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Opposition to ACC's grand plan gaining steam
From staff reports with Associated Press contributions
[ Originally posted 05.29.03. ]
For awhile, Mike Tranghese was the principle figure
grumbling loudly and publicly about Atlantic Coast Conference moves to lure
away three prominent members from his conference.
That's no longer the case. In recent days, the Big East commissioner has gained
influential allies who have their own reasons for criticizing the
landscape-shaking venture.
As the ACC accelerates the execution of a blueprint long in
the planning to add Miami, Syracuse and Boston to the nine-team league
resistance to the strategy is cropping up from powerful interests ranging
from college professors along Tobacco Road itself to an array of state and
federal government politicians.
Additional vociferous complaints from quarters with more
direct stakes in the outcome can be expected as the ACC attempts to pull off a
TV-and-cash-driven coup that could set off a chain reaction leading to an
epic shift of league alignments, including the possibility that some schools
which play Division I-A football would be left on their own.
Washington weighs in
While ACC officials were about to initiate a string of formal visits to the
campuses of the targeted schools with an excursion to Miami, a contingent of U.S. senators on Wednesday
added their voices to concerns already expressed by a number of South Carolina
lawmakers and an important faculty group at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Nine U.S. Senators from the home states of the other Big
East schools wrote to the leaders of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse on
Wednesday in an effort to stop them from bolting the league.
The senators from West Virginia, Virginia, Connecticut, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania said the defection would devastate the Big East,
erode the progress its schools have made in women's sports and "send a
troubling message to student-athletes across America."
"The Big East has instilled core values of integrity,
responsibility, loyalty and leadership in each and every student-athlete,"
the lawmakers said in the letter sent to University of Miami President Donna
Shalala, Boston College President Rev. William P. Leahy and Syracuse
University Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw.
"The result Big East students continue to excel," they
wrote.
The letter noted the conference's success in producing
Rhodes Scholars and in NCAA competition especially in women's sports,
including Connecticut's women's basketball title, Notre Dame's women's
soccer title and Villanova's women's cross country championship.
"It is not an exaggeration to suggest that this progress
would be seriously jeopardized should you decide to leave the Big East," the
letter said. "Instead of working toward the goal of greater equity between
men's and women's athletics, the departure of your institutions will have
the effect of stifling years of progress."
The letter was signed by Sens. Joe Lieberman and Christopher
J. Dodd, D-Conn.; Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine, D-N.J.; Sens.
Robert C. Byrd and John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W. Va.; Sens. George Allen and
John Warner, R-Va.; and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
The ACC wants to become a 12-team league that would broaden
its market and reap more lucrative television contracts. League officials
have scheduled visits to Miami, Boston College and Syracuse over the next
several days as part of the process of inviting them to join.
Should the schools accept, it could mean the end of the Big
East at least as a football conference. The Big East was formed in 1979
and added football in 1991.
"What message do we send to student-athletes when decades of
history can be destroyed as a sole result of economic considerations?" the
senators asked in their letter. "The wrong one."
Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn denied the decision is
based solely on money.
"Our decision to consider the ACC invitation is based
exclusively on what is in the best interest of Boston College, athletically,
academically and financially," he said. "We welcome the senators' feedback,
and we hope that they can understand our position."
Syracuse spokesman Kevin Morrow said the school is concerned
about its athletic future if Miami, the conference's top football power,
should leave.
"The landscape is changing and major intercollegiate
athletics is clearly heading in the direction of the superconference," he
said. "It's clear that if we're not going to be part of the movement, we're
going to be left behind."
Palmetto State legislators
wary
In South Carolina, reports proliferated on Wednesday that
some state lawmakers have their eyes on the ACC's expansion plans and wonder
if Clemson University leaders are overlooking potential negative outcomes.
Sen. Warren Giese, R-Columbia, says he think the expansion
will make the conference too big and add unnecessary travel time for teams
and fans.
"This spreads it out into a television extravaganza," said
Giese, a former South Carolina football coach. "I think it flat reeks of
commercialism."
Clemson president James Barker defends the conference's
plans, citing Miami, Syracuse and Boston College as schools of substance
compatible with the league.
"These three institutions represent and share the values for
which the ACC has long been known," James Barker, who also serves as chair
of the Council of Presidents in the ACC.
Barker said the league worked for 18 months on planning for
the future. But Rep. Lewis "Gene" Pinson, R-Greenwood, agreed with Giese.
"I don't think it's going to help Clemson football," said
Pinson, who went to graduate school at Clemson. "It's just a big money
grab."
Bringing Miami and Syracuse may add to TV revenue, but will
also likely add to Clemson's losses, Pinson said.
"I just don't see it as something positive," he said. "I
know about the big money and big draws from these other schools. But I think
Clemson and the ACC can probably draw on anybody. I just think college
athletics is getting totally out of control."
Sounding a theme expressed days ago by professors at UNC-Chapel
Hill, Giese was bothered the expansion process hasn't been more open. He
says he's waiting for the league to "give us good reasons why this is in the
best interests not only for the schools' bank accounts but for the people
who have been their supporters."
Giese thinks expansion will take away from the closeness and
rivalries the ACC enjoys now.
"I'm afraid the gate receipts and TV and all of those things
are being considered before the interests of the students in the
conference," he said.
Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, is a Clemson fan and has the
worries several fans do about expansion.
"I can't see how getting Miami will help Clemson football,"
he said. "If the board supports it and the athletic program thinks it's in
their best interest, we'll just have to see how it plays out."
State Rep. Harry Cato, R-Travelers Rest, is a 1980 Clemson
graduate. He thinks big-time games with Miami and Syracuse might hurt
attendance for home games with Duke and Wake Forest.
Not all of the state's legislators are critical of the ACC's
expansion move. House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville and a 1968 Clemson
graduate, said he has great confidence in Barker and athletic director Terry
Don Phillips.
"They're the ones who have to make those decisions, and if
they think it's a good idea, that's good enough for me," Wilkins said.
Disharmony in Chapel Hill
Last week, faculty leaders at North Carolina formally
opposed the proposed expansion of the ACC. Ten members of the Faculty
Councils executive committee on Friday unanimously voted against the plan
and said their resolution would be sent to Chancellor James Moeser and
faculty groups at other ACC schools.
Sue Estroff, the councils chairwoman, said the university
presidents and faculty athletic representatives from the nine ACC campuses
shouldnt have kept the expansion plan quiet for months.
This bothers me, Estroff said. For our sports enterprise
to take us into territory where meaningful conversation cannot happen is
problematic.
Estroff cited an e-mail she received from an
ACC faculty representative at Duke. The message said conference expansion
began to be discussed in detail by the league last fall.
The council called on university presidents to halt
negotiations until faculty are more involved in the process. Adding the more
distant Big East schools to the conference will mean extra travel time and
more missed classes for athletes, according to the panels resolution.
Meanwhile, the clock ticks
The ACC and its objects of affection are moving forward.
Miami officials have been meeting to discuss the move to the ACC and a vote
is expected "sooner rather than later," Hurricanes football coach Larry
Coker said this week.
Regardless of their decision, Miami, Syracuse and Boston College would play
in the Big East until 2005. That also would be the first year Connecticut's
football program, which only recently upgraded to Division I, would begin
conference play.
Officials from UConn and other Big East teams that would be affected by the
ACC incursion say they will do what they can to persuade Miami, Boston
College and Syracuse to stay.
Copyright 2003
Bonesville.net. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed
to this report. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:36:32 AM
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