Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva refuted a report that appeared in
yesterday's New York Post that Boston College would accept an offer to
join the ACC as its 12th member "within days."
"All that is speculation, nothing has been done in regard to Boston
College and we are moving ahead with an 11-team league," Alleva wrote
in an e-mail to The Chronicle Monday afternoon. "Things can change but
nothing has happened to date."
ACC expansion developments have been frenzied in recent weeks, all
because of a preliminary decision from the NCAA that the ACC's petition
to have a conference championship game in football with an 11-member
league had been rejected.
The ACC's hope for a title game, which would have taken place during
the 2004-05 season, resulted from the conference's recent addition of
Miami and Virginia Tech, which boosted the league's population from
nine to 11 schools. Indeed, the ACC increased its size for the primary
goal of having a conference championship in football, having originally
sought Miami, Boston College and Syracuse. However, due to a plethora
of disagreements and political and administrative maneuvering over the
summer, the ACC's presidents were only able to invite two schools,
Miami and Virginia Tech, current-Big East members that agreed to defect
in July.
Then, a few weeks ago, speculation that the ACC had been actively
pursuing football-independent Notre Dame to join the conference was
confirmed by Alleva and Duke President Nan Keohane. However, Notre Dame-
a member of the Big East in all sports but football-refused to give up
its independent football status, and as a result, was promptly dropped
from consideration as a 12th school in the ACC. The Fighting Irish were
seen as a good option because of "their high-quality stature in both
academics and athletics," according to Keohane.
Likewise, Boston College has a strong academic and athletic reputation,
a lucrative combination for a conference that has suffered a barrage of
criticism for its handling of expansion, and would greatly benefit from
the addition of a well-rounded university such as Boston College. Other
factors that are likely attractive for the ACC are Boston College's
expansive market-the Boston metropolitan area is the nation's seventh
largest at 5.8 million-particularly in terms of possible television
dollars. Indeed, Boston would be the largest market in the ACC, with
Atlanta (4.1 million), Miami (3.9 million) trailling.
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