, a 22-year-old senior. Perhaps most of all, McPherson said, Tech's basketball team could experience a tremendous recruiting boom with Duke, University of North Carolina and other ACC powerhouses traveling to Blacksburg annually.

    "We will kind of look bad, but in five years, nobody is going to remember," added Mark Lovern, 23, also a senior. "And we will be making more money."

    Not everyone on campus thought the move was such a good idea, but none wanted to speak out publicly. Privately, they accused Tech of hypocrisy and questioned the morality of leaving the Big East.

    Bob Moss, a high school teacher from Tazewell also attending the FFA conference, said Big East member West Virginia University would be perhaps the biggest loser.

    "I wish the whole thing hadn't come up because I think the Big East was becoming the premier conference in the nation," Moss said.

Money not problem for Tech
Obligations will be met
BY MIKE HARRIS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 26, 2003

Virginia Tech Athletic Director Jim Weaver said his department operates in the black and has for a number of years. He said the school is in excellent shape to meet its financial obligations.

That's a good thing, because Tech's decision to leave the Big East Conference and join the Atlantic Coast Conference is going to add several million dollars to the Hokies' obligations.

Will that be a problem?

"No," Weaver said.

Some of what Tech owes:

The Hokies have two years left on a five-year buy-in to the Big East that costs the school $200,000 a year.
Charging a school a buy-in, or a set amount for entrance, is standard operating procedure for athletic conferences.

Weaver said he is under the impression Virginia Tech will be able to continue to make an annual payment each of the next two years. The obligation won't go away because Tech is leaving the conference.

To leave the Big East for the ACC after one more academic year, the school will have to pay the Big East a $1 million buyout. Weaver said this is a one-time payment that will be made from "cash re- serves."
Financial terms of the marriage with the ACC aren't firm, but they're expected to be about $3 million. The league allows schools to have an installment deducted from its portion of ACC revenue-sharing over a five-year period, so Tech won't have to cut one big check. But it is money Tech won't receive.
John Rocovich, the rector of Tech's board of visitors, said the school is also liable for to-be-determined amounts for contracted Big East television games that won't be played when Tech leaves the league.
Unrelated to a league switch, Tech is paying fired men's basketball coach Ricky Stokes about $150,000 for another year. New coach Seth Greenberg's total financial package is more than twice that of Stokes' deal.
"We have no trouble meeting our financial obligations," Rocovich said. "Whatever the deal is that the ACC asks us, that's what we'll do."

Weaver said Tech received about $5.5 million from the Big East this year, as its portion of bowl-game revenue sharing, television money and the like. He said he's unsure what the school stands to make from the ACC, and "I'm not going to venture a guess."

But better financial rewards were a big reason why Miami - also invited to join the ACC yesterday - said it wanted to leave the Big East.

Is it reasonable to assume Tech stands to make more in its new league?

"Yes," Weaver said.

 

Let's add '20 questions' to ACC's fun and games
BY JOHN MARKON JOHN MARKON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 26, 2003

It's too bad that the leadership of the Atlantic Coast Conference couldn't get it together in time for a press conference yesterday, although "leadership," "Atlantic Coast Conference" and "get it together" are three elements that probably shouldn't appear in the same sentence.

Some of us had some really good questions:

Was one year of secret, back-room planning really necessary to complete a deal that seemed to coalesce during the last few hours of a late-night conference call?
What's the word on member No. 12? Or is there a No. 12? Are you guys really holding out for Penn State or Notre Dame? If so, how long can you wait?
How much should I ask on e-Bay for my "ACC 2004" T-shirt, complete with Syracuse and Boston College logos?
Are you discovering that the Miami crowd is just a little hung up on having everything its own way? Remember, it's only the beginning.
If Miami backs out, does that mean Syracuse and BC are back in?
I still have an "ACC 50" T-shirt. Does that refer to the league's 50th anniversary or to the number of schools that might be members before Labor Day?
If you go forward with 11 members, do you break the league into divisions or not? The Big Ten, of course, has 11 members and does fine without divisions.
Could it be, though, that having two division champions instead of one conference champion in football is part of an upcoming presentation to the NCAA on why the only possible way to resolve such an impasse would be by staging a lucrative championship game?
Will Virginia Tech be allowed to vote both for and against divisional play?
Or play in both divisions at the same time?
Is Boston College currently in the process of suing itself?
How was the Tech Board of Visitors able to vote at 2:30 p.m. yesterday to accept an invitation that wasn't officially tendered until 5 p.m.?
Was all that talk about the "Boston Market" just a discussion about where to get the best macaroni and cheese near the league office in Greensboro?
Would it break any NCAA rules if we got up a pool in the press box on the year of Duke's next conference football win?
Which will be greater, the point spread in the first Duke-Miami football game or the first Duke-Virginia Tech basketball game?
Since expansion proponents Clemson, Georgia Tech, Maryland and Wake Forest still are looking for their first ACC football victory over Florida State, why are they all so eager for a piece of Miami?
At the next basketball tournament, is there any way we can automatically seed Florida State and Clemson into one final celebration of the Thursday night play-in game?
As "expansion teams," would Virginia Tech and Miami get to draft basketball players off the rosters of all the current ACC members?
How and why is Miami's continued insistence on Syracuse and BC any different than Virginia's insistence on Virginia Tech? If anyone's entitled to "insist," shouldn't it be someone who's already in the league?
When it's all decided and everyone makes nice for the TV cameras, how phony are the smiles going to be?

