VT/ACC: BehindTheNet's 3 Stars

In the first entry in several months to even indirectly refer to hockey (from which the site’s name comes), I’m going to wrap up the story of Virginia Tech’s ACC entry by awarding three stars to the political players who really made this happen, similar to the hockey tradition of awarding the three stars of the game.

In hockey, the stars are introduced in reverse order. We’re not going to adhere to the tradition quite that strictly, because the story doesn’t lend itself to that kind of telling.

The first star has to go to Virginia’s Democratic governor, Mark Warner. (I’ll pause now while Rob, Amy, Gwen, Alex (and maybe a few others?) recover from the shock of me complimenting a Democrat.) While he benefitted from some first-class stupidity on his predecessor’s part during the 2001 election, Warner ran on perfectly good business and fiscal-conservative credentials of his own, and used them well in this situation. The potential negative impact to the Southwestern Virginia economy of a VT football collapse was plain to see, and Warner had to act. So he did, making multiple public statements and holding UVa President John Casteen’s feet to the fire. (He’s taking full credit for it, too — yesterday on the AP wire, a photo came out of his chief of staff jokingly replacing the license plates on Warner’s Chevrolet SUV with plates reading “VT-ACC.” I’m surprised Warner wasn’t doing it himself.)

Politically, this was a no-brainer for him. If you’re going to win as a Democrat in Virginia, you need Southwestern Virginia’s votes — the close-in parts of Northern Virginia, plus the rest of the state’s deep inner cities and Charlottesville, are not enough to counter the huge Republican advantages in Greater Richmond, Hampton Roads, the Shenandoah Valley, and the outer Washington exurbs (Loudoun, Manassas/Prince William, Stafford/Fredericksburg). Warner won’t lose any votes in Charlottesville over this, regardless of their opinion of his intervention. Those folks would rather cut off the hand punching their ballot than vote Republican.

What Warner’s trying to win is still an open question… or maybe not what, so much as when. Virginia has a single-term limit for governors, and Warner’s ambition is pointed toward the U.S. Senate. The roadblock is that Virginia’s two most popular politicians in recent memory, Republicans John Warner and George Allen, hold those two seats. Mark Warner’s first run for elective office was an unsuccessful challenge to John Warner in 1996 (giving us, among other things, bumper stickers reading “Marknotjohn”), and the Democrats didn’t even bother nominating an opponent in 2002. Meanwhile, Allen won pretty easily in 2000, and has avoided being associated with his gubernatorial successor’s bumbling. It wouldn’t shock me if Mark Warner sits out the 2006 race against Allen, and hopes for John Warner to announce his retirement before the 2008 race (when John Warner will be 81).

Second star goes to University of Virginia President John Casteen. (BTN praising a Democrat and a Hoo? What’s next, hell freezing over? Oh, wait — that already happened.) Casteen was probably under the most pressure of any player in the game, but he held strong, and took advantage of UNC and Duke going wobbly to achieve his goal — not allowing any ACC expansion to go through without Virginia Tech. This was not a hugely popular move within his own university, as especially the athletic department (reportedly) wanted to take advantage of this situation that could have permanently incapacitated arch-rival VT. (BTN would like to note that this doesn’t speak well of their own sportsmanship — it sounds like a race-car driver who can’t win on his own merit trying to cut the other guy’s brake line.) The reason Warner comes in ahead of Casteen is that I think Casteen would have eventually caved without the continual pressure from upstairs.

Third star goes to Virginia’s Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. Kilgore, and Virginia Tech’s legal staff (which reports to him), allowed Tech to join the leftover Big East teams’ lawsuit. That stalled the ACC’s original expansion plans long enough to get Tech in, and to leave the Big East with its charter members intact. Kilgore also came under heavy Hoo fire as a result of this; though a graduate of UVa-Wise during its days as Clinch Valley College, he holds UVa football season tickets and considers himself a Hoo fan, and many of his fellow supporters were rather unhappy with him. Kilgore, of course, was also playing for votes; he is expected to run against Democratic Lt. Governor Tim Kaine to replace Mark Warner in 2005, and being from Scott County in far Southwest Virginia, knows probably better than Warner the importance of Virginia Tech to the regional economy.

The game’s other scorers would include Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough, a former dean of engineering at Virginia Tech, and Virginia Senator John Chichester (R-Stafford), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who made the negative financial consequences for UVa very clear in a (Raleigh) News and Observer interview in May. Note that I’m not including VT President Charles Steger or AD Jim Weaver. Why? Because, in all honesty, the action passed them by in May. Other than participating in a lawsuit whose main effect would be to delay (and which had to be approved by Kilgore), all they could do is sit by the phones. Like all the Big East schools save Miami and Boston College, all Tech could do was put on a brave face in public and hope in private that somebody in the game was watching out for us. We were very fortunate to have friends in the right places.

And with that, I’m gonna close this topic down, barring any outrages the ACC and/or Big East decide to inflict upon Tech in the transition process. It’s summer, and if the rain breaks, it’ll be high time to catch up on all the baseball I’ve been missing.