Realignment: Tech Stabbed In The Back
The ACC has officially extended invitations to Miami, Syracuse and Boston College. Virginia Tech fans must now pray for a miracle that can only be delivered by Notre Dame or a friendly television network.
Miami needs money, and in the end, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner’s political pressure came to naught: both North Carolina and Duke reversed their original NO votes, leaving UVa as the sole opponent and carrying non-VT expansion by an 8-1 vote (with seven votes required).
The only thing that can save Big East football powers Virginia Tech and West Virginia now is an infusion of money from the Big East, almost certainly involving a split of football schools from basketball and an new, vastly larger television contract from either ABC (current rights holder) or NBC (which may be looking for a new sports package), to start in 2005. Chas Rich’s Pittsburgh Panthers are in better shape, as strong rumors last night and today indicated that Big 10/11 athletic directors were to hold an emergency meeting to discuss expansion, almost certainly meaning the inclusion of Pittsburgh. Both Penn State and Ohio State have come out in strong support of Pitt in recent days.
The wild card is Notre Dame; if by some miracle Big East
Idiot-In-Charge Commissioner Mike Tranghese can convince
the Domers to join the football schools, the BCS bid is saved no matter who
leaves, and WVU and VT will be hanging on by a thread. As you can tell,
I’m not too confident in his abilities, considering that according to former
NC State AD Les Robinson (as quoted in the Raleigh News and Observer),
Tranghese started
this whole mess five years ago in a closed-door meeting intended to
move Miami, SU, and BC to the ACC, sell VT and WVU down the river, and
preserve his beloved basketball conference at the expense of the football
conference he was also charged with promoting.
I could go on about how ABC/ESPN preferred Tech, or how University of Miami president Donna Shalala exhibited the values one might expect from a Clinton appointee, or how VT, WVU and UConn are all about to have to bite the bullet on multi-million dollar stadium construction based on Miami’s assurances of commitment to the Big East. But instead, I think I’m just going to sit here in shock, and maybe look at tourism guides for Memphis and Greenville, NC, if I can bring myself not to cry as I do.