Now comes the hard part for Hokies
BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Jun 26, 2003
Contact Bob Lipper at (804) 649-6555 or e-mail blipper@timesdispatch.com

Virginia Tech can now see in the distance the be-careful-what-you-wish-for-segment of its grand switcheroo and coming-out party. It was tough enough for the Hokies to wheedle an invitation to the club they've always lusted after. The flip side is, it won't be a snap for them to make a dent in their new surroundings.

Don't get me wrong - this is a positive, makes-sense move for Tech, even if its reputation takes a hit in the process. Too bad the ACC doesn't sponsor gymnastics. Charles Steger would be a whiz at freestyle flip-flopping.

But I digress. The ACC has been a natural fit for Tech ever since the league was carved out of the old Southern Conference in 1953. Tech was rejected for membership that year and again after South Carolina bolted the ACC in 1971. It's been snubbed on other occasions - most recently on May 16, when the ACC spurned the Hokies and targeted Miami, Boston College and Syracuse as expansion candidates.

Now - several teleconferences and option plays later - Tech has stunningly emerged as an ACC novitiate, with final vows to be taken shortly in Greensboro. That's the good news for Hokie Nation. The bad news is, its lads and lassies will be up against it on the ACC's playing fields.

Unlike the Big East, the ACC has had 50 years to develop a full-service sports factory. The ACC is terrific at baseball, soccer, golf and lacrosse. It takes women's sports - and not just basketball - seriously and routinely spawns national championships in that area. And, oh, by the way, have I mentioned Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Gary Williams, Skip Prosser, Julius Hodge, J.J. Redick and Raymond Felton yet?

Tech - assuming it desires more than also-ran status in anything this side of an off-tackle play - won't survive long in that climate if its athletic department remains so disproportionally football top-heavy. We're talking allocation of funds and recruiting emphasis here.'Course, the coaches of those "other" sports will tell you being in a more compatible league should give them a boost Big East affiliation never could.

Not that ACC football won't be a challenge as well.

"There's a lot of parity in that league," defensive coordinator Bud Foster said yesterday. "Florida State is the kingpin, but others are starting to close the gap - sort of like we did with Miami in the Big East."

Until the'Canes created separation, and other Big East rivals began muscling the Hokies around, that is. For all its reputation as a football heavyweight - and it is - and for all the ground-trembling caused on any given Saturday by a Lane Stadium crowd, Tech is no better than a break-even 7-7 in the Big East over the past two seasons. Now it'll be entering an ACC that includes Miami, FSU, Chuck Amato and the Fridge, not to mention archenemy and up-and-comer Virginia. The road trips will be easy. The competition won't.

Men's basketball - the other marquee sport - could be ugly. Tech hasn't enrolled a Top 50 schoolboy since Dell Curry in 1982. Lots of luck if it continues that drought. A bottom-feeder in the Big East - the next glimpse of the league tournament at Madison Square Garden will be their first - the Hokies face many miles of catch-up when take their mark in ACC hoops.

It'll be nice to have Terps and Blue Devils visit Cassell Coliseum. It won't be nice when they leave the place in ruins.

That's the thing about pledging a fraternity. If the initiation fees don't get you, the hazing rituals will.

 

UM could join ACC today
By Craig Barnes | Hurricanes Correspondent
Posted June 26, 2003

CORAL GABLES -- At the same time most of college athletics was trying to figure out why the Atlantic Coast Conference voted Tuesday to expand by two teams rather than three, Virginia Tech confirmed it will accept an invitation to join the league and Miami continues to review its options.

Sources indicated to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the Hurricanes are likely to accept an invitation today or Friday.

"What we've done is send a clear signal to Notre Dame," said one ACC president, who didn't want to be identified. "We left a spot open for them, and we hope that some time in the next year, there will be conversations about them joining the conference."

