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| Friday, October 17 New format features cross-division rivalries Associated Press |
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GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Now that Boston College formally joined the Atlantic Coast Conference on Friday, the big question is when the Eagles will begin playing an ACC schedule.
Boston College and the Big East Conference have not reached terms for the school's departure. League bylaws require 27 months' notice to leave the conference, or schools face a reported $5 million exit fee.
Earlier this year, Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East for the ACC and will begin play in the new league in 2004.
BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo said Friday he expects the move to come no later than July 1, 2006. The Rev. William Leahy, Boston College's president, said the school has filed a request in a Boston court seeking a determination of exit terms.
"That has to get sorted out," Leahy said at a news conference formally introducing BC as the ACC's 12th member. "Whatever the lawyers determine is certainly what Boston College will do in the way of an exit requirement."
Once that happens, the ACC will be set to hold a lucrative football championship game. The league is trying to get a waiver to an NCAA rule requiring 12-team membership to hold the event. The league plans an 11-team league next season.
Whenever BC does join league play, the conference will divide into two six-team football divisions. Each team will play its division opponents, a primary rival in the opposite division and two cross-divisional games against rotating opponents. The split:
The primary cross-divisional rivalries are Maryland-Virginia, Clemson-Georgia Tech, N.C. State-North Carolina, Wake Forest-Duke, Florida State-Miami, Boston College-Virginia Tech.
"We're just pleased that this has worked out and they will be coming," ACC commissioner John Swofford said. "We're set to move as 11 for a year or two if we need to. In the very near future, we'll be set to move as 12. So we're going to be prepared either way."
Swofford said the league would likely have enough time to plan a football championship game for next season if BC is able to join in 2004.
The decision came four months after Boston College was passed over in the ACC's initial expansion push.
Boston College and Syracuse were the Big East schools in the ACC's original plans, along with Miami, but were voted down in favor of adding the Hurricanes and Hokies. Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State voted against adding Boston College at the time.
But other pro-expansion schools in the ACC kept pushing for a 12th member due to the lack of a guaranteed football title game and scheduling headaches in a league with deep-rooted rivalries. On Sunday, the league's chancellors and presidents voted 9-0 to add the Eagles.
"Certainly we were very disappointed when we weren't selected in June, but you don't take things personally in our profession," DeFilippo said. "You do what's best for your institution, and that's what we did." |
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