EXPANSION Despite talks with Notre Dame, ACC not poised to add 12th team

The Irish want to keep their independence in football.
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford said Thursday published reports that the league is poised to add Notre Dame as a 12th member were erroneous.
Swofford didn't deny talking with Fighting Irish officials in an interview with The Associated Press, but said discussions have been ongoing for some time.
"Why wouldn't any conference have discussions with Notre Dame? We've had discussions with Notre Dame for the last 10 or 12 years," Swofford said.
"When you're 11 everybody expects that you're going to be 12, which isn't necessarily the case," he added. "I suppose any time there is a rumor or a discussion people write something, but a discussion doesn't necessarily mean anything. People have a tendency to blow that up, whoever it might be. I guess that kind of thing is part of a league if you're 11."
Notre Dame also said Thursday the school has no agreement to join the ACC.
"We have not reversed our field and suggested that we're willing to talk about football joining a conference," said John Heisler, Notre Dame's associate athletic director for media relations. "We have historically kept a position that continues that we want to maintain our independence for football."
Notre Dame has one of the richest football traditions in college football history, and has a rich TV contract with NBC.
Few details
Heisler declined to talk about any specific discussions Notre Dame or athletic director Kevin White might have had with any conference.
"We've chosen to not get into the day-to-day discussions of who Kevin or anybody else has talked to from one day to the next. We just don't think that's appropriate," Heisler said. "We have to craft a relationship with somebody from scratch here. Even in the Big East that's the case with all the changes they've had."
The ACC has a major business meeting next week in Charlottesville, Va., to talk about scheduling in football and basketball. Swofford said Notre Dame is not on the agenda.
"It's just not something that's a point of discussion for us right now," Swofford said. "What we're focused on is developing the policies we need to for an 11-team league because that's right in front of us. With those kind of decisions it's like it's coming the day after tomorrow in terms of September of 2004."