The addition of the 12th team isn't the pressing part of the agenda: The ACC must get an acceptance from UM. The exclusion of Boston College and Syracuse didn't sit well with Miami, but the thought of returning to the Big East is less appealing. Miami President Donna Shalala is scheduled to meet with the school's executive committee today.

"We are very appreciative of the invitation from the ACC to join the conference," Shalala said in a statement. "We are disappointed that they have decided not to issue invitations to Boston College and Syracuse. Since this is a new proposal, we will have to study it before making a decision."

In the ACC presidents' 31/2-hour conference call Tuesday night, the first hour was spent discussing additional financial information provided to the presidents by Virginia Tech. The presidents asked for a greater commitment to Olympic sports, and Virginia Tech agreed to it. The school's financial contribution to the ACC, it was determined, wouldn't create the shortfall that first was expected.

Virginia Tech passed muster among the presidents by a 7-2 vote, and Miami followed at 7-2. Then, there was a discussion about Syracuse and Boston College. The presidents didn't want to abandon either team, but Syracuse had shown less passion for changing leagues.

When the discussion focused on Boston College, the Eagles were left out when North Carolina State President Marye Anne Fox sided with Duke and North Carolina, who were against any form of expansion.

"It wasn't easy leaving Boston College out," said a second ACC president, who also wanted to remain anonymous. "At the same time, it made no sense for traveling purposes to have just one school in the Northeast. There was also sentiment to leave the spot open for a while and see what develops."

Other issues remain. A big one is that the league as a whole, Miami and now Virginia Tech, have to clarify their legal positions. The ACC and Miami are defendants in a lawsuit filed by five members of the Big East, including Virginia Tech, on June 6 seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief for conspiring to destroy their conference. Virginia Tech has removed itself as a plaintiff, but it could be added as a defendant.

Opening arguments are expected today in Hartford, Conn., but new developments could force a continuance. For instance, BC likely will be removed as a defendant today.

Virginia Tech filed papers in Connecticut removing it from the lawsuit late Wednesday afternoon, said Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, who also said the lawsuit slowed down the process long enough to give ACC officials more time to evaluate Virginia Tech.

Another issue is that under current rules, the NCAA doesn't allow leagues with less than 12 members to hold a conference championship game in football. A football title game -- and the resultant financial windfall -- was seen as a major reason the ACC wanted to expand to 12 teams.

Jean Ponsetto, chairwoman of the NCAA's champions/competition cabinet, told The Miami Herald it's unlikely such a rule would pass. Ponsetto said leagues that have met the requirement, such as the SEC and Big 12, likely would oppose a change.

Steve Mallonee, the NCAA's Division I associate chief of staff, said the ACC could seek a waiver of the requirements. He said no conference has asked for a waiver since the rule was added in 1987. "The conference has to give reasons why the administrative rules committee should set aside the rule," Mallonee told The Associated Press. "Legislation is generally the better route. They have until July 15 to submit a legislative change."

The NCAA's Football Issues Committee is expected to review legislation next month that would reduce the number of teams from 12 to 10 required for a conference to hold a championship game.

Hokies gear up for shift to ACC
By Craig Barnes
Staff Writer
Posted June 26 2003

Virginia Tech will accept an invitation to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, the school said Wednesday, and Miami reviewed its options. According to sources, the Hurricanes are likely to accept an invitation today or Friday.

At the same time, most of college athletics was trying to figure out why the conference voted to expand by two teams rather than three.

"What we've done is send a clear signal to Notre Dame," one ACC president said. "We left a spot open for them, and we hope that some time in the next year there will be conversations about them joining the conference."

Clemson University President James Barker, chairman of the Council of Presidents, announced that the ACC extended formal invitations to Miami and Virginia Tech.

"Our member institutions reached agreement to officially offer membership to Miami and Virginia Tech," Barker said. "These two institutions represent and share the values for which the ACC has long been known. Through the ACC's first 50 years, the conference has earned a reputation for excellence in both academics and athletics."

The addition of the 12th team isn't the pressing part of the agenda. The ACC needs to get acceptance from the Hurricanes. The exclusion of Boston College and Syracuse didn't sit well with Miami, but the thought of returning to the Big East is less appealing. Miami President Donna Shalala meets with the school's executive committee today.

"We are very appreciative of the invitation from the ACC to join the conference," Shalala said in a statement. "We are disappointed that they have decided not to issue invitations to Boston College and Syracuse. Since this is a new proposal, we will have to study it before making a decision."

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger discussed it with the school's Board of Visitors on Wednesday. The ACC also had an onsite inspection team visit Virginia Tech's campus in Blacksburg, Va. Georgia Tech President G. Wayne Clough was there last weekend, but presidents can't be part of an onsite inspection team.

