North Carolina State University Athletics
ACC Awaits Miami Decision
6/27/2003 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
June 27, 2003
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh-Following weeks of discussions, meetings and votes that have often taken soap-opera like twists and turns, the Atlantic Coast Conference has reached the end stages of its expansion quest. All that's left now is a decision by the University of Miami on whether it will become the ACC's 11th team or remain in the Big East. According to U of M President Donna Shalala, the school will make its plans known on Monday.
In a surprising vote earlier this week, ACC presidents emerged from a conference call with invitations for Miami and Virginia Tech. The Hokies, who were not a part of ACC Commissioner John Swofford's original plan, have already accepted. Shalala says Miami will spend the weekend studying a new offer from the Big East before it renders a final decision.
"These are significant decisions that have long-term implications and we fully appreciate and respect Miami's need to thoroughly evaluate their decision," Swofford said. "We have had conversations with Miami (Thursday) and will continue to be available to have any further discussions that may be necessary before making their final decision. We think Miami would be an excellent fit for the Atlantic Coast Conference and it is certainly our hope that they will be joining us."
All along, Miami has been the crown jewel of the ACC's expansion plans. After initially exploring a combination of schools that would have included the Hurricanes, Syracuse and Boston College, the league suddenly switched gears and added Virginia Tech to the mix in a vote taken on Wednesday.
"We were deeply disappointed that Boston College and Syracuse were not invited by the ACC," Shalala said on Thursday. "The Big East has informally sent a proposal, or at least a list of proposals, to us and we feel a responsibility to review them. We also had not analyzed the Virginia Tech/Miami sequence. We had done numbers on Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami. We had done numbers on Miami alone. But we had not anticipated that Virginia Tech and Miami would be the only two invitees, so we have to finish our analysis under some direction and questions that the Board of Trustees have raised. We will finish our due diligence by Monday and announce our decision on Monday."
