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ACC's sure thing
overtaken by events?
From Bonesville.net staff and wire reports
[ Originally posted 06.18.03. ]
What seemed like a virtual fait accompli only weeks ago is beginning to
resemble a mission improbable as the Atlantic Coast Conference appears
poised to make a sharp turn or perhaps even slam on the brakes in its
dash to expand.
A formal vote by the presidents of the league's nine schools on issuing
invitations to three Big East schools may not occur until late this month,
according to a statement released Tuesday by the ACC office in Greensboro.
The ACC's evolving stance on how or if it will proceed on the expansion
plan may be further clarified after a scheduled teleconference today between
commissioner John Swofford and the schools' CEO's.
In the face of criticism from some of its own schools' faculty groups,
resistance from the presidents of ACC member schools Duke, North Carolina
and Virginia, and legal challenges from various Big East interests, the move
to annex Miami, Boston College and Syracuse may be downsized.
Both the New York Times and ESPN published stories late Tuesday that
indicate the ACC's presidents may seek to sidestep the controversy by
brushing off Boston College and Syracuse and voting to issue only one formal
invitation to Miami, the primary target all along and the Big East's crown
jewel in football.
If Miami accepts, the ESPN report noted, such a scenario could prompt the
Big East to ask Louisville of Conference USA to supplant Miami as an
all-sports member, while at the same time pursuing non-football-playing
schools Marquette of Conference USA and Xavier of the Atlantic 10.
That arrangement would result in a 16-team Big East federation of
equally-weighted camps comprised of eight programs which sponsor football
and eight which don't.
Virginia Tech and West Virginia are among the football-centric Big East
schools likely to be skeptical of that type of arrangement. Those programs
may push to protect their flanks by increasing the league's football
membership to 12 in order to establish a two-division alignment that would
qualify under NCAA guidelines to conduct a lucrative championship game.
Big East basketball linchpins Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton
Hall and Villanova also may be uncomfortable with the idea of a
football-spawned reaction to the ACC raid. They may seek to form a separate
hoops alliance that leaves behind the inevitable conflicts over influence
and money when football and basketball interests collide.
Notre Dame is a potential wild card as
the saga unfolds. If the Irish athletic program a staunch and powerful
independent in I-A football but a Big East member in other sports decides
it wishes to influence how the dominos fall, the whole realignment process
could take a profound turn.
The Tuesday statement issued by the Atlantic Coast Conference was
interpreted by media outlets around the country as a public acknowledgment
of sorts that the sense of certainty about how its expansion efforts would
unfold is wavering. Swofford and other representatives of the league issued
a series of confident statements in the weeks after
formally announcing the plan on May 13 that the
process was proceeding according to plan.
The ACC's nine presidents and chancellors spoke by teleconference for a
total of five hours over two days last week but reached no consensus on
whether to add the three Big East schools or remain a nine-team league.
The three Big East schools each have to pay a $1 million exit fee if they
bolt to the ACC. That penalty doubles after June 30.
Wake Forest Athletics Director Ron Wellman, chairman of the ACC Athletics
Directors, said the conference is engaged in a thorough, member-driven,
strategic planning process designed to ensure the long-term viability of the
conference, according to the ACC statement.
Duke and North Carolina have voiced concern about travel costs, student
welfare and projected football revenues of an ACC title game and future TV
contracts. Virginia also has had to weigh political pressure from a state
legislature that wants Virginia Tech included in the expansion mix.
At least seven of the nine presidents and chancellors must vote in favor
of expansion for it to occur.
The ACC voted May 13 to pursue the three Big East schools and site visits
were completed two weeks ago. The first teleconference among the conference
leadership was to review the site visits, and included the heads of Miami,
Syracuse and Boston College.
The second teleconference last week included just the nine ACC schools.
Talks ranged from divisional play to student welfare to finances, according
to North Carolina State chancellor Marye Anne Fox.
"This is not a done deal by any means," Fox said last Friday. "The things
that we have not had enough time to discuss so far are divisional structure,
who would play one time and two times in basketball and how that would
rotate and what that would do to conference rankings, and equity in travel.
All of those things have not at all been resolved, let alone presented to
the other three (Big East) presidents."
The ACC has expanded just twice in 50 years. Florida State was added in
1991 and Georgia Tech in '78.
South Carolina, currently a member of the Southeastern Conference, left
the ACC in 1971 before the NCAA opened up its national championship
tournament to selected schools which fail to win their league's automatic
postseason berth.
The Gamecocks' departure was motivated by the ACC's all-or-nothing
basketball tournament format which sent the tourney champion to the NCAA
playoffs regardless of regular season standings.
Copyright 2003
Bonesville.net. Bonesville.net staff member Danny Whitford and the Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.
This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:36:39 AM
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