"The bottom line is, this is right for Virginia Tech, the university," Athletic Director Jim Weaver said. "For where we exist in the geographic footprint, it's good for us. We've had prior relationships with each of these institutions. I can't control the process; that's not my job."

The NCAA's Football Issues Committee is expected to review legislation next month that would reduce the number of teams from 12 to 10 required for a conference to hold a championship game. The ACC needs to track and support the legislation. It will eventually have to pass the 18-member NCAA Board of Directors.

The conference, Miami and now Virginia Tech also have to clarify their legal positions. The ACC and Miami are defendants in a lawsuit filed by five members of the Big East, including Virginia Tech, on June 6 seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief for conspiring to destroy their conference.

Virginia Tech is no longer a plaintiff, but it could be added as a defendant. Opening arguments are expected before Connecticut Superior Court Judge Samuel Sferrazza in Hartford today, but developments could force a continuance.

If the league waits until the 2005-06 season to begin a championship game, there is a greater likelihood of 12 teams being in position. Notre Dame has been investigating its options, but if the Irish aren't interested, other candidates could include Kentucky, South Carolina and perhaps Boston College.

In Tuesday's 31/2-hour meeting, the first hour was spent discussing additional financial information provided to the presidents by Virginia Tech. The presidents, who also met Saturday, asked for a greater commitment to Olympic sports, and Virginia Tech agreed to it. The school's financial contribution to the ACC, it was determined, wouldn't create the shortfall that was first expected.

Virginia Tech's inclusion was necessary to break a stalemate and allow Virginia President John Casteen to vote for expansion. A discussion of a 10-team conference didn't get the required seven votes. Duke and North Carolina were against expansion in any other form.

It was a standoff between two of the ACC's traditional basketball schools, worried about a reduction of importance, and those looking to upgrade the conference's football inventory to improve its value and competitiveness. One TV source said the ACC, with Miami and Virginia Tech, could increase its football contract from $25 million to $40 million annually.

Virginia Tech passed 7-2, and Miami followed at 7-2. Then, there was a discussion about Syracuse and Boston College. The presidents didn't want to abandon either team, but Syracuse had shown less passion for changing leagues.

When the discussion focused on Boston College, the Eagles were beaten back when North Carolina State President Marye Anne Fox sided with Duke and North Carolina. She had voted for Virginia Tech and Miami.

"It wasn't easy leaving Boston College out," a second president said, "but it made no sense for traveling purposes to have just one school in the Northeast. There was also sentiment to leave the spot open for a while and see what develops."

At that point, it was clear that the required seven votes wouldn't be available for the other schools. The ACC improved the quality of its football, realizing its basketball is among the best in the nation.

"It must be a decent deal," one source said, "because everybody is upset about something. No one got everything they wanted, but everybody got something."

UM to accept ACC's invitation

By Jorge Milian, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2003
 

CORAL GABLES -- After six weeks of negotiations, the University of Miami will accept an invitation today to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, a high-ranking school official said Wednesday.

UM President Donna Shalala is scheduled to meet this afternoon with the executive committee of the university's board of trustees, where she will recommend that Miami join the ACC, the official said.

Shalala's recommendation then will be put to a vote before the 20-person executive committee, which expects to rubber-stamp the proposal, an executive committee source said.

Miami and Virginia Tech were formally invited Wednesday to join the ACC.

Meeting with reporters following the announcement at conference headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., ACC Commissioner John Swofford said he expected the schools to accept the invitations, "but that's in their hands."

Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors met Wednesday in Roanoke, Va., and authorized university President Charles Steger to begin negotiations with the ACC. Steger told reporters after the meeting that he was "inclined to accept" the conference's offer.

"These two institutions represent and share the values for which the ACC has long been known," said Clemson President James F. Barker, chairman of the conference's Council of Presidents. "We feel they will be a great addition to our family."

Miami and Virginia Tech are expected to join the ACC for the start of the 2004-05 academic year, meaning the schools will remain in the Big East conference for one more year.

To leave the Big East, schools are required to pay a $1 million penalty, an amount that doubles if a school leaves after June 30.

Left out of the ACC expansion process were Boston College and Syracuse, which appeared destined as late as two weeks ago to defect from the Big East to the ACC with Miami.

In a statement released Wednesday, Shalala said she was "disappointed" that BC and Syracuse were not invited.

"Since this is a new proposal, we will evaluate it before making a decision," Shalala said.

Va. Tech won't wait on UM

Presidents from four Big East schools -- Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and West Virginia -- released a joint statement in which they held out hope that Miami and Virginia Tech would remain in the conference.

"We do not know what decisions Miami and Virginia Tech will ultimately make," the statement said. "We are encouraged that Miami has said today that it needs to reflect fully on the offer before it makes a final decision."

