SkinsHokie Fan
June-25th-2003, 12:42 AM
This is an absolute shocker. Only Miami and Virginia Tech got invited to the ACC. Makes no sense at all
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28663-2003Jun24.html?nav=hptop_tb
ACC Invites Miami, Virginia Tech
Big East's Boston College, Syracuse Are Excluded
By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 25, 2003; Page D01
After 11/2 months of deliberations, discussions and telephone meetings, the Atlantic Coast Conference stunned nearly everyone last night, extending invitations to Virginia Tech and Miami, according to a source close to the situation. Boston College and Syracuse -- Big East schools that had gone through a formal process to receive invitations -- were not included, the source said.
"It's all new," another source said, shocked that a proposal that had never previously been mentioned emerged last night.
The expansion is expected to occur for the 2004-05 season.
Last night's conference call between ACC university presidents was one of the closing chapters in a lengthy saga. It marked a 180-degree reversal for Virginia Tech, which last night had yet to learn of its invitation from the ACC according to a university spokesman, and remains a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by five Big East schools against the ACC, Miami and Boston College in an attempt to stop expansion.
"If you argue some kind of contiguous ACC, then you're picking up teams within the ACC," said the source close to the situation.
Multiple sources said that ACC university presidents pledged to keep last night's events in confidence so that the four affected Big East schools could be notified.
A news conference at league headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., is expected to be held today.
A spokesman for Syracuse last night said his school had heard nothing from the ACC.
The conference's original expansion plan -- which included Boston College and Syracuse in addition to Miami -- unraveled from nearly a done deal in mid-May to a political football that resulted in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit and public relations battle, with many school administrators facing awkward decisions.
"Obviously we haven't distinguished ourselves in how we've gone about this," Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said at a news conference yesterday afternoon before last night's events. "That's sad. . . . We have to be sensitive to our brethren in other conferences. This isn't about big business swooping in and getting another company and if that's what it's about, the hidden cost there is the destruction of in essence what intercollegiate sports should be about.
"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."
With Duke and North Carolina solidly opposed to a three-team expansion, the original plan was foiled when Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner and Attorney General Jerry Kilgore used their political influence to force University of Virginia President John Casteen to protect Virginia Tech's interests, sources said.
The ACC then explored other options, according to multiple sources. League attorneys examined the ACC bylaws and constitution to explore the possibility of changing them so that six votes -- and not seven -- could ratify an expansion, sources said. Casteen floated the idea of adding Virginia Tech to the original three proposed members, but that unraveled because of concerns that a 13-team league was not financially attractive.
That left the ACC with two expansion options, replacing Boston College or Syracuse with Virginia Tech in a three-team expansion or adding only Miami.
The only way that a three-team expansion could occur was if Virginia Tech was included so that Casteen could vote for expansion.
Duke and North Carolina officials endorsed the idea of adding only Miami, as did former Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt and Rutgers Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy, who saw it as a compromise solution.
It is the third time the ACC has expanded. The conference previously added Georgia Tech in 1979 and Florida State in 1992. South Carolina left the league in 1971.
Miami and Virginia Tech have until Monday to notify the Big East that they will leave the conference before the Big East exit fee doubles to $2 million.
The schools are expected to pay a $3 million entry fee to the ACC, though that payment is expected to be spread out over their first few years of membership and deducted from their annual conference payout.
Although NCAA rules require a conference to have 12 members in order to stage a conference championship football game, it is expected that the ACC will attempt to change that so that a conference with 11 members could hold such a game. An ACC championship game, which likely would be held in Jacksonville, Orlando or Charlotte, could be worth $12 million.
"It's a rule; Moses didn't bring it down from the mountain top,"
Krzyzewski said. "It's not etched in stone. Why not attack the rule and say, 'Look, why can't we have a playoff with 10 teams?' " In order to change existing NCAA rules, the ACC could propose legislation that would need to be approved by the Division I Management Council comprised of 49 athletic officials and the Board of Directors, comprised of 18 college presidents and chancellors. An NCAA official said if the legislation is proposed promptly and passed, it is possible that it could be enacted before the 2004 football season.
