ACC increases influence

League no longer FSU, everyone else in football

? The jokes about Atlantic Coast Conference football being Florida State and the eight dwarfs will stop with the addition of Miami and Virginia Tech.

The two best football programs in the Big East left that conference Monday to join the ACC — a league that has mostly earned a national reputation on the hardwood for a half-century.

The addition of the five-time national champion Hurricanes and the powerful Hokies gives the ACC three teams that have played in the football title game in the past five seasons. Miami played in the last two, while Florida State was in the previous three.

Virginia Tech, with Michael Vick at quarterback, lost to the Seminoles in the 2000 Sugar Bowl and have been in the Associated Press Top 25 eight of the last 10 seasons.

“It gives us a strength in the sport of football that maybe this league has never had in its history,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said.

“It certainly puts us on a par football-wise with any conference in the country and gives us an extraordinary balance in terms of basketball and football. We’ve added strength on the football side at a time when our existing programs are getting better and better and better.”

Last season, Miami finished second in the AP poll, while North Carolina State was 12th, Maryland 13th, Virginia Tech 18th, Florida State 21st and Virginia 22nd.

Conversely, Big East football now is in shambles. The Hurricanes and Hokies leave behind Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, West Virginia and Connecticut without much chance of keeping a Bowl Championship Series spot beyond 2005 unless that league raids another conference.

“It leaves the remaining Big East schools in a precarious situation,” Syracuse athletic director Jake Crouthamel said. “We’re clearly weakened by this.”

Big East officials said Monday discussions already had begun about replacing Miami and Virginia Tech.

“They’re going to get the right teams to come in to get the numbers they’d like to get, to make it as strong a conference as we possibly can,” Connecticut football coach Randy Edsall said.

Duke and North Carolina, the ACC’s two basketball pillars, voted against expanding from nine to 11 schools. However, UNC chancellor James Moeser acknowledged in a telephone interview from Chicago that adding the two Big East schools will help the league’s football image.

“This makes the ACC a very powerful force in football,” Moeser said. “It is what drove this from the beginning. It doesn’t bother me because football revenues are key to supporting all the non-revenue sports.”

Basketball will be a different story. Miami had an RPI ranking of 188 in hoops last season, while the Hokies were 200th. The lowest ranked ACC team was Clemson at 107.

Miami and Virginia Tech also were a combined 22-35 last season.

“We’ve just finished celebrating the 50th anniversary of the league. Now as we begin the next 50 years its obviously going to be a very different landscape,” N.C. State basketball coach Herb Sendek said.

“In some cases we’ll help those programs rise up to our level,” added Wolfpack athletic director Lee Fowler, a former assistant basketball coach for Memphis State.

With 11 teams, Swofford said the ACC would likely model its football and basketball scheduling after the Big Ten, a league that also has the same number of schools.

While the ACC added football depth with the expansion, it didn’t get to the necessary 12 teams needed under NCAA rules to stage a lucrative title game. Boston College and Syracuse were in the original plans, but were voted out last week by the ACC chancellors and presidents in a surprise vote that added Virginia Tech instead.

Swofford said Monday he would petition the NCAA to change the rule to allow conferences under 12 teams to stage a title game.

Key events in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s efforts to expand:¢May 13 — ACC presidents, by a 7-2 vote, decide to begin a process where their conference ultimately would expand to 12 teams.¢May 16 — Miami, Boston College and Syracuse are selected, by an 8-1 vote, as the ACC’s three expansion targets.¢May 29-30 — A delegation of ACC officials tour facilities at Miami.¢June 1 — ACC officials begin site visit at Boston College.¢June 3 — ACC officials begin site visit at Syracuse.¢June 4 — Miami president Donna Shalala meets with school presidents from Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Connecticut and Rutgers, giving them an opportunity to confront her on the expansion issue before she makes a decision.¢June 6 — Five Big East schools file a lawsuit to try to prevent Miami and Boston College from jumping to the ACC.¢June 10 — Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner urges the NCAA or an outside mediator to intervene in the ACC expansion plan to try to avoid a long, expensive legal battle. Also, ACC presidents meet by teleconference to discuss expansion scenarios.¢June 11 — ACC presidents hold another teleconference, but still cannot agree on expansion plans.¢June 15 — Five women’s sport coaches from the Big East hold a conference call to say ACC’s “raid” of their league will be devastating to women’s sports that rely on football revenue.¢June 18 — ACC presidents vote to add Virginia Tech to expansion process. The decision was made after it appeared that the original expansion involving Miami, Boston College and Syracuse would not get the required seven votes for approval.¢June 24 — ACC presidents vote to pursue only a two-team expansion, excluding Boston College and Syracuse from the process and choosing to issue formal invitations to only Miami and Virginia Tech.¢June 25 — Invitations are issued after Virginia Tech is visited by ACC officials.¢June 26 — Boston College dropped as defendant in the lawsuit. Miami trustees meet for more than an hour, but don’t vote on whether to joint the ACC. Shalala says she received counterproposals from the Big East.¢June 27 — Virginia Tech president Charles Steger sends a letter to the school’s alumni, saying the Hokies will accept the ACC’s offer.¢Monday — Miami accepts ACC’s invitation.