John Rocovich, rector of Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors, said his school will make its own choice regardless of what Miami decides.

"Our (decision) is not conditional on Miami," Rocovich said. "If Miami takes it or doesn't take it, it doesn't affect our decision."

Rocovich said Virginia Tech would be better off financially in the ACC.

"If we had another year like 1999, we'd make more money in the Big East," Rocovich said, referring to the Hokies' Michael Vick-led team that played Florida State for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl. "But over time, in my judgment, we would experience a significant improvement by being in the ACC."

While Miami has been in the ACC's expansion plans from the beginning, Virginia Tech became a player only last week as part of a compromise proposed by University of Virginia President John Casteen III.

Still short of championship game

Virginia Tech's inclusion resulted in an 11-team league, instead of the 12-team, two-division format the ACC envisioned when it talked with Boston College and Syracuse.

NCAA rules require at least 12 teams for a conference to hold a football championship game. The Southeastern Conference and Big 12, currently the only major conferences with 12 teams, have made millions playing championship games each December.

With 11 teams, the ACC could ask for a waiver to the rule, but a change in NCAA legislation may be a more likely route. According to an NCAA official, the ACC has until July 15 to submit a proposal for legislative change.

The ACC also could solve the problem by eventually adding a 12th school. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the ACC may not be finished with expansion.

With 11 teams in the conference, "it opens up all sorts of possibilities," an ACC source told the newspaper.

The ACC's decision on schools invited to join was made during Tuesday night's conference call involving university presidents and chancellors. Neither Boston College nor Syracuse were able to gain the seven votes necessary to receive an invitation.

"After having successfully completed the process as defined by the ACC, we are disappointed that a decision like this was made," Syracuse spokesman Kevin Morrow said.

Boston College spokesman Chris Cameron said the mood around the school's athletic department on Wednesday was "somber."

So much for the grand vision
E-mail Mark Bradley

The ACC had an idea, which wasn't the same as having a plan. The league wanted to add Miami. From there, the idea grew into a vision. Then it shriveled into a scramble for preservation. At last report -- in this case, the qualifier is mandatory -- the conference had decided to invite Miami, which everybody wants, and Virginia Tech, which almost nobody wants, and cast Boston College and Syracuse to the winds.

The vision of an Eastern Seaboard mega-conference is gone, foundered on the shoals of Mike Krzyzewski's protestations. The chance to challenge the SEC for TV supremacy has been lost. (Yeah, Miami reamins a draw, but commanding a 100 share in the Blacksburg market won't budge the Nielsens a hundredth of a percentage point.) There's no entry into the Northeast, which was essential for Seaboard saturation. There's nothing that makes you believe the ACC has done anything except put the annual Miami-Florida State game under the league umbrella, which would mean the ACC has dared to dream big and, as is often the case with dreamers, is settling for small.

What started with a bold incursion on the Big East has dissolved in a puddle of self-interest. Virginia wanted Virginia Tech to make political peace. Duke and North Carolina didn't want to change anything because Duke and Carolina have grown accustomed to ruling the roost. The schools that value football -- FSU, Georgia Tech and Clemson -- were so appalled by the dominance of the Tobacco Road basketballers that, along about the fourth presidential teleconference, they were beginning to look longingly at the SEC. And wouldn't that have been something? A league seeks to fortify football and winds up becoming the Southern equivalent of Philadelphia's parochial Big Five?

To placate the footballers, the ACC had to do something. To mollify Krzyzewski and James Moeser, the mousy North Carolina chancellor, it couldn't do much. It couldn't become a mega-conference, couldn't take the steps that made so much sense when this byzantine process began. The ACC managed to co-opt Virginia by moving to take Virginia Tech, but then some of the other "yes" votes started to wobble at the thought of a 13-team league. So Boston College and Syracuse were jettisoned, leaving the ACC with 11, which is the silliest notion yet. If you have 12 members, you can stage a football championship game. If you're stuck with 11, you must ask the NCAA to change its rule. Good luck getting BC and the 'Cuse to lobby on your behalf.

The grand vision has been reduced to half-measures. By expanding only by two, the ACC is essentially saying, "Yes, football matters, but not as much as those rubes in the SEC would have us believe." The contrast isn't entirely flattering. Casting a cold eye across the sporting landscape, the SEC has always known what it wanted -- to be big, bigger, biggest -- and has moved heaven and Earth to achieve it. If Roy Kramer is Sheriff Andy Taylor, the ACC's John Swofford is Deputy Barney Fife.

Kramer would never have moved without knowing the requisite votes were in his pocket. Then again, Kramer was the SEC commissioner in both title and fact. Swofford isn't. When folks at ACC outposts speak of "the guy who runs our league," they don't mean the commissioner. They mean Krzyzewski, who, rather hilariously, held a briefing Tuesday and said, "We haven't distinguished ourselves" by trying to expand.

