Gavitt: ACC should take only Miami

NEW YORK (AP) -- Big East Conference founder Dave Gavitt threw his support behind a compromise plan to have only Miami join the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Gavitt's proposal follows similar suggestions by North Carolina chancellor James Moeser and Rutgers athletic director Robert Mulcahy as administrators struggle to resolve the Big East-ACC expansion dispute.

"The ACC should agree to expand only by accepting Miami and otherwise leaving the Big East intact," Gavitt said Tuesday in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

"The Big East and the ACC should agree to collaborate on ideas to strengthen both conferences, including the idea of an inter-conference championship games and other forms of confederation."

For more than a month, the nine-team ACC has been talking about expanding by inviting three, or possibly four, Big East teams -- Boston College, Miami, Syracuse and perhaps Virginia Tech. Such an expansion could lead to a lucrative conference football title game.

However, the ACC has been unable to come up with the necessary seven votes needed to move forward with expansion. ACC schools Duke, North Carolina and Virginia were currently against inviting BC, Miami and Syracuse.

ACC presidents were expected to discuss their options during a conference call late Tuesday afternoon.

A lawsuit was filed June 6 by five Big East schools -- Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia -- trying to stop BC, Miami and Syracuse from leaving. A Connecticut judge is scheduled to hear preliminary arguments Thursday in the suit.

In Tallahassee, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said Tuesday he's prepared to intervene on behalf of Miami in the suit. Crist said Miami has the right to choose the conference it wants to play in.

"This is a fundamental dispute among athletic conferences and universities," said Crist, who was asked by Miami to intercede. "Universities have the right to join any conference that invites them. The law does not compel Miami, or any institution, to rebuff a legitimate overture, as long as existing contractual obligations are satisfied."

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the lawsuit claims Miami has not met its obilgations.

"[Crist] is correct that any school has the right to join or withdraw. They do not have a right to lie and leave," Blumenthal said. "There's no right under law to make false assurances and commitments, knowing their partners in the contract will rely on those falsehoods and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build new stadiums and upgrade their football programs."

Gavitt said it's time for the leagues to "put an end to public acrimony and to join together to restore the collegial and cooperative relationship that has existed between them for decades."

Gavitt cited former ACC commissioners Bob James and Gene Corrigan for their "advice and counsel" as the Big East was formed and also noted that the ACC and Big East were "at the core of the formation of what now as become the Bowl Championship Series."

Gavitt warned that college sports is at risk unless a satisfactory resolution can be found.

"Far more is at stake than the particular composition of any one conference," Gavitt said. "If intercollegiate athletics are to remain an important part of American higher education, we must never lose sight of the greater public interest we are obligated to serve."

On Monday, Mulcahy said "We'd love to have Miami come back. If they have to go, stop it at that and let our conference survive.

"It's time that this whole thing came to an end. Reasonable people should be able to sit down and come to a compromise without destroying a league."

 

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