CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT Boston College joins ACC after all

The Big East school waited only four hours to accept an invitation.
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- It didn't take long for the Atlantic Coast Conference to decide even was much better than odd.
Less than four months after the ACC added Miami and Virginia Tech to form an 11-team league, Boston College agreed Sunday to become the 12th member. The Eagles will likely begin play in the conference in 2006, ACC commissioner John Swofford said.
"An 11-team league can work, but does it work in the best way you would like to it to work from a number of different angles?" Swofford said. "We found the answer to that to be no."
Reasons for raid
No guarantee of a football playoff game and scheduling nightmares in a league with deep-rooted rivalries helped convince the ACC's chancellors and presidents to move swiftly to add a 12th team.
"It's almost like a suit, you put it on and wear it for a while and then you decide it needs some alterations," Clemson president James Barker said. "We began to envision ourselves in the summer as one sized league and we felt an adjustment would be wise to position us for the future."
Unlike in June when Duke and North Carolina balked at expanding, the vote Sunday was 9-0 in support of adding the Eagles, a charter member of the Big East.
"We had opposed expansion," North Carolina chancellor James Moeser said. "But once we became a conference of 11 the arguments for adding a 12th member became persuasive."
Boston College had until Nov. 1 to accept the ACC's offer, but agreed in less than four hours to jump leagues.
"We are extremely disappointed with Boston College's decision to leave," Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said. "Our membership is very surprised that the ACC presidents continue to come back into our league for membership."
Big East by-laws require 27 months notice to leave that conference or face a reported $5 million exit fee. It's unclear if Boston College is willing to pay such a fine to join the ACC before 2006. Miami and Virginia Tech will begin ACC play next season.
The addition of Boston College will give the ACC the number of members required by the NCAA to stage a lucrative league championship football game.
Boston College and Syracuse were the Big East schools in the ACC's original expansion plans -- along with Miami -- but were voted down in favor of adding the Hurricanes and Hokies. Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State voted against adding Boston College at the time.