The scolding was unwarranted. The original idea of adding Miami was sound, and the resulting vision of growing northward made financial sense. What derailed the process was the ACC's desire to have it both ways -- to grow without intruding on anyone else's turf, to increase revenue flow without quite admitting that an athletics department is a business. The SEC may be fertile ground for all manner of recruiting excesses, but that conference operates under no illusions. The SEC plays to win. The ACC stands revealed as a den of dweebs.
 

ACC score: 2 invitations, 1 huge mess
By SCOTT FOWLER
Charlotte Observer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In theory, I've long liked the idea of ACC expansion.

In reality, I'm glad I don't have to clean up the mess.

It now looks almost certain that Miami and Virginia Tech will join the league to form an 11-team ACC, but it has also become apparent the ACC has done a fine imitation of a bumbling bully.

Nobody likes a bully. Bumbling ones are even worse. They invoke more laughter than fear. They eventually must change, or everyone grows up and just hammers them.

Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, the league's most prominent voice, said Tuesday: "I hope we mend fences, because we've obviously gone into another person's yard with our tractor-trailer and knocked down a few trees."

More than that. The ACC CEOs have clumsily leveled forests from Boston to Blacksburg to back yards all over America. Fans who once gave the league unquestioned respect are now full of skepticism.

Don't get me wrong. I remain an expansion advocate. The ACC has stumbled into a decent place with these 11 teams.

The league's geographic sanctity is preserved. The football improves dramatically. Miami is a national plum and Virginia Tech a regional one. Both deserved to be chosen over Boston College and Syracuse.

But the ACC - particularly its presidents - made so many unnecessary and hurtful mistakes. It took site visits to two schools it didn't invite (B.C. and Syracuse) and yet had to scramble Wednesday to work one in to Virginia Tech.

The league has looked disorganized, hypocritical and extremely greedy. Everything from 10 to 13 was bandied about for the number of schools. The speculation won't stop now even if we assume Miami and Virginia Tech enter the league smoothly and that pesky Big East lawsuit goes away.

Why? Because "11" is a beg-the-question number for any conference. It means uneven divisions. It leaves the ACC one team short of having enough teams by NCAA rules to stage a lucrative football conference title game. It means the question, "When will you get that 12th team?" hangs around until the ACC goes to 12, which it will do.

Unceremoniously dropping both Boston College and Syracuse on Tuesday wasn't a terrible move, but trying to add both of them in the beginning was. One northern school in the ACC wouldn't have caused as much fuss, but trying to get two was unreasonable.

The ACC didn't anticipate the backlash, managing to seem arrogant and foolish. Krzyzewski likened the idea of adding Syracuse and Boston College to the United States' establishing states in France and Venezuela.

So now we're at 11, and nobody's terribly happy.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford didn't get the 12-team conference he wanted. Duke and North Carolina didn't get the 10- or nine-team conference they wanted. Miami didn't get partnered up with Boston College and Syracuse like it wanted. Virginia Tech finally got the prom date it wanted, but not until the ACC blew the Hokies off so many times Virginia Tech actually joined the suit against the conference. Thousands of other people got their feelings hurt.

It's a mess. And it will take years to clean up. And there's no rug big enough to sweep it under.

 

OK, who let the Hokies in?
By FRANK DASCENZO : The Herald-Sun
fdascenzo@heraldsun.com
Jun 26, 2003 : 12:09 am ET

Getting Virginia Tech in the ACC is like waking up on Christmas morning and your present is a pair of socks.

Who wanted the Hokies in the first place? They're good -- well, pretty good -- in football. By the way, who is their basketball coach and when's the last time they've been in the NCAA Tournament?

Geez, I used to think the ACC had 20-20 vision, could see through thick clouds and drive through potholes along the corporate roads. I mean it had the treasure chest ACC Basketball Tournament and it was as strong, academically and athletically, as any league in America. Its money machine would churn out millions for its proud family and people would admire its prestige. Now, I'm not so sure about all this.

Ever since the very word -- expansion -- became the most-used word of our spring and summer, I was convinced, like some of the ACC's better basketball coaches, that all this was for football.

The ACC has hopscotched through this expansion saga like a kid with a gimpy leg. The longer it lasts, the uglier it gets. Has anybody in the ACC smiled lately and meant it?

You knew the Hokies would accept the chance to jump the Big East ship to arrive on the ACC's liner. Virginia Tech was an island in the Big East anyway, a southeast school against those in New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Miami, the crown jewel also invited to join the ACC on Wednesday, played verbal gymnastics with John Swofford, the ACC commissioner, when the ACC decided to extend an invite to the Hokies. Thought this thing was going to be the Hurricanes, Boston College and Syracuse, didn't you? Well, didn't everybody?

