Higher financial guarantee can't convince UM to remain in the Big East and 'Canes will leave the conference in 2004.
By Associated Press
Published July 1, 2003
CORAL GABLES - Loyalty and money were not enough to keep Miami from bolting the Big East. The Hurricanes believe their future is more secure in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Ending a seven-week courtship, Miami accepted the ACC's invitation Monday, rejecting a better financial offer from the Big East to stay put.
"Ready or not, here we come," Miami president Donna Shalala told Clemson president James Barker.
Miami's decision to join Virginia Tech in defecting from the Big East dramatically alters the balance of power in the conferences. The ACC adds two of the nation's strongest football programs; the Big East is left with a big void.
"It has been a bizarre, strange, and goofy process," Shalala said. "But it has allowed us the opportunity to give ourselves some distance, so that we got a view of who we are, where we are and where we want to be."
The presidents and chancellors of the remaining Big East football schools - Boston College, Syracuse, Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh and West Virginia - vowed their conference would become "even stronger."
"Although we are certainly disappointed with the actions taken this week by the ACC, we as a conference will now turn our attention to the future and the challenges that lie ahead," commissioner Mike Tranghese said in a statement.
Nonetheless, a lawyer for four of the Big East schools that sued to block the ACC's expansion said they would continue a court battle.
Miami and Virginia Tech will begin playing in the ACC at the start of the 2004-05 season. Both remain Big East members for 2003-04, since schedules have been made.
Each school will pay the Big East a $1-million exit fee and the ACC a $2-million entrance fee.
The ACC originally sought to expand to 12 schools so it could offer a lucrative conference title game in football. While the league will seek another school, it could ask the NCAA to change the 12-member requirement.
Officials from several Big East schools tried to persuade the Hurricanes to stay. Miami officials were studying a counterproposal from Big East members, who once had guaranteed the Hurricanes $45-million over five years.
The counteroffer was led by Boston College and Syracuse, which the ACC originally targeted in its 12-team scenario.
Shalala and athletic director Paul Dee did not make their decision until Monday morning, hours before a news conference to announce it.
The Big East's financial guarantee was "a lot" higher than the ACC's, Shalala said. "You're really betting on the future in terms of the ACC," she said.
Miami's decision ensures the legal battle over the ACC's expansion will continue.
A lawsuit against the ACC and Miami contends Big East members Connecticut, Rutgers, West Virginia and Pittsburgh have spent millions on their football programs based on presumed loyalty from schools it had been aligned with, including the Hurricanes.
A judge in Connecticut, where the lawsuit was filed, denied a request by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to speed up the case. Blumenthal had asked the judge to order several key people, including Shalala, to give depositions or sworn testimony as early as today. Instead, the judge began a two-week vacation.
Miami and the ACC are defendants, accused of participating in a conspiracy intended to weaken the Big East.
"We will continue vigorously to protect the Big East in the courts of Connecticut," said Jeffrey Mishkin, lead counsel for the Big East plaintiffs. "The ACC's 50th anniversary will now be marked with depositions and document discovery exposing the ACC's predatory conduct and Miami's conspiratorial actions."
NCAA president Myles Brand said he was "disappointed the issue has been as disagreeable as it has been."
"The integrity of intercollegiate athletics demands that we handle conference alignments and related matters in the future in a better way," he said.
Miami has won six of the 12 Big East football championships; Virginia Tech has three. Miami has the best all-time record in Big East play (66-10), followed by Virginia Tech (53-23).
In the past three seasons, Miami has the best record among all I-A football programs, 35-2. Virginia Tech (29-9) is tied for eighth on that list.
Since the inception of the Big East's football conference in 1991, Miami is the only school to have won a national championship: 1991 and 2001. Virginia Tech played for the national title after the 1999 season, losing to FSU.
ACC commissioner John Swofford said the addition of Miami and Virginia Tech makes his conference perhaps "stronger than at any point in its history."
