COLLEGE ACC votes 7-2 to expand to 12 teams

Miami, Syracuse and another team may get invitations.
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. (AP) -- From South Beach to Syracuse, the Atlantic Coast Conference wants to expand well beyond Tobacco Road.
ACC school presidents voted in favor of expansion Tuesday, setting the stage to invite Miami, Syracuse and one other school to join their nine-team league, two sources familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press.
Miami is the keystone to the expansion and will get an invitation soon. If the Hurricanes, Syracuse and either Boston College or Virginia Tech accept, it would strip the Big East of its biggest football powers and drastically alter the landscape of college sports.
Could take effect in 2004
Expansion could go into effect as early as 2004.
ACC commissioner John Swofford, meeting with coaches and athletic directors in Amelia Island this week, was hesitant to call expansion of the 50-year-old league a done deal. He knows Miami has a tough decision to make.
The sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified, said league presidents voted 7-2 during a conference call to approve expansion. Any expansion needed seven votes for approval.
"The conference call among the league's chancellors and presidents this morning was another step toward completion of an ongoing process that is not yet finalized," Swofford said. "It is not appropriate at this time for me to share the particulars of this morning's conference call out of respect to our own schools and to potential candidates. At this time, no final decisions have been reached."
Hurricanes interested
Miami athletic director Paul Dee said his school was interested, but would have to look at the specifics.
"Even if they called us and said, 'OK, you're it,' we still have all this discussion to do with them to assure ourselves," he said. "All they can really do is say, 'Let's talk.' "
By adding three teams, the ACC would become a 12-team superconference, like the Southeastern Conference and the Big 12.
It's a status that all but assures the conference's long-term future, mainly because it would give the ACC a definite role in the next football Bowl Championship Series, due to be revamped in 2006.
Becoming a 12-team conference would allow the ACC to split into divisions and play a football title game -- an event that brings in about $12 million each year for the SEC.
It could also make the ACC's next TV deal more lucrative, and could give the conference a chance at placing a second team in the BCS and earning the $13 million payoff that goes with the bid.
Big East coaches and athletic directors meet this weekend in Ponte Vedra Beach, but as soon as the news came out, some were already working the phones.
West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong said he lobbied several Big East members to stay in the conference.
"We, along with the other schools in the Big East, have made a commitment toward a strong conference," Pastilong said. "And we're counting on others to honor their commitments."