Now where's Miami in all this?

"We are very appreciative of the invitation from the ACC to join their conference,'' said Miami president Donna Shalala. "We are disappointed they have decided not to extend invitations to Boston College and Syracuse. Since this is a new proposal, we will have to evaluate it before we make a decision.''

Geez. What do we have now? The Hokies, who hinted out of anger no doubt, they'd never join the ACC, jumped at the first chance to do just that. And the Canes? A pair of socks and not that new Jaguar in the driveway.

You really want to know who this disturbs? How about North Carolina. Can any Tar Heels fan anywhere like the idea of Virginia Tech rattling its mighty football recruiting sword against UNC.

Anger is flying throughout the ACC and frustration, aimed at the ridiculous amount of time it is taking to finalize the future, has grabbed employees of all conference athletics departments.

Swofford's original plans didn't include Virginia Tech at all. Remember, the Hokies were recommended for expansion by John T. Casteen III, Virginia's president, as far back as May.

The ACC's presidents rejected the Hokies, bringing an outcry of disbelief (from Virginia Tech football fans) mostly that the league would dare consider BC and Syracuse and not a university in the geographical boundaries of the southeast.

Casteen's call was unique, to say the least. Knowing Duke and North Carolina hated expansion from the start, Casteen could produce Swofford with the seventh vote he needed or take sides with the Blue Devils and Tar Heels.

Virginia would vote yes on expansion for Virginia Tech. Swofford knew that. On Wednesday, officials from the ACC visited Virginia Tech. Talk about desiring a quick invite and quicker answer -- one day, deal done. Welcome Hokies.

Who was it that said be surprised at nothing these days?

Well, that's unimportant right now.

Virginia Tech had joined four other Big East schools in suing the ACC, Miami and Boston College for attempting to kill the Big East.

The Hokies withdrew their part in the lawsuit on Wednesday.

Surprise, surprise.


 

If ACC gets 11 schools, is one more on the way?
BY AL FEATHERSTON : The Herald-Sun
afeatherston@heraldsun.com
Jun 26, 2003 : 12:09 am ET

One of the major ideas behind ACC expansion was to get to 12 teams, which would allow the league to stage a football championship game.

So does the league's decision Wednesday to add just two teams mean that a third will be coming soon?

"We'll just have to wait and see," ACC commissioner John Swofford said. "The Big Ten has 11 teams. I guess there's some expectation or anticipation if there's 11 then there is some chance there would be 12. People talk about that a lot with the Big Ten.

"I don't think there's anything necessarily immediate in terms of getting to the 12. Whether we get there or not, we'll just have to wait and see, see where the future takes us."

Swofford said Tuesday night that he didn't expect any immediately expansion action beyond what the Council of Presidents voted Tuesday night -- Miami and Virginia Tech only.

He denied having any serious talks with Notre Dame about joining the ACC.

"Uh, not really," Swofford said. "Along the way, everybody talks with Notre Dame in an exploratory way. And [athletics director] Kevin White is a friend. But that's not something that's an issue with us at the moment."

Swofford also pointed out that by staying at 11 members, the ACC may avoid the contentious issue of divisions.

"If you have 11, you may not necessarily have divisional alignments," he said. "Even at 12, we were looking at probably not having divisional alignments in basketball. We were in football, but probably not in basketball. If we end up being 11, there may not be a need to have divisional alignments."

Swofford said Virginia Tech would probably begin play in the ACC in 2005-06 season.

Big East may change by-laws

The statement released by Boston College on Wednesday included a curious phrase:

"Today, representatives from the Big East institutions are engaged in discussions with all conference members, including Miami and Virginia Tech, regarding future conference configuration."

That was taken by some media outlets as an indication that the Big East was making a last-ditch effort to prevent Virginia Tech and Miami from leaving. However, a highly placed Big East source said no efforts are being made to sway to the two ACC targets and that league officials are resigned to their departure.

Instead, the reference is apparently in regard to talks designed to change the Big East by-laws to prevent future departures. The current rules require a $1 million exit fee if a team announces its departure on or before June 30 of the year before its exit.

Virginia Tech still owes about $450,000 of its entry fee to the Big East. It will now have to pay $1 million to exit, plus a $3 million entry fee to the ACC.

The academics addition

The official statement on the ACC invitation to Miami and Boston College contained this high sounding phrase from Clemson president James Barker:

"Through the ACC's first 50 years, the conference has earned a reputation for excellence in both academics and athletics. As we look to the future, we are confident that our schools, coaches and student-athletes will maintain that heritage."

