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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," said a league source, shocked that a proposal that had never been mentioned previously emerged during last night's two-hour conference call among ACC university presidents.
Last night's conference call was one of the closing chapters in a lengthy saga and marked a 180-degree reversal for Virginia Tech. Even last night, according to a university spokesman, Virginia Tech had yet to learn of its invitation from the ACC. And Virginia Tech 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, which is scheduled to occur for the 2004-05 season.
While the details of last night's conference call were not immediately clear, the source close to the situation said that perhaps geography played a role with the northeast location of Syracuse and Boston College.
"If you argue some kind of contiguous ACC, then you're picking up teams within the ACC," the source said.
Miami and Virginia Tech must still accept the invitations from the ACC. Still, voting to add two new members to a nine-team league was startling because NCAA rules require leagues have 12 members in order to stage a potentially lucrative football conference championship game. The ACC could propose legislation to change that, or it could try to add a 12th member.
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 stakeout crew of media members at league headquarters waited outside for more than five hours, well after the call ended, hoping for comment from league officials, including Commissioner John Swofford.
Attempts to reach ACC officials were unsuccessful.
A news conference to announce last night's developments is expected to be held at league headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., perhaps today.
A spokesman for Syracuse last night said his school had heard nothing from the ACC.
Meantime, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the lawsuit filed against the ACC, Boston College and Miami remains intact.
"The deal seems to be different, but our determination is undiminished to hold accountable Miami and the ACC," said Blumenthal, who last night had yet to officially learn of the ACC's expansion developments. "We will vigorously pursue our legal claims to protect the Big East and recover from the harm."
A source familiar with the situation said attorneys for the schools that filed the lawsuit will watch carefully today to see if the ACC is done pursuing Big East members. By retaining Boston College and Syracuse, the source said, the Big East would retain two members in strategic geographic locations and may still be considered a top league.
The ACC'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 basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said at a news conference yesterday afternoon. "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. . . . 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 first 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 six votes -- and not seven -- could ratify an expansion, sources said. Casteen floated the idea of adding Virginia Tech to the original three proposed invites, but that unraveled because of concerns that a 13-team league was not financially attractive, sources said.
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 in favor of 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.
This will be the third time the ACC has expanded. The conference added Georgia Tech in 1979 and Florida State in 1992. South Carolina left the ACC 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.
While NCAA rules require a conference to have 12 members in order to stage a conference championship football game, the ACC could propose legislation 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 mountaintop," Krzyzewski said. "It's not etched in stone."
In order to change existing NCAA rules, the legislation would need to be approved by the Division I Management Council, composed of 49 athletic officials, and the Board of Directors, composed 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.
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