Editor's Note: This is the second in a four-part series examining the present and future states of the Bowl Championship Series.
When commissioner John Swofford ended the May 13 Atlantic Coast Conference meeting he changed the face of modern college football.
In this meeting the ACC elected to expand. It would lure Miami and Virginia Tech to join, decimating the Hurricane and Hokies' current conference, the Big East.
Five months later the ripple has not stopped, as potential for conference movement looms for teams both in and outside of the Bowl Championship Series.
With the loss of two teams, the Big East will be reduced to six teams next year, short of the eight that will be required to renew its BCS contract in 2005. With the big payout a BCS school can earn -the conference gets $13 million if a conference team appears in a championship game, and $4 million for any team with an at-large bid - the Big East is ravaging other conferences for new members.
Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, who said in an e-mail he had no comment on exactly which teams the Big East was interested in, has had meetings with schools including Cincinnati and Louisville of Conference USA.
Tranghese said in a press release last week that he would continue to search for new conference members, though he would do it with more class than the ACC.
He said Miami and Virginia Tech did not follow protocol when both left a contract that would not have expired until 2005. Between fees for leaving the Big East contract and entering the ACC, both schools paid more than $4 million.
Another Conference USA member, No. 20 TCU, is 5-0 this season, and has been a fan favorite to be added to the list of Big East candidates. Despite being undefeated, however, TCU is in a non-BCS conference, negating its chances for one of the championship bowls.
The BCS, host of the Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls, currently lists six conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern, and Pacific-10) and independent Notre Dame available for postseason play. These conferences draw automatic at-large bids to the bowl games. However, improvements by teams in non-BCS conferences have drawn many questions about the system.
Dallas Morning News columnist and college football analyst Jan Hubbard said the modern system is leaving out too many quality teams.
What movement in these conferences can explain why it is that Rutgers
which averaged just over 19 000 fans a game last season is a BCS school and Brigham Young University
who pulls in just over 62
000 fans a game is not
Hubbard said.
While the Big East tries to pull together its BCS requirements, other conferences are not missing the potential opportunity. The Mountain West has openly said it wants a BCS spot. Currently in an eight-team format, the Mountain West may try to pull as many as four teams from the conference where it originally began, the Western Athletic Conference.
The ACC also may not be done drawing new teams. It currently has 11 teams, one shy of the number required by the NCAA to play a conference championship game, which has potential to draw profits from both national television revenue and ticket sales.
Miami and Virginia Tech remain in the Big East for this season. Miami won the conference last year on its way to the national championship game. They will join the ACC starting in the 2004-2005 season. According to a press release by NCAA president Myles Brand on www.Bigeast.org, the two teams turned down a renewal offer of $9 million annually to join the ACC.
A Tale of Two Conferences
2003-2004
Atlantic Costal Conference - 9 teams
Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Wake Forest
Big East - 8 teams
Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, West Virginia
2004-2005
Atlantic Costal Conference - 11 teams
Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Wake Forest, Miami, Virginia Tech
Big East - 6 teams
Boston College, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, West Virginia
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Mike Cottrill