William C. Friday, president emeritus of the UNC system, and a former member of the Knight Commission that studied the link between academics and athletics, wasn't as sold on the move.

Friday said Wednesday that the ACC could have shown "great academic leadership" by examining expansion and then deciding to turn it down .

"Here is an action that is for money and money alone," he said. "It acknowledges the complete domination of commercial television money."

It's ironic that when the nine ACC presidents picked two of four expansion candidates, they choose the two weakest academic members of the four.

For instance, based on the NCAA's latest graduation rate report, the four-year football graduation rate for rejected Syracuse and Boston College are 79 and 76 percent, respectively; just 46 and 40 percent, respectively for Miami and Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech, which recently endured back to back football classes that graduated 33 and 29 percent, has a lower four-year rate than any current member, except Georgia Tech (33 percent). Miami's figure also tops Maryland and N.C. State (both 45 percent).

Overall, Miami and Virginia Tech fall short of Syracuse and Boston College when it comes to the median SAT scores of incoming freshmen.According to SAT Boards, the two rejected schools were at 1305 (Boston College) and 1205 (Syracuse). Miami's latest freshman class was at 1190, while Virginia Tech's was at 1185.

Boston College is ranked as the nation's 40th best university, according to the latest poll by U.S. News and World Report. That's behind Duke (tied for No. 4), Virginia (No. 23), Wake Forest (25), North Carolina (28) and Georgia Tech (38). However, it's well ahead of the other three expansion candidates, which were all ranked as "Second Tier" schools -- along with current ACC members Clemson, Maryland, N.C. State and FSU.


 

Yo, Big East -- it's not personal, it's just business
Published June 26, 2003
David Whitley

Let me see if I have this straight. Miami and Virginia Tech are headed to the Atlantic Coast Conference, Syracuse and Boston College are going nowhere, and Louisville might join the Hair Club For Men?

What else? Oh, yeah, college athletics are going to hell in a handbasket weaving course offered only to incoming football recruits.

That's the fallout of the 178th and final ACC expansion plan. The fog of war is still thick, but this thing clearly became ultimate proof of the already obvious.

College sports is an oxymoron. Or if you still believe institutes of higher learning operate on a higher ethical plain, I have some worthless swampland in South Florida to sell you.

The Big East now calls that place "Miami." But bad guys replicated in this six-week melodrama like Agent Smith in The Matrix Reloaded.

Heading the villain list is Virginia Tech, which joined a lawsuit against the dastardly ACC and vowed to never leave the Big East.

Never mind.

Mike Krzyzewski, dismayed that his beloved Tobacco Road is being lined with football factories, compared the ACC's expansion to the United States establishing a state in France or Venezuela.

If Caracas U. gets a top-20 football program, don't be surprised if an invite is quickly in the mail. Anything to reach the 12-team requirement for a conference title game.

While the Big East wailed against poaching, it prepared to snatch a school or two from Conference USA. Meanwhile, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is forging ahead with the lawsuit against Miami. Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has been breaking down film of Blumenthal and promises a strong defense.

This just in -- Gov. Jeb Bush has scrambled the bombers and they are headed toward Hartford.

It would all be funny if it weren't such a sobering reminder of where our priorities are. If you think they're still remotely associated with the romantic notion of books, students and learning, you're probably disgusted at the Big East-ACC food fight.

The usual indignation will flow, but I just can't bring myself to criticize any longer. The bad guys are merely doing what they're hired to do, which is act like Ken Lay, Martha Stewart or Gordon "Greed is Good" Gekko.

That means look after your company's interests, generate revenue, hire the best staff and build a work environment that will attract the most sought-after recruits/employees. To quote olive oil importing executive Michael Corleone, "It's business, not personal."

For all its football success, Miami finished $1.4 million in the red last year. If business is better in the ACC, isn't it obligated to move?

The source of all evil is the budget-eating football Frankenstein. So if you're fed up with this latest tale of backstabbing, hypocrisy and moneygrubbing, here's what you do.

Round up a bunch of your friends/alumni and implore them to phone the president of your favorite college. Tell him or her it's time to tame the monster.

Cut the head coach's salary from $2 million to $80,000. Kill the stadium expansion. Get rid of the gold-plated pens at the football study hall complex. Stop admitting functional illiterates just because they can bench 600 pounds.

Be satisfied with a 5-6 record?

Tilt!

The reason so many athletic directors are acting like CEOs is because that's what they are. Football is their primary product, and they are merely responding to the demands of the marketplace.

That doesn't make their shenanigans noble. It just makes them necessary.

So don't take it personally, Big East. It's business.

And until the consumer demands things change, calling anyone a hypocrite is just hypocritical.