Expansion plan concerns ACC members

[The Evil Genius]

Heard on Sports Center last night that UNC, Duke, and possibly UVA and/or NC State may vote no when the vote occurs.


Expansion plan concerns ACC members

Duke, UNC considering a 'no' vote
By DAVID DROSCHAK

AP Sports Writer

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Atlantic Coast Conference expansion is shaping up to be a lot tougher to pull off than expected.

The leadership at Duke and North Carolina now have serious concerns about adding Miami, Syracuse and Boston College and might vote against the plan. The ACC needs the approval of at least seven schools in the nine-team league.

The potential glitch comes three days after five Big East schools sued the ACC, Miami and Boston College to try to stop the teams from defecting.

Duke president Nan Keohane, in an e-mail to her colleagues obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, said the Blue Devils were prepared to vote against expansion unless additional issues about student welfare, travel costs and divisional alignment were addressed by the league.

''I voted in favor of entering formal conversations for collegial reasons,'' Keohane wrote in the e-mail, sent Friday. ''I believe that was the right decision at the time. However, I am now concerned that the kinds of substantive discussions we anticipated before a final vote would be taken have not materialized, and show no prospect of doing so.''

North Carolina president James Moeser sent a letter to the ACC presidents Thursday, expressing similar concerns. Moeser did not return a call Monday seeking additional comment.

ACC presidents were to hold a conference call today, but it was unclear if they would vote.

No other presidents at ACC schools have publicly expressed concerns. Clemson's James Barker, head of the ACC presidents, refused to comment when asked if a vote would be taken soon.

Duke and North Carolina were at first outspoken opponents of expansion, but agreed on May 16 to enter into talks with Miami, Syracuse and Boston College. That vote was unanimous.

Now, Keohane believes the expansion plans may be moving too quickly after site visits to the three Big East schools ended last week.

''To use the lingo familiar in our region, Duke is not willing to buy a pig in a poke,'' Keohane wrote.

Keohane is also worried about the lawsuit filed Friday to try to derail the ACC expansion, which would create a 12-team superconference and virtually destroy the Big East as a football league.

''We are being charged with acting in bad faith by colleagues at other Big East universities,'' the Duke president wrote. ''In order to feel even minimally comfortable with voting for an action that will have serious consequences for these peer institutions, I would have to be considerably more positive than I am now that the decision is actually the best one for our student athletes and for our conference.''

ACC commissioner John Swofford has used a football title game and increased revenues from a new football TV deal after 2005 as selling points for expansion.

The ACC did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment on the Keohane e-mail.

The three Big East schools face a $1 million exit fee from the Big East. That figure doubles if they leave after June 30.

In another development, attorneys representing Big East schools suing the ACC, Miami and Boston College filed a request Monday to speed up the discovery process in the lawsuit.

A source familiar with the lawsuit who spoke on condition of anonymity told the AP the request stemmed from the discovery that the ACC, Miami and BC were discussing expansion as early as January 2002.

The lawsuit contends Big East schools invested heavily in their football programs in part because Miami president Donna Shalala made commitments to the conference. The source said information gathered over the weekend bolstered the lawsuit's argument that Shalala was making such statements -- most notably, one on March 6, 2002 -- during the same time Miami officials were holding secret talks with the ACC.

In a news release, plaintiff attorney Jeffrey Mishkin said his firm has ''also reminded the attorneys for Miami, BC and the ACC of theirs clients' legal obligation to safeguard and preserve all evidence that may be relevant to the case.''

[The Evil Genius]

Looks like Gov. Warner wants to get involved...


Va. Gov. Wants Mediation in ACC Expansion

By HANK KURZ Jr., AP Sports Writer

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner urged the NCAA (news - web sites) or an outside mediator to intercede in the proposed expansion of the Atlantic Coast Conference rather than allow a protracted and expensive legal battle.

In a statement released Tuesday, Warner said the state's "interests as a whole will be ensured" if both Virginia of the ACC and Virginia Tech of the Big East stay in major conferences.

NCAA president Myles Brand said his organization has no authority to intervene in the right of schools to determine their own conference affiliations.

In a statement released Tuesday, Brand also said the organization would provide whatever help it could, including third-party mediation if "an invitation to do so was forthcoming from all parties."

Warner's remarks came one day after reports that two schools voting in favor of pursuing the addition of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse to the ACC were having second thoughts, and four days after five Big East schools sued trying to stop the raid of their league.

Officials at Duke and North Carolina have developed serious concerns about adding the three schools. The ACC needs the approval of seven of its nine schools to go forward with expansion.

One of the potential losers in the expansion is Virginia Tech. Tech was rejected by the ACC schools for expansion, and would go from a Big East football powerhouse to a school with an uncertain athletics future if three of the Big East's best teams leave for the new superconference.

In a conference call Tuesday, representatives of the five schools that are suing spoke favorably of mediation and defended their lawsuit as a necessary step to stop the perceived rapid destruction of their league.

"We're in a position where events were moving very quickly," Pittsburgh president Mark Nordenberg said of the lawsuit. "We faced the prospect of irreparable harm. We had a responsibility to protect our conference and its institutions and we took steps to do that."

Virginia Tech president Charles Steger called the lawsuit "a last resort" that highlighted the fact that the stakes are huge, especially for the school facing the prospect of being left in a weakened league.


Mediation, Nordenberg said, might yield "plans by which two conferences operate, coexist and become stronger in years ahead."


That idea, in addition to the misgivings expressed at Duke and North Carolina, could give new hope to schools that seemed resigned to Miami, Boston College and Syracuse leaving.


Concerns about expansion at Duke, revealed in an e-mail sent by university president Nan Keohane, said the Blue Devils were prepared to vote against expansion unless additional issues about student welfare, travel costs and divisional alignment were addressed by the ACC.


"I voted in favor of entering formal conversations for collegial reasons," Keohane wrote in the e-mail, sent Friday. "I believe that was the right decision at the time. However, I am now concerned that the kinds of substantive discussions we anticipated before a final vote would be taken have not materialized, and show no prospect of doing so."


North Carolina president James Moeser sent a letter to the ACC presidents Thursday expressing similar concerns. Moeser did not immediately return a phone call seeking additional comment, but was to participate in a conference call among the league's presidents Tuesday.


The potential glitch comes three days after the five Big East schools sued the ACC, Miami and Boston College to try to stop the teams from defecting. Unresolved, it could put Virginia President John T. Casteen III in position to scuttle the expansion plan by also voting against it.


Casteen has maintained that he believes Virginia Tech would be a good fit for the ACC, and that he will continue to support its candidacy.





Casteen was not immediately available for comment, but Steger said he's very confident his counterpart will "do what he thinks is right."

No other presidents at ACC schools have publicly expressed concerns about the expansion plan.

[Buford]

hear that? That's the dying pulse of the big east. The ACC will vote those teams in once this legal tape is cleared away. They can't refuse the GREEN of money. The outside Big East Schools like Uconn already know this. Their AD jumped shipped for Kansas.

[Prosperity]

Maybe our brothers at UVa will scuttle this God forsaken thing called "the expansion" I just hope Governor Warner pressure them more

[laurent]

Sounds to me like Duke and UNC are afraid to lose their status quo more than anything. Student welfare and travel costs? Puhleeeze.

[The Evil Genius]

Hmmm...I wonder why...


ACC stalls expansion vote

Talks continue; two governors express 'real concerns'
BY BOB HERTZEL

The Dominion Post

One big, happy family it ain't, but the Big East lives on.

For now.

A high-powered legal, political and public relations campaign by the five Big East schools not included in the Atlantic Coast Conference's expansion plans delayed, if not destroyed, what seemed to be inevitable a week ago -- Miami, Boston College and Syra cuse's defection from the Big East to the ACC.

So effective was the five-day blitz that a conference call that was supposed to end with a vote on expansion from nine to 12 teams for the ACC and the possible destruction of the Big East actually wound up including the five remaining Big East presidents for part of the call.

When it was over, the ACC put off its vote, almost certainly because it didn't have the seven "yes" votes necessary for expansion.

''There will be further discussions,'' said ACC commissioner John Swofford, the driving force behind expansion, ''and, as has been the case throughout this process, there is no definitive timetable.''

North Carolina and Duke had said prior to the conference call they would vote no, and Virginia was under intense pressure from its governor, Mark Warner, not to vote yes on expansion unless it included the state's other major university, Virginia Tech.

"The Commonwealth of Virginia's interests as a whole will best be ensured with an outcome that keeps both UVa and Virginia Tech in major athletic conferences, with all the attending national prominence and relationships with major universities," Warner said in a statement issued Tuesday morning urging mediation in the dispute between conferences.

And while Warner was applying political pressure on UVa, New York Gov. George Pataki was expressing concern about Syracuse leaving the Big East.

''Obviously, it's within the legal purview of a private university to choose whatever conference they choose to belong to,'' said Pataki, a visible supporter of Syracuse's basketball team during its run to the national championship this season. ''But (joining the ACC) does, to me, raise real concerns about college athletics.''

Late last week, after the ACC finished visiting Miami, B.C. and Syracuse, expansion seemed to be a slam dunk. The Big East was backed into a corner, looking at losing the best football program in America and the defending national basketball champion.

Its BCS bid seemed sure to follow.

Trying to slow the momentum, the five remaining Big East schools -- West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Rutgers, Connecticut and Pitt -- filed a strongly worded lawsuit Friday, in Connecticut, charging a "civil conspiracy" aimed at the destruction of the Big Eas t.

The wording of the lawsuit was said to anger Miami president Donna Shalala to the point where she vowed if the school had to remain in the Big East, it would be with a different commissioner than Mike Tranghese.

Monday morning, Warner came out with his call for mediation.

"The dispute over the proposed expansion of the Atlantic Coast Conference and its expected impact on other major athletic conferences has now spilled into the legal arena. That promises to be a prolonged and expensive endeavor for all the institutions involved. It is my hope instead that the NCAA or some other intercollegiate organization will consider stepping in to mediate," read his statement.

The NCAA, just a week earlier, had said through its president Myles Brand that it would not intervene and that it was up to the schools and conferences to work this out.

However, before the day was out, Brand had a change of heart and said the NCAA would provide whatever help it could, including third-party mediation if ''an invitation to do so was forthcoming from all parties.''

Shortly after Warner's statement, the public relations firm hired by the five Big East schools put together a conference call with the five presidents during which they issued a statement that backed Warner's plan, and again echoed their claim that ACC expansion would change the world of college football.

"If the ACC votes to expand, its actions will reverberate across the entire university academic and athletic world. If universities are allowed to succeed by having secret mettings, making closed-door deals and breaking promises that others have relied upon, a terrible precedent will have been set. And if one major conference succeeds in poaching three teams from another major conference, powerful reverberations will be felt across the entire country. The ACC, along with B.C. and Miami, will be responsible for the chain reaction that might result -- a chain reaction that could disrupt established athletic conferences from coast to coast," the statement said.

[Rdskns2000]

I think it's giving those opposed to expansion enough to time to make sure that expansion won't happen.


Big East shouldn't jump for joy becaue I bet you Miami will then look to join the SEC, if this ACC bid fails.

[fansince62]

Duke & UNC.....two schools with dismal prospects in football.......which is what this is all about: football as a revenue generator.....more competition in basketball as well.........

[Hokieskin]

Originally posted by Rdskns2000
Big East shouldn't jump for joy becaue I bet you Miami will then look to join the SEC, if this ACC bid fails.

The SEC would not take Miami. If Miami could join the SEC then it would join it instead of the ACC. If the SEC comes along later and offers Miami a spot, then Miami would leave the ACC. Miami would sell its soul to join the SEC.

[JackC]

The Big East are a bunch of hypocrites. They cry how the ACC is raiding them and how wrong it is. Wait and see if they don't turn around and do the same them to Conference USA.

If the Commonwealth of Virginia doesn't like it maybe the ACC can drop UVA too and add Pittsburgh!

[The Evil Genius]

So it was about keeping FSU?



ACC vote remains on hold

FSU threat to depart reportedly spurred expansion bid
BY GREGG DOYEL

Knight Ridder Newspapers

RALEIGH, N.C. -- In late 2001, Florida State Chancellor Sandy D'Alemberte challenged ACC Commissioner John Swofford to annex football powerhouse Miami or risk losing the Seminoles to another conference.

Although Florida State has changed chancellors, that threat -- confirmed Wednesday by four industry sources -- casts a pall over the ACC's stalled expansion effort.

The ACC chancellors held another conference call Wednesday without voting on expansion.

While one high-ranking ACC official called an FSU defection ''unlikely,'' the combination of Florida State's eagerness to expand and staunch resistance elsewhere gives Swofford a combustible mixture should this expansion fail.

Florida State athletics director Dave Hart branded the ACC's anti-expansion schools as being ''non-visionary'' last month, saying the league needed to expand ''for reasons that should be obvious.''

They're not obvious to Duke, North Carolina and Virginia, which remained opposed to expansion through Wednesday's conference call -- a call Swofford had hoped would conclude with invitations to Miami, Boston College and Syracuse to make the ACC a 12-schoo l superpower.

After the conference call, which Swofford called constructive, he said the chancellors wouldn't convene by phone again this week.

Should Florida State leave the ACC, it wouldn't be without takers. In one scenario, the Big 12 would jettison Baylor, Arkansas would move from the SEC to the Big 12 and Florida State would join the SEC. The Big East would be another -- and ironic -- possib ility for the Seminoles.

That's speculation, but this is not: After two consecutive fruitless conference calls, this ACC expansion is running aground.

The external pressure on the league grew Wednesday from the public-relations campaign waged by the five Big East schools that have sued the ACC.

Chancellors of the plaintiffs -- Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia -- wrote ACC chancellors to request ''face-to-face conversations'' to avoid a ''rush to judgment on such a potentially harmful plan.'' That missive drew laug hter from the ACC office in Greensboro, a source said.

But the Big East group's maneuvers, along with mounting political pressure, appear to be wearing on Virginia Chancellor John Casteen, who has unexpectedly joined Duke and North Carolina in opposition. Three ''no'' votes would kill expansion, which is why Swofford didn't pursue a chancellor-level vote Tuesday or Wednesday.

Swofford has used the conference call to address anti-expansion concerns and to assure ACC chancellors that the lawsuit -- which seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and an injunction against the proposed expansion -- won't make it to court.

Plaintiffs attorney Jeffrey Mishkin asked ACC and Big East officials Wednesday to preserve their records for depositions.

The number of people deposed, starting with Swofford, is likely to run well over 100.

That includes the chancellor, athletics director and various trustees and boosters from each ACC school.

[TheCoachesCorner.TV]

The Hell with the ACC if they don't take VA TECH! If they take them then I am a big ACC FAN! That should sum up how every Hokie feels at this point in the game :)