After months of speculation, proposals, counterproposals, invitations and retractions, the Atlantic Coast Conference officially added Miami for the 2004-05 season one day before the penalty for defection doubled from $1 million to $2 million. After the ACC extended invitations to Virginia Tech, which accepted Friday, and Miami, the Big East offered Miami millions of dollars a year to stay, according to a published report.

But UM followed Virginia Tech to the ACC, stripping the Big East of its two most powerful football teams.

The ACC also placed remaining Big East teams, Syracuse included, in a difficult position with the Bowl Championship Series. The BCS contract guaranteeing the Big East at least one automatic bid to a BCS bowl expires after the 2006 season. Without Miami or Virginia Tech, the possibility of retaining a lucrative automatic bid appears impossible, even if the Big East expanded.

Whether SU holds an automatic bid through 2006 is uncertain, and a decision would likely be made by the BCS commissioners along with ABC.

‘If we weren’t suspect without Miami, we clearly are without Miami and Virginia Tech,’ SU Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel said. ‘We don’t know what the new BCS agreement is going to say about conferences. What we need to do is position ourselves within the next three years so that whatever happens with the BCS, we’ve got to try and find a place for us.’

SU, Boston College and Miami were originally part of the ACC’s plan to expand to a 12-team super-conference so it can host a lucrative football title game, as NCAA rules permit.

But without the required number of votes – Duke, North Carolina and Virginia opposed expansion – the ACC reassessed its plan and decided to include Virginia Tech instead of SU and BC to swing UVa’s vote. What’s still unclear is why both Boston College and Syracuse were left behind rather than have the Hokies serve as a replacement.

‘If you want a very short answer, the votes weren’t there for anybody else,’ SU Chancellor Kenneth Shaw said. ‘The votes were only there for Miami if they took Virginia Tech. They probably exhausted a lot of their goodwill by then.’

With the expansion, the ACC set off what could become a chain reaction felt throughout the country, as the Big East looks to replace its stolen goods from another conference’s crop. Louisville and Marshall, from Conference USA and the MAC, respectively, have been rumored to be possible replacements.

Another possibility for SU could be defection to another league, perhaps the 11-member Big Ten. Although Shaw flatly denied any possibility of Syracuse eventually becoming the 12th team in the ACC – ‘The answer is no,’ he said – both he and Crouthamel refused to say SU was fully committed to the Big East.

When asked whether Syracuse may look to join another conference, Crouthamel responded, ‘The Big East as we know it today will exist for one more year. At the end of that year, we don’t have any idea what it’s going to look like, other than Miami and Virginia Tech are not going to be a part of any resolution. That’s the only thing we can guarantee. We can’t really speculate on anything other than that.’

One potential hold up could be a lawsuit originally filed by West Virginia, Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech – VT has since dropped as a plaintiff – against Miami and BC, which has since been dropped from the lawsuit, for conspiring to destroy the Big East conference. However, SU will not join the lawsuit, citing a lack of credibility as the main reason.

Now, because of the uncertain future of the Big East, Syracuse faces major short-term recruiting, scheduling and financing problems.

‘I mentioned that Miami was what they were after, and if they took Miami, we would feel a strong inclination to go with them if given the choice,’ Shaw said. ‘So I never have felt in this process that we were used. And the reason is that we’re adults, and we knew going in, at least I felt going in, what their priorities were.’

Published on June 30, 2003 at 12:00 pm