It remains unclear what is next for the Big East. When it seemed that losing only Miami was the most likely scenario, a league source said that the Big East's top preference to replace Miami was Louisville.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28663-2003Jun24.html?nav=hptop_tb
ACC Invites Miami, Virginia Tech
Big East's Boston College, Syracuse Are Excluded
By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 25, 2003; Page D01
After 11/2 months of deliberations, discussions and telephone meetings, the Atlantic Coast Conference stunned nearly everyone last night, extending invitations to Virginia Tech and Miami, according to a source close to the situation. Boston College and Syracuse -- Big East schools that had gone through a formal process to receive invitations -- were not included, the source said.
"It's all new," another source said, shocked that a proposal that had never previously been mentioned emerged last night.
The expansion is expected to occur for the 2004-05 season.
Last night's conference call between ACC university presidents was one of the closing chapters in a lengthy saga. It marked a 180-degree reversal for Virginia Tech, which last night had yet to learn of its invitation from the ACC according to a university spokesman, and remains a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by five Big East schools against the ACC, Miami and Boston College in an attempt to stop expansion.
"If you argue some kind of contiguous ACC, then you're picking up teams within the ACC," said the source close to the situation.
Multiple sources said that ACC university presidents pledged to keep last night's events in confidence so that the four affected Big East schools could be notified.
A news conference at league headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., is expected to be held today.
A spokesman for Syracuse last night said his school had heard nothing from the ACC.
The conference's original expansion plan -- which included Boston College and Syracuse in addition to Miami -- unraveled from nearly a done deal in mid-May to a political football that resulted in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit and public relations battle, with many school administrators facing awkward decisions.
"Obviously we haven't distinguished ourselves in how we've gone about this," Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said at a news conference yesterday afternoon before last night's events. "That's sad. . . . We have to be sensitive to our brethren in other conferences. This isn't about big business swooping in and getting another company and if that's what it's about, the hidden cost there is the destruction of in essence what intercollegiate sports should be about.
"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."
With Duke and North Carolina solidly opposed to a three-team expansion, the original plan was foiled when Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner and Attorney General Jerry Kilgore used their political influence to force University of Virginia President John Casteen to protect Virginia Tech's interests, sources said.
The ACC then explored other options, according to multiple sources. League attorneys examined the ACC bylaws and constitution to explore the possibility of changing them so that six votes -- and not seven -- could ratify an expansion, sources said. Casteen floated the idea of adding Virginia Tech to the original three proposed members, but that unraveled because of concerns that a 13-team league was not financially attractive.
That left the ACC with two expansion options, replacing Boston College or Syracuse with Virginia Tech in a three-team expansion or adding only Miami.
The only way that a three-team expansion could occur was if Virginia Tech was included so that Casteen could vote for expansion.
Duke and North Carolina officials endorsed the idea of adding only Miami, as did former Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt and Rutgers Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy, who saw it as a compromise solution.
It is the third time the ACC has expanded. The conference previously added Georgia Tech in 1979 and Florida State in 1992. South Carolina left the league in 1971.
Miami and Virginia Tech have until Monday to notify the Big East that they will leave the conference before the Big East exit fee doubles to $2 million.
The schools are expected to pay a $3 million entry fee to the ACC, though that payment is expected to be spread out over their first few years of membership and deducted from their annual conference payout.
Although NCAA rules require a conference to have 12 members in order to stage a conference championship football game, it is expected that the ACC will attempt to change that so that a conference with 11 members could hold such a game. An ACC championship game, which likely would be held in Jacksonville, Orlando or Charlotte, could be worth $12 million.
"It's a rule; Moses didn't bring it down from the mountain top,"
Krzyzewski said. "It's not etched in stone. Why not attack the rule and say, 'Look, why can't we have a playoff with 10 teams?' " In order to change existing NCAA rules, the ACC could propose legislation that would need to be approved by the Division I Management Council comprised of 49 athletic officials and the Board of Directors, comprised of 18 college presidents and chancellors. An NCAA official said if the legislation is proposed promptly and passed, it is possible that it could be enacted before the 2004 football season.
It remains unclear what is next for the Big East. When it seemed that losing only Miami was the most likely scenario, a league source said that the Big East's top preference to replace Miami was Louisville.