Virginia Tech to accept

NovaNiner · Jun 26, 2003 at 1:06 PM

Hokies to Approve Move
Va. Tech Headed to ACC, but Miami Evaluating Situation

By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2003; Page D01

Virginia Tech, after an hour-long emergency meeting of its Board of Visitors and a hastily planned site visit by ACC officials yesterday, will accept an invitation to join the conference. A formal announcement could happen today.

Miami, the other school invited to join the ACC, is evaluating whether to join the league, university president Donna Shalala said. Meantime, Boston College and Syracuse, jilted at the last minute by the ACC, will remain in the Big East and officials from that conference are trying to keep Miami in the fold.

Miami had wanted to bring Syracuse and Boston College with it in the expansion, desiring to maintain a presence in the Northeast, where many of its alumni and prospective students reside. Also, by adding only two teams, the ACC would have 11 members, one short of the minimum required by the NCAA to hold a potentially lucrative conference championship football game.

By adding two teams and not significantly increasing revenues, the ACC could see its annual payout to each member decrease from the $9.7 million sent to each school for the 2001-02 school year.

Two sources familiar with the situation said the ACC's expansion decision surprised Miami, which had been prepared to accept an offer in either a one- or three-team expansion. Miami's trustees are expected to meet today to consider the offer.

"Since this is a new proposal," Shalala said in a statement, "we will evaluate it before making a decision."

Virginia Tech, meantime, had no such qualms. After being left out of the ACC's original expansion plan and joining a lawsuit aimed at stopping the expansion, Virginia Tech moved quickly once the ACC's final plan was approved during a conference call of university presidents Tuesday night.

Tech's Board of Visitors voted unanimously to allow President Charles Steger to move forward with the ACC and when the quick site visit -- a requirement of ACC bylaws -- was completed, the deal appeared done. Steger said in a statement that Virginia Tech was "prepared to accept an invitation" and the ACC announced in a statement that Miami and Virginia Tech had been offered invitations, with Tech's invitation contingent on the site visit.

Virginia Tech subsequently pulled out of the lawsuit. However, because Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore is not licensed to practice in Connecticut, his office had to move quickly and hire outside counsel to file the necessary paperwork yesterday afternoon in Superior Court in Rockville, Conn. That occurred around 4:15 p.m.

"None of this has been easy," Kilgore said at a news conference. "Tempers have flared on both sides. But I stand here proud of what we have accomplished."

A spokesman for Kilgore said that Virginia Tech's invitation was not contingent on Miami's acceptance. That sets up the unlikely possibility for what two ACC sources termed a worst-case scenario: adding Virginia Tech but seeing Miami remain in the Big East.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said that he is prepared to remove Boston College from being a defendant in the lawsuit. The case remains scheduled for a preliminary meeting this morning.

While ACC and school officials declined public comment yesterday on Tuesday's stunning vote after six weeks of careful deliberations, many privately were upset. Nearly all other plausible outcomes would have been preferred, many said, wondering how ACC Commissioner John Swofford could allow the presidents to vote on an option that previously had never been studied. A league source said the commissioner, too, was stunned at the outcome.

With 11 teams, the ACC faces the prospect of trying to pass NCAA legislation to lower the number of members for a conference to hold a football championship game or finding another member to form a 12-team league. The latter option won't be easy, either, after a public process that some called embarrassing and with all attractive potential candidates seemingly out of the mix.

"This was all salvageable and could have had a magnificent finish until last night," said one source close to the process, calling the two-team expansion a "$20 million liability unless we get lucky and get a playoff.

"We have some issues here. The Big Ten says, 'Okay, Penn State is ready to come,' [to form an 11-team league], that's different. But who plans to go from nine to 11. Who plans to do this? It's not a proud moment."

Said Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd., a Chicago-based sports consulting firm: "It's stunning because of who it is. The last conference you would have expected to have handled something this poorly was the ACC.

"It makes the ACC a laughingstock around the country. The irony is they go from the pinnacle, the Tiffany of all conferences in terms of the way they were perceived, and now they're being laughed at for the way they've bungled this thing. You go from Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski to Swofford holding an impromptu press conference with his briefcase over his shoulder trying to get to his car? What's wrong with this picture?"

Spokesmen for Boston College and Syracuse issued brief statements yesterday regarding their school's disappointments. Both schools will return to the Big East, where Syracuse spokesman Kevin Morrow said: "We will work with our colleagues to help it become an even stronger conference. We have faced challenges before and we've always been up to the task. We will be again."

University and athletic department leaders from Boston College and Syracuse were not available for interviews.

Also upset were several members of the North Carolina faculty, according to UNC faculty council executive committee chair Sue Estroff.

"Our faculty are very concerned about the reputation of Virginia Tech's players and Virginia Tech's team," said Estroff, referring to past off-the-field problems for Virginia Tech's football team, which in 1995 and 1996 included 18 players arrested on charges ranging from rape and involuntary manslaughter to drunken driving. "We are not accustomed to that kind of behavior. You have to remember, [North Carolina Chancellor James] Moeser tried to hire their coach and one of the arguments against him was the record of his players. . . .

"Part of our concern all along has been the way that sports and athletes fit into the university. There is very little tolerance on our campus for misdeeds and misbehavior by athletes. I'm not saying we're any better, but I do know what happens around here when somebody gets into trouble."

Virginia Tech Athletic Director Jim Weaver responded to Estroff's statements.

"We hold the same values that North Carolina does," Weaver said. "There was an incident or two approximately eight years ago, but that's long been history and our people have performed very well both in the community and in the classroom."

© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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NovaNiner · Jun 26, 2003 at 1:28 PM

Looks like Miami will too

UM to accept ACC's invitation

By Jorge Milian, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2003

CORAL GABLES -- After six weeks of negotiations, the University of Miami will accept an invitation today to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, a high-ranking school official said Wednesday.

UM President Donna Shalala is scheduled to meet this afternoon with the executive committee of the university's board of trustees, where she will recommend that Miami join the ACC, the official said.

Shalala's recommendation then will be put to a vote before the 20-person executive committee, which expects to rubber-stamp the proposal, an executive committee source said.

Miami and Virginia Tech were formally invited Wednesday to join the ACC.

Meeting with reporters following the announcement at conference headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., ACC Commissioner John Swofford said he expected the schools to accept the invitations, "but that's in their hands."

Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors met Wednesday in Roanoke, Va., and authorized university President Charles Steger to begin negotiations with the ACC. Steger told reporters after the meeting that he was "inclined to accept" the conference's offer.

"These two institutions represent and share the values for which the ACC has long been known," said Clemson President James F. Barker, chairman of the conference's Council of Presidents. "We feel they will be a great addition to our family."

Miami and Virginia Tech are expected to join the ACC for the start of the 2004-05 academic year, meaning the schools will remain in the Big East conference for one more year.

To leave the Big East, schools are required to pay a $1 million penalty, an amount that doubles if a school leaves after June 30.

Left out of the ACC expansion process were Boston College and Syracuse, which appeared destined as late as two weeks ago to defect from the Big East to the ACC with Miami.

In a statement released Wednesday, Shalala said she was "disappointed" that BC and Syracuse were not invited.

"Since this is a new proposal, we will evaluate it before making a decision," Shalala said.

Va. Tech won't wait on UM

Presidents from four Big East schools -- Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and West Virginia -- released a joint statement in which they held out hope that Miami and Virginia Tech would remain in the conference.

"We do not know what decisions Miami and Virginia Tech will ultimately make," the statement said. "We are encouraged that Miami has said today that it needs to reflect fully on the offer before it makes a final decision."

John Rocovich, rector of Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors, said his school will make its own choice regardless of what Miami decides.

"Our (decision) is not conditional on Miami," Rocovich said. "If Miami takes it or doesn't take it, it doesn't affect our decision."

Rocovich said Virginia Tech would be better off financially in the ACC.

"If we had another year like 1999, we'd make more money in the Big East," Rocovich said, referring to the Hokies' Michael Vick-led team that played Florida State for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl. "But over time, in my judgment, we would experience a significant improvement by being in the ACC."

While Miami has been in the ACC's expansion plans from the beginning, Virginia Tech became a player only last week as part of a compromise proposed by University of Virginia President John Casteen III.

Still short of championship game

Virginia Tech's inclusion resulted in an 11-team league, instead of the 12-team, two-division format the ACC envisioned when it talked with Boston College and Syracuse.

NCAA rules require at least 12 teams for a conference to hold a football championship game. The Southeastern Conference and Big 12, currently the only major conferences with 12 teams, have made millions playing championship games each December.

With 11 teams, the ACC could ask for a waiver to the rule, but a change in NCAA legislation may be a more likely route. According to an NCAA official, the ACC has until July 15 to submit a proposal for legislative change.

The ACC also could solve the problem by eventually adding a 12th school. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the ACC may not be finished with expansion.

With 11 teams in the conference, "it opens up all sorts of possibilities," an ACC source told the newspaper.

The ACC's decision on schools invited to join was made during Tuesday night's conference call involving university presidents and chancellors. Neither Boston College nor Syracuse were able to gain the seven votes necessary to receive an invitation.

"After having successfully completed the process as defined by the ACC, we are disappointed that a decision like this was made," Syracuse spokesman Kevin Morrow said.

Boston College spokesman Chris Cameron said the mood around the school's athletic department on Wednesday was "somber."
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Way to go Palm Beach Post. Don't let the Miami Herald scoop you!

VA49er · Jun 26, 2003 at 4:44 PM

VA Tech's move seems a little hypocritical to me. First they are suing the ACC and now will accept the offer to join.

I guess the Niners won't get to play VA Tech or Miami now that they have both joined the ACC.

metro · Jun 26, 2003 at 5:05 PM

I bet Va Tech won't act like wussies the way UNC does, and they will play in state rivals like VCU, Richmond, etc. I bet Miami will play USF, UCF, and other Fla schools.

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