Day Two in Florida
May 18, 2003 05:21 PM | General
May 18, 2003
Click HERE for Hoppy's complete WVmetronews.com Saturday Report.
PONTE VEDRA, Fla. -- The Big East Conference sat down as a group for the first time Sunday morning, trying to hash out a way to save the league from splitting up.
The Atlantic Coast Conference has extended invitations to three Big East members – Miami, Boston College and Syracuse – and Sunday morning athletic directors from the other Big East Division I-A football schools, as well as league commissioner Mike Tranghese, began their face-to-face discussions in an attempt to persuade the trio to stay.
The closed-door session at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club just south of Jacksonville started at 8:30 p.m. and ran through noon. There were some informal meetings held between various ADs and Big East officials later Sunday afternoon, but the athletic directors won’t meet again as a whole group until Monday morning. At that time the athletic directors of the football-playing schools are expected to meet both separately as well as with the ADs from the non-football playing schools. The league meetings are scheduled to last through Tuesday.
After the meetings conclude, the athletic directors will take the information from these discusses and return to their respective schools to talk over the situation with their university presidents. For the most part, it will be the presidents who will have the ultimate say on any decisions. Obviously all eyes will first look to Miami President Donna Shalala. The choice of the Hurricanes is admittedly the key to the entire chain of events.
“I was very pleased with the meeting. It was very informative,” said WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong. “All of the ADs are very serious, and there was good dialog. Commissioner Tranghese presented us with a lot of facts, and a lot of the discussion centered around Miami, because obviously they are a key player in this issue. All of the issues were put on the table. One of the reasons that Miami is looking to the ACC is the promise of additional monies. We discussed that fact. It’s known by everyone that the economy is a little tough right now, and some of those figures are being questioned. There is a risk that the money might not be there when (the expanded ACC) is put together. There are figures that are being stated and cannot be substantiated. Our figures are facts. We reviewed our figures, and the future figures that are out there. We did everything we could to make sure we were realistic in our discussion.”
A portion of Hoppy's report was used by permission from WVmetronews.com. Hoppy Kercheval will be covering the Big East meetings through Wednesday.
