Odds Are Miami Will Join the ACC

It's not easy cleaning up a team when Dan Henning breaks it

 

get out of the '50s, acc...

By Bill Vilona
FLORIDA TODAY

Since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference nearly 12 years ago, Florida State has pushed for rival Miami to be included in the membership.

The Seminoles are now closer than ever to getting their wish.

The ACC is poised for an eventual vote on making its most radical change since formation of the league in 1953. With Florida State acting as the engine of the expansion drive, Miami, Syracuse and Boston College soon could form a 12-team conference that would stretch the East Coast and impact half of the nation's largest television markets.

"I have always been a proponent of expansion," said FSU athletic director Dave Hart, who knows that Miami's acceptance would trigger the other two desired teams to join the ACC. I remain very much in that position. This is something I firmly believe we need to do."

Hart, who has lobbied the issue since becoming FSU's athletic director in1995, believes expansion is a proactive necessity to ensuring the ACC's long-term health. If the move fails -- seven of the current nine schools have to vote in favor -- the ACC could risk its future.

There is growing sentiment among the NCAA's major conferences into creating a playoff system when the current bowl agreement expires in 2006.

Under that scenario, the current super-conferences like the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10 would have the strongest voice and biggest clout in negotiations.

The ACC (nine teams) and Big East (eight teams) are the smallest among the current Bowl Championship Series members. Aside from football, the ramifications also include basketball, where the power conferences again would emerge as the main brokers for revenue streams.

If the ACC cannot agree to expansion, the Big East is expected to seize the moment and attempt to create its own 12-team conference to have a football championship game. That would give the Big East the deciding edge in a restructured super-conference setup among NCAA Division I-A leagues.

Last week, the ACC celebrated its 50th anniversary, commemorating the exact day (May 8, 1953) the conference's original charter was signed at a golf club in Greensboro, N.C.

Interviews with a variety of league officials reveal the ACC has reached a crossroads in its history. What could become a contentious debate on expansion is scheduled for closed-door meetings this week as the ACC conducts its spring meetings on Amelia Island, near Jacksonville.

It's doubtful any announcement will be made. The ACC presidents are not in attendance, and they are the only ones who vote. But a formal decision could occur during a conference call anytime this month.


Picking sides


Florida State leads a coalition of the willing. Georgia Tech and Clemson are its main allies. For years, they have been the most vocal in favor of expansion. Virginia and Maryland also have nodded approval. In recent weeks, Wake Forest president Thomas Hearn has privately voiced his support.

That leaves the powerful Tobacco Road trio, which tends to act in concert despite their on-field rivalries.

Duke and North Carolina do not want to expand. They've been unwilling to budge under any scenario. But the ACC expansion proponents are making headway with N.C. State chancellor Marye Ann Fox, who could cast the deciding vote. Her two major-sport coaches are in agreement.

N.C. State football coach Chuck Amato, a 14-year assistant head coach at FSU, wants expansion and believes it would further boost the Wolfpack's current rise in football stature. Basketball coach Herb Sendek, after studying a lengthy proposal and listening to the number-crunching, has accepted the merits of it.

"It takes seven of nine schools to vote (yes)," Georgia Tech president G. Wayne Cloughtold the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Finding the match between the will, the desire and the right set of circumstances is going to be the real trick."

ACC commissioner John Swofford, once a fence-sitter on expansion, now is pushing in favor and trying to persuade the dissenters. He will not issue formal invitations to Miami, or anyone else, unless he knows there are seven ACC presidents voting yes.

When asked in past years about expansion, Swofford has often characterized his membership by saying, "Expansion is something this conference has never taken with a great deal of eagerness."

In fact, former ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan literally screamed at membership in 1991when the initial vote to add Florida State came up only 5-4 in favor. Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland and Virginia were against it.

Corrigan demanded another vote and prodded enough voting approval. Florida State became the first school added since Georgia Tech joined in 1978.ACC title game in Orlando?

During the past 12 years, adding Miami has been a constant issue. The league lacked one vote three years ago to invite the Hurricanes and create a 10-team league.

"Obviously, it has moved to the front burner again. It is no longer aback-burner issue, but it is not imminent," Hart said.

Florida State does not care if Miami is placed in the same division or in a separate division under expansion alignment. The school just wants Miami in.


Anyway. Anyhow.

Why such strong sentiment for Miami?

The Seminoles know what the Hurricanes would bring to the ACC. An immediate conference rival, something Florida State lacks. An instant upgrade in perception of ACC football. A mega-metropolitan area in powerful television market, which would give the ACC the media exposure in lacks throughout Florida.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale is the nation's No. 16 largest television market. But when you combine neighboring West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce, listed by Nielsen Media Research as a separate market (No. 39 largest), it pushes the South Florida region next to Boston as the nation's seventh largest television audience.

Having two of Florida's three major schools in the same conference would be powerful for all sports.

Florida State would push for an ACC football championship game to be staged in either Jacksonville or Orlando. A bidding process would award the best deal. The other possible location is Charlotte, N.C., but because Miami and FSU have the biggest names in football, there is belief the game should be staged in Florida with periodical movement to other venues.

"I think that is the biggest task facing the conference that it's such a basketball power and they hate to give that up," Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden said. "But I really think for the good of the conference and schools as far as athletics are concerned, I think we'll have to go that way. With the structure of the BCS, there are more 12-team leagues where they take winners and go to bowls and national championship games."

Coach K against it

Swofford was the athletic director at North Carolina when the school supported Florida State joining. He has been dismayed at his alma mater's stance in the current expansion proposal.

It has reinforced belief among ACC members that several schools are still living in the1950s, lacking the vision and seeing the shifting future landscape of major college athletics.

"The thing that made our league is basketball," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, a vocal opponent of expansion and part of the old guard. "Football is great, too. But the two-division concept in basketball (if the ACC has 12 teams) for our league will really be bad."

But expansion proponents have showed how the exact opposite has occurred in other conferences. The SEC and Big 12 have both enhanced their basketball image and success with two divisions.

A team finishing third in one division, for example, but only a game removed from first place, is more likely to receive an at-large bid than one tied for sixth in a nine-team conference. Perception is everything, no matter the overall record.

In 1999 and 2000, for example, the ACC placed only three teams in the NCAA Tournament. The past two years, four teams have got into the field. Krzyzewski and other coaches have complained annually why more teams aren't invited. They rant the ACC isn't getting proper respect.

Expanding also eliminates teams having to play the heavyweights such as Duke and Maryland twice each year.

The core of contention comes down to money. That's why Miami president Donna Shalala, who publicly stated the school's desire 18 months ago to be a permanent Big East member, now is reportedly in favor of joining the ACC.

Miami would make more money, both through expanded television contracts and reduction in travel costs. Miami's non-revenue sports teams, which don't play a true Big East schedule, could play four ACC schools in one road trip.

It also would be a big boost to Miami's women's athletic program.

On the flip side, Duke and North Carolina are fearful that expansion will reduce the number of tickets allocated for the ACC Basketball Tournament. Both schools have large donors who said they would stop giving money if they can't keep their same number of ACC Tournament seats.

"Everyone is anxiously watching the ACC to see what happens . . . including us," said Karl Benson, commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference, during an interview with the Charlotte Observer.

Benson shares the majority opinion. The next few weeks could be dramatic for the ACC, as well as the rest of collegiate athletics.

 

perspective

 

This thread and its associated comments are so full of FAIL its hilarious