College football

Miami, Virginia Tech
quietly join ACC

One year after turmoil, move that changed landscape of college sports is finalized

Matthew Stockman / Getty Images

Eight of the 11 teams now in the ACC played in bowl games last year, with in-state rivals Florida State and Miami meeting in the Orange Bowl.

updated 4:56 p.m. ET July 2, 2004

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Miami and Virginia Tech officially become members of the the Atlantic Coast Conference on Thursday, finalizing a move that has altered the landscape of college sports over the last year.

“It’ll be good to officially have the two schools on board,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said this week. “But I don’t think July 1 is going to be very different for us. It feels like they’re already here.”

For Swofford, who led the tumultuous push to expand the ACC, Thursday marks a major step toward realizing his goal of expanding the ACC’s already-sizable national influence.

The rippling consequences of that push have been felt in conferences across the country. Over the next two seasons, about 20 percent of the 117 Division I-A football schools will be changing leagues; the domino effects of ACC expansion will be felt as far west as New Mexico, where New Mexico State is shifting from the Sun Belt Conference to the Western Athletic Conference.

All the excitement started in May 2003, when Swofford and the nine-team ACC moved to add three new schools, aiming to get to the 12 teams required to hold a conference football championship game.

The original targets were Miami, Syracuse and Boston College — all from the Big East Conference — but the process proved anything but smooth.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese attacked the ACC, saying Miami’s defection would trigger “the most disastrous blow to intercollegiate athletics in my lifetime.”

Four Big East schools sued the ACC, alleging that the conference conspired with Miami and Boston College to weaken the Big East by luring away some of its biggest football powers. A judge in February dismissed claims against the ACC, but the lawsuit remains active.

ACC school officials, alumni and fans debated whether expansion would strengthen football at the expense of basketball and whether the league’s regional identity would be lost in expansion into the northeast.

Even politicians got in the act, with Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner pressuring Virginia to oppose expansion if the Hokies were not part of the package.

Ultimately, the ACC settled on adding Miami and fellow Big East member Virginia Tech, bringing the conference to 11 teams for the 2004-05 school year.

Later, the conference announced that Boston College would join as the ACC’s 12th member in 2005 — allowing the league to divide into divisions for football and hold the lucrative championship game, which is projected to produce $6 million in extra revenue.

Swofford disputes the idea that the league acted like a corporate raider in swiping Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College from the Big East.

“Expansion has to be a two-way street,” he said. “This idea that you go out and take schools from another conference, that’s just not reality.

“I felt like we as a league knew what we were doing, I felt we were going about it in an appropriate way, so therefore you see it through. ... Some of it was disappointing. But again, that’s over and done with and everybody moves on.”

Swofford said the ACC had considered expansion since adding Florida State as a ninth member in 1991; the serious talks that led to last year’s expansion began in 2001.

In addition to revenue from a championship game that will start in 2005, the league will get more money for its regular-season football package under a seven-year deal with ABC and ESPN that begins this fall and is reportedly worth $258 million.

Eight of the 11 teams now in the ACC played in bowl games last year, with in-state rivals Florida State and Miami meeting in the Orange Bowl. Those teams will meet for the first time as conference opponents on Labor Day.

“I think anytime Miami and Florida State play, it’s a great game,” Miami athletics director Paul Dee said. “I think the stakes are a little higher now in every sport, but particularly football.”

Swofford, who played football and served as athletics director at North Carolina before becoming ACC commissioner, said he believes the gains from expansion outweigh the costs in history and tradition.

“I’ve been in this league 30 years,” he said. “Nobody appreciates that